started my vacation album

So I finally got the time to scrap some of my vacation pics. So far, I have 4 pages done but still have to edit and order the rest of the photos from our Disney trip. So I think I have about 4-5 more pages. I used the same paper and "sketch" on all of these just to make it easier. But I ran out of the patterned paper I was using, so I'm debating on whether I should use what I have or order more. The paper is double sided so I used the "louder" side for the smaller side and the more "plain" side for the title and embellies.

I was originally going to put the title on the scalloped circle but didn't have the space to fit it on the side...so I just placed the circle hanging off the page, something that I learned from laura. The pictures were put together on an 8x12 canvas in photoshop. Costco offers a 8x12 size, so I thought it was perfect to fit a lot of pics on one page. I'm also going to put 12x12 inserts in the album that hold 4x6 photos...not sure if I'm going to put them in between the LO's or at the end. We'll see how it looks. So I'm about halfway. I need to finish this because I like to start things but bad at finishing them. Some of the photos of the LOs have a shine on them so they're not too great, but I'm happy with the outcome of the pages themselves.

Supplies Used:

Patterned Paper: Scenic Route

Cardstock: Stampin Up and Hobby Lobby (kraft)

Scalloped Borders: Creative Cafe

Puffy Letters (Love these!) and chipboard stars: American Crafts

Black Letter Stickers: Heidi Swapp

Die Cuts: Quickutz

Embossing Folders: Cuttlebug

Date Stamp, Staples, Brads, and Tag Rims: Making Memories

White Pen: Uniball Signo

Punches: EK Success (star) and McGill (labels-one punch has 4 different sizes)

String

Shazam Effect

I learned how to do this effect just a few minutes ago and I wish I had known about this before. Go to Jessica Sprague's blog at the Shazam entry and read her tutorial.

Here is the before picture...

and the after...

took only 5 minutes to do. Just some playing around.

Sketchbook Challenge

This is for the Sketch Book NZ site and my good friend, Laura Vegas is the celebrity guest. These pics are from my recent 40th b-day. The pics didn't come out too great...they've been sitting in my scraproom for while now waiting to be scrapped. The challenge is to use ribbons and flowers. Since I don't do many pages about myself, I decided to use my favorite colors and supplies. I think this LO took about 4 hours to do and I used a ton of ribbon. On the second page I used ribbon to frame the pics...one regret, I cut the pink paper too small. It should be coming out of the sides more. But it took so long plus I used up all that paper.

So go and check out Laura's challenge and her website to see the some of the 12 projects she has on display at the Making Memories booth at the CHA show in Chicago. Congrats!

Supplies Used:

Cardstock and Scalloped CS edges: Bazzill

Patterned Paper: Stampin Up (turquoise), Making Memories (black/white), Scenic Route (gree)and Doodlebug (pink).

Ribbon, Jumbo eyelets, small letter stickers, fabric tape, date stamp, and metal tags: Making Memories.

Pink Scalloped Trim & Glittered Chipboard Letters: Doodlebug

Mirrored Bird: Heidi Swapp

Letter Stamps: Autumn Leaves

Vinyl Letters: American Crafts

Die Cuts: Cuttlebug (petals) and Quickutz (scalloped circles)

Hugs to a fight in seconds

These pics were taken on our recent trip at Sea World San Diego. While we were waiting for Daddy to bring back lunch, the following happened. Of course I have my camera so I'm snapping away as it happened.

Awe, look at my babies hugging...

Now Aydan is thinking that its over now. Let go.

Seriously, we're done. I'm getting frustrated.

Now he's realizing that she is just not letting go and he needs to force himself out.

Now I'm mad...had enough of you.

Now I've lost it. Mommy help me...

I see a scrap page coming my way...

some more vacation pics and more cards

My Kendall is sure growing up before my eyes...next month she starts kindergarten. Funny how all the vacation pics of my kids show them with hats on. Thats because whenever I go to a warm place for vacation, my scalp burns on my part so I gotta protect the kiddies too, especially my fair, blonde Aydan. These pics are from the San Diego Zoo.

Here is a baby stork. So cute and they stand on one leg as well. These little guys stay gray for 3 years before they turn pink.

