New Phone Background For You!

I know...it has been a horribly long time since I've been here but with my son home I've just been soaking in the time with him!  I have a freebie for you though!  A new smart phone background for the time from now until the New Year!

I'll be back soon to show you my Spring Mini swap card.  I haven't done a swap in so long so I am stressing about it a little but I hope it will be okay!  Have a wonderful day all and let me know if you have questions about the background!

Progressive Scrap Page - Final Week

Good morning friends! Whew, life has been going in hyper speed here lately but I should be back for a few days in a row...yay!  Today I get to show you the fourth and final page of the November progressive page challenge from Splitcoast Stampers. 

The final task was to add a title, Cabo in my case, and on the opposite open area of the page do some jounalling.  I've had this super fun clear alphabet for some time in my digi stash and I knew it would be perfect for this page as I wanted something that wouldn't take away from the photo too much but would still be fun.

Well, what do you think?  You can see week one HERE, week two HERE, and week three HERE.  Wait, I never posted week two on my blog so the link above will take you to SCS.Alrighty friends, I think I'm going to do a page of the same view only hurricane style next...heehee, I think it will be interesting to compare!

I hope you have a fantastic day!

Progressive Scrap Page - Week 3

Happy friends!  I hope you had a fabulous Monday!  Today is Tuesday so I'm going to show you my progressive scrapbook page.  This is from week three.  Week four's instructions are out so I'll be finishing that up and showing you next week the finished project!  What is fun is that I already have an idea of what I want to do for week four and I can just see it coming together!  Yay!

So, this week we were to add just a couple of more things.  I added the blue strip of paper along with the starfish and a little title as well as the shell down on the corner small photo.  I did a little shadowing and was finished for the week. 

What fun crafty stuff are you working on this week?  I just got a box of Stampin' Up! goodness last night.  It is my order from the Online Extravaganza...fun stuff!

Alright, have a fantastic day all!

Progressive Scrap Page

Morning all! I have to keep reminding myself that it is Tuesday. Those days off really throw me for a loop sometimes! So, I'm back to show you the first draft of my progressive scrapbook page. 

Like I said yesterday I found a neat challenge on SCS and basically you do your scrapbook page in four parts...one part each Tuesday so this week sometime I'll add to this page for part two and share with you next Tuesday.  This photo is the view from our room in Cabo and the little inset photo is a picture of our room.  Yep, we had it pretty perfect!  There were four instruction for this round the background paper, the main picture, the vertical element on the left and the small photo.  Seems easy (and it was) but I'm nervous about what I'll have to do to that beautiful big photo!  So HERE is the link to the challenge again.  I'd love it if you wanted to play along with us!  Comment here so I know and can check on your progress!

Well, that is it for today...oh, wait!  I want to share something that a friend of mine is doing.  My friend, Sarah, lost her son 3 year old son three years ago.  Out of that tragedy was born a series of kids books based on the bed time stories that Henry and his parents would share.  As you'll read in THIS BLOG POST it is time for them to start moving those books off the shelf hence the reason I'm telling you about this.  I hope you'll take the time to head on over to Sarah's blog and ready the entire story of the books and Henry and while you are there click on over to purchase a book or two or three OR if you don't have little children anymore you can purchase a book for donation, too...that is what I did!  Go check it out, k?  Please share this with your friends, too!

Alright, now I'm out.  Have a fantastic day!

Surprise!

Surprise! I have the scrapbook page to share and why not today, right? Todd and I are going to Cabo and I wanted to start scrapbooking early so I grabbed a photo off the resort's website, found a fun Mexican themed scrapkit and template challenge and got to work!

The template and kit are from Laurie's Scraps & Designs.  I don't usually use templates like most people do by bringing it into my program and then starting to insert (it doesn't work in MMS) but instead I print out the photo and use it as a sketch.  Having tried the template thing (there is a work around in MMS) I prefer to just use it as a sketch.  There is also a font challenge on Laurie's blog that I wanted to play along with as I thought it would look great on this page but it didn't install into MMS for some reason and I really didn't want to play around with it. 

There you have it!  Make sure you come back tomorrow for the Sketches by Carly blog hop!

Our dogs...

Hello all! Did you know it is Wednesday already? I think this week is going to go by way to quickly!  I thought I'd stop in and show you all a couple of pages I did of two of our dogs.  We do have three dogs but I rarely take photos of Tara (the big dog).  Guess I should remedy that, huh?  Anyway, take a look, read the journalling and I hope you enjoy!

I hope you'll stop back on Friday for my Sketches by Carly post as we are having a Costume Part (aka a blog hop) with some simply adorable The Digi Garden images.  I just finished my card a little while ago and I have seen some of the other DT members cards...I really think this is something you're going to love!

See you Friday!

Fair time!

Good morning!  I just realized I had something else I could share with you guys.  Actually, I have another couple of scrapbook pages too but they will probably be posted next week.

Each Labor Day weekend it is fair and rodeo time in our town.  This year we walked in the parade (behind a ton of horses and very few pooper scoopers) to support our friends candidacy for Superior Court Judge and then hit the fair.  The food fun you'll see at the top.  We always have our favs at fair time...I love the gyros...make mine chicken, no onion, add the feta.  Yum, yum!  In the photos Kyler had nachos and a peach flavored slurpee.  Again, yum, yum!

And then in order to get into the fair for a little less (fair bands are $12 for exhibitors and it is $8 a day otherwise) Kyler and I entered projects into the fair.  Kyler entered a Bionicle and I entered a photo.  A good time was had by all!