We waited in line to see the panda bears...it was worth it. They are constantly chopping on bamboo!

A couple of baby elephants..these were taken at Wild Animal Park.

A card I made for a special person who just had surgery. I also made a card similar for a friends birthday. Love this Hero Arts stamp...looks so good in white. This card was inspired by Leslie Lightfoot. I saw it on the Hero Arts blog but can't find the link.

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Hero Arts and Stampin Up
Ink: Stampin Up
Cardbase: Hobby Lobby
Patterned Paper and Jouraling Sticker: Making Memories
Mark Richard Black Pearls...love these so much!

A lift from a poster at Split Coast Stampers...perfect for a kids birthday. All supplies here are Stampin Up except the Kraft CS, which is Hobby Lobby, the punches which are Marvy (index tab) and Fiskars (corner rounder), and Cuttlebug circle diecut.

When I was making this card, Aydan started grabbing some stamps and was stamping away. Then he went crazy when he saw the numbers wheel, he is nuts about numbers. He even took his nap holding it in his hand.

some more cards

I've been busy editing pics from our vacation thats its taken up my crafting time. So today I took some time to myself and made some cards. I am actually mailing most of these out.
First I gotta show a picture I took on Wednesday night of this storm coming in. Its started raining and all the works right after I took this, which was taken around 7:30 PM. Kinda cool, huh? The lightening and thunder lasted at least 12 hours overnight.


For this first card, I used the same sketch that I used for father's day.


Supplies used:
CS: Hobby Lobby (kraft) and Stampin Up
Patterned Paper, Circle Cutter, and Staple: Making Memories
Felt Border: Fancy Pants Designs
Butterfly Die Cut (large) and embossing folder: Cuttlebug
Butterfly Punch (small): Martha Stewart
Chipboard: American Crafts and Heidi Swapp
Flower: Prima
White Pen: Uniball Signo
For this card I used a sketch and colors I used on a previous LO here. This one is for my sister and I used the nickname we have for each other on the "Hello" stamp.

Supplies Used:
CS: Hobby Lobby Card Base and Stampin Up
Patterned Paper: Crate Paper (black), Scenic Route (pink), and Stampin Up (blue)
Stamps: Stampin Up (definition), Hero Arts (bird), and Maya Road (Hello Tag)
Ink Pads: Sampin Up
Decorative Scissors: Fiskars
Rub Ons: Daisy D's
Chipboard: Making Memories (frame) and Love, Elsie (heart)
Wired String: May Arts
Punches, Black Pearls, and Pens...
This last one was made when I knew that I had 10 minutes left before Aydan woke up from his nap. I wanted to make a simple card with a hanging flag design but wasn't sure how I would work it in with a card. So I pulled out some of my supply drawers looking for a product I haven't used yet, and I found my new rolling stamp from Stampin Up. I was thinking about using some other color cardstock to add to it but I though the border trims worked out nice. This is perfect for a child's b-day. I'm pretty happy with this one! All the patterned paper were used from small scraps.

Supplies Used:
CS, blue patterned paper, rolling stamp, and ink: Stampin Up
Other patterned paper: Scenic Route
Border Trims: Heidi Grace
Wired String: May Arts
I have more cards to share but I'll wait until tomorrow. Its getting late.

Our Vacation

I love how Aydan imitates me by putting his sunglasses on his head. Crack me up!


OK, just got back from vacation last night from Southern California-we were gone for 8 days, felt like a month. Its good to be home! I had a whole lot of recovering and unpacking to do. The kids did so well on the plane...I was pleasantly surprised!
Ozan's parents live in San Diego so we got to spend a lot of time with them, plus we got to visit a whole lot of places.Did the whole San Diego Zoo, Sea World, Wild Animal Park, and 3 days of Disneyland. I have a bunch of photos to go through! Here are a few of my favs! I had a hard time getting pics of the kids, they hardly looked at the camera. And pardon Aydan's dirty little face. He looks too cute here! And two big highlights...seeing Mickey Mouse and a parade with Lightening McQueen...two of Aydan's favorites!!

Poor Grasshopper

Couldn't decide on the title above or "Yuck". My sweet Kendall, dresses so girly, plays with toy dinosaurs and real bugs. Thats her totally. So this is a funny story that was so predictable yet we didn't see it.

My husband was outside grilling tonight(yummy fajitas and homemade guacamole) and he saw a grasshopper in the grass. We just watched "Bugs Life" this past weekend and there are grasshoppers as some of the main characters. So anyway he shows Kendall, turns around to get a cup and two seconds later, here comes Aydan walking through and just steps right on him. Not on purpose but the timing was just wrong. I thought she was going to cry. So Daddy puts him in one of our pots and tells her its dead. She just started understanding what that means. She wasn't upset, just kept asking Daddy if he was dead. Then the thing moves. So we have no idea if this ugly creature is still with us. Yuck!!


And I forgot to add that Aydan has those really wide athletic sandal type shoes. I surprised that he didn't flatten the poor sucker. These pics are of the victim after the incident.

My First TIme

...making a digital page that is. This is nothing too pleasing as far as my design is. But I'm helpless when it comes to photoshop. I've been reading here and there about digital scrapbooking from Jessica Sprague's books. You really have to practice. She also has some great video tutorials, which are a big help. The free kit used here is from Michelle Coleman of Little Dreamer Designs. Ozan was just telling me a second ago that I'm going to give up my mounds of scrapbooking stuff for digital. Um, NO WAY! Love my scrap supplies too much. TFL!

Oh, have to add that I wanted the title to say "Swing High" but for some reason, there wasn't an "h" in the kit.

Color Inspiration #12

Another inspiration challenge from Kristina. The colors this time are whisper white, so saffron, wild wasabi, and sahara sand. I have all colors for this, so that helped. Just got this Hero Arts tree stamp this week...so cute! I cut out some of the leaves from another stamped image and put them on some dimensionals to add some pop!

Supplies Used:

Cardstock, sentiment stamp, dimensionals,embossing plate, ink, background stamp: Stampin Up

Tree Stamp: Hero Arts

Paper Trim: Doodlebug

Border Punch: Martha Stewart

Ribbon: American Crafts

Glitter Glue: Stickles, Ranger

Silver Pearls: Mark Richards

Thanks for looking!

color Inspiration #11

Another Color Inspiration from Kristina Werner. This time the inspiration is from Ikea and the colors are Whisper White, Rose Red, Old Olive, So Saffron, and Going Gray. I have all the colors except Going Gray, so I substituted some Bazzill Bling. Yes, I cut a 1" square out of a full sheet of
12x12 paper...I didn't have a choice!

Anyway, Kristina recently made some small cards for her card club and I was inspired to do the same and to also use my Stampin Up mini envelope template.

This card measures 1 and 7/8" square. I embossed the KI lace paper with white embossing powder and added Hero Arts Prisma Glitter while it was still hot. I used my quickie glue pen to put it on but this is where I should have used my xyron. There are 4 layers of flowers on here. Pulled out the jump ring for the tag. Had fun with this.

Made a matching envelope from the Stampin Up mini envelope template. I suggest that you use a disappearing ink pen like the one I used.

Just to show you the size in comparison to my ipod...

Even made an envelope liner.
Supplies Used:
CS: Stampin Up
Textured CS: Bazzill
Lace Paper: KI Memories
Embossing Powder: Ranger
Gems and Glitter Powder: Hero Arts
Ink: Old Olive and Craft White from Stampin Up
Embossing Plates: Cuttlebug
Jump Ring and Stamp (Hi): Making Memories
Punches: Marvy
Ghost Flower: Heidi Swapp
Vanishing Ink Pen: American Crafts

A card Kendall made for Father's Day...love this. He even has 12 toes and a beard like he does...he doesn't have 12 toes, BTW.




My card for Daddy. Used mostly American Craft PP and chipboard. Stampin Up cardstock and Making Memories tag and circle cutter.


Hope you have a great Father's Day!

Tagged Again

I've been tagged by Staci, I think I'm supposed to tag some others but i will do that soon...not much time here:

I've been tagged by Staci
1. What is your occupation? Radiology Clinical Instructor/Technologist
2. What color socks right now? White, but usually its something bright and fun.
3. What are you listening to right now? silence
4. What was the last thing that you ate? McD cinnamon melt
5. Can you drive a stick shift? Nope.
6. If you could be a color what color would you be? Pink, but I guess I kinda am right now. LOL!
7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My husband
8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Yes, Staci always has nice things to say to me on my blog.
9. Favorite food? Gosh, where should I start! I’ll say popcorn
10. Favorite drink? Starbucks Iced Venti Mocha, no fat, no whip, 2 equal, and light ice. Was that clear enough?
11. What is your favorite sport to watch? Baseball or football. Football
12. Have you ever dyed your hair? All the time
13. Pets? Yellow Lab, and some fish
14. Favorite Author? No one in particular
15. Last movie you watched? Diary of a Mad Black Woman
16. Favorite Day of the year? Mother’s Day
17. What do you do to vent anger? Complain or spend some quiet time with myself scrapping.
18. What was your favorite toy as a child? Little People or Barbies
19. What is your favorite time of the year? Spring
20. Strawberry or Blueberry? Blueberry
21. Do you want your friends to participate? In what?
22. Who is most likely to respond? I’m not sure
23. Who is least likely to respond? I’m not sure
24. Living arrangements? House, husband, 2 kids, dog in the suburbs.
25. When was the last time you cried? Yesterday, I had a 2 year old patient, who was in bad shape, at work who looked like my son and they were ruling out severe child abuse.
26. Who is the friend you had the longest that you are going to tag? My friends, that I know in person, don’t blog. But Laura Vegas will be my other.
27. Who is the friend you had the shortest that you are going to tag? I'll think of one soon.
28. Favorite smell? New baby scalp
29. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? plain
30. Favorite car? Nissan Quest, which I own
31. Favorite Quote or motto? “When no one else cares, my dog still loves me”
32. Number of keys on your key ring? Two
33. How many years at your current job? Seventeen
34. Favorite day of the week? Saturday
35. How many states have you lived in? 2: Indiana for 17 years and Illinois for 23 but lived in Chicago area my whole life.
36. Which political label most closely reflects your views? Don’t understand, don’t care. Hate politics...who's running again?
37. Worst injury you've ever had? Never had a severe injury. But I guess I would say when I fell asleep on a Texas beach for 3 hours and had to go to the hospital for 2nd degree burns.
38. What is your favorite book? I’m a magazine person.
39. What were you doing at 12:00 last night? R.E.M. Sleeping
40. What famous person, dead or alive, would you most like to meet? No one in particular

2 posts in one day

Daddy and Kendall went to the Cubs game, so Aydan and I had some Mommy/son time with each other. We hung outside, drew on the patio with chalk, had lunch. Then the little one went for his 3 hour nap and I got some much needed scrapping done.
I gotta add first that I ordered these prints from Walgreens and they do not come out well at all.

This first one is when Kendall was dressing up Aydan in funny clothes. She cracks me up...even funnier cause he lets her! Most everything is American Craft here. I used some of those foam AC tags for the journaling. I've had those forever but could never find a use for them.

Other supplies used:

{} chipboard: Rusty Pickle

Making Memories Brads and Paint

String

Cardstock: Bazzill

Mini Letters: EK Success

This next one is the real paper of Kendall writing her name for the first time. Her school gave it to me so I really appreciate it. The page uses some really old KI Memories paper. I wanted a quick page and I had the matching ribbon and stickers, so I went with it!

I wanted to use a black cs for the background and believe it or not, I don't own any! Weird. So I used this Raisin color from Bazzill. I like it. Its near black but has a dark purple/brown tint to it! For the journaling, I just stuck a bunch of stickers together in a row...should have used pop dots, but I was rushing!

Other supplies used:

Gem Stones: Hero Arts

Buttons: Autumn Leaves

Rub On: Doodlebug Designs

Ticket Corner Punch: Stampin Up

XL Photo Corner: Heidi Swapp

And here are some great photos of Kendall and Ozan at the game...

Funny cause its always like 20 degrees colder there. Aydan was playing in the sprinkler in his trunks and Kendall and Ozan were shivering in their light coats.