Alright, busy day today.  My bike trainer came last night and I've already been on it.  1 hour down and 436 calories burned...yay!  Once I get Kyler dropped off I'll come home and jump on it again...this time for more like an hour and a half...gotta shower before Care Net you know!

I hope you have a fantastic day!

The Dawg Pound!

, I know you know it but...it is Friday, yay!  Not much on my docket today other than Jazzercise and a dental appointment (ick!).  I know I have a Cutting Cafe project to work on for Monday so maybe I'll be doing that!  Today I'm going to share the pages I did of Kyler heading to his first day of high school.  I'm sorry if you are tired of hearing it.  It will be old news soon, I promise!

In anticipation of Kyler starting high school (and all the pages I have yet to do of Scott and Jon's high school years) I purchase a customizable digital scrapbooking kit.  It comes with papers, embellies, and alphas all in your school's colors and personalized with your school mascot/name.  It was only $5.99 so I had to have it!  Anyway, above is the getting ready at home and in the car.  When I took the photo of him sharpening his pencils he said..."mom, I'm just sharpening my pencils"  yeah, well, I wanted a photo and see it worked perfectly into the page!  I love the close up with him in his hat and sunglasses...it is a great shot that very much shows his personality (and he looks like Jon here!). 

Then for this page I took a photo of the school while waiting in the super long line to get into the school parking lot.  Over that I put the Bulldog.  I got a shot of him getting out and then walking away from me into young adult-hood. 

Alright, I'm off to take Kyler to school.  Have a wonderful day everyone!

Walk In the Forst

Good morning friends! If any of you are wondering if my obsession over our summer hike will be over soon I can confidently say...yes! I finished the last two pages last night...yay! I'll take the time to show you the pages of the next couple of days and then we'll move onto other things, k?

There isn't much to narrate on these pages but you can read the little bit of journaling I have.  I thought more photos...less journaling this time.  I took a lot of photos so I wanted to get as many as I could scrapped but there is only so many pictures of the woods that you need to have....

Well, that is it for this wonderful Monday.  It is 7:15 a.m. here and 76 degrees.  It is going to be a hot one today for sure!  I hope you all enjoy whatever day you have planned!  See you tomorrow!

As the water flows...

How are you this Wednesday morning?  It is a beautiful, sunshiny day here but windy again.  I guess I can deal with the wind to have the blue skies! 

I'm just here to show you the other favorite photo page from our hiking trip.  I have been encouraged to have this photo printed and enter it into the fair.  I keep forgetting to go get the booklet so I have the rules but I think I'll stop by the fair office and do that today.  I'm not sure if I have enough time at this point to get it printed (and I think I want it on wrap around canvas).  We shall see!

Well, I hope you are having a wonderful week!  I think I'll see you back here on Friday!

Scrappin' away the day!

Good morning! Another quick post for you this morning.  I've been doing a little scrapping again and boy does it feel good!  I'm just about done scrapping the photos from our anniversary trip and hike.  I think just one more page and I'll be done!  Yay!

This is one of my two favorite photos that I took.  You guys have seen it before though.  I liked the idea of having a large photo of it so I just added a pre-made cluster from the scrapping kit that I'm using and a couple of photos and tahdah!  I'm done with the page!

Alright, I've got things to do and places to go so I am going to keep this one short.  Have a lovely Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow to share another page! 

Summer Baseball

Good morning friends!I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  I did.  It was nice and relaxed with not a lot to do...love that! On Saturday's post I promised you a scrapbook page today so here you go!

We recently went (if you didn't read about it before) to a minor league baseball game in a nearby town and had a great time!  I used a template in MMS following a tutorial on how to do it because you can't typically use a template in that software.  I'm not sure I'll do it that way again (it was a lot of work) but at least I know I can if I want to!

So, I super short post for ya today but that just gives me more time to create for future posts as I am now out of things to share. 

Have a wonderful day all!

Hopscotch

Good morning friends!  I know...how crazy is it that I'm posting again today?  I just want to show you a fun project I made with MyMemories Suite and a new kit from A-Manda Creation called Outdoor Artist. 

I went to the dollar store to find a package of sidewalk chalk but what I found was this super fun hopscotch kit.  It includes chalk, bean bag place markers, and directions.  On the header I used the hopscotch image from A-Manda Creation and made a little scene and I added a little rhyme that I remember using as a kid when I played hopscotch, Teddy Bear Teddy Bear.  Does anyone else remember that?

Anyway, it was super fun to make and I'm looking forward to giving this away.  I just want you to remember that while yesterday was a fun day with a day off, BBQ's and friends today someone will learn that there loved one was killed in action.  Always keep our military members in your thoughts and prayers...there is way more going on in Afghanistan than the government and t.v. lets on. 

Have a great Tuesday!

Have a beautiful day!

Hello there friends! I know...it has been forever since I posted and I really do apologize!  Today is the beginning of a new sketch at Sketches by Carly and I like to play along if I can so that is why I'm here today!  I do want you to stop by tomorrow, though--I have an exciting announcement for you that will bring me (and hopefully you) to my blog much more often! 

I decided to combine both of my design teams today.  A-Manda Creation has a super cute new kit out called Outdoor Artist.  It is SO perfect for those photos of your kiddos play with chalk on the sidewalk.  In fact, I'll have a fun project for you to see with that specifically in mind next week!  Anyway, I thought the kit was cute enough to make a card with so I designed this card with the SBC sketch in mind. 

On the inside I used some basic grey and white cardstock with one of the adorable butterflies from the kit to make the inside just as much fun as the outside.  I can't wait to send this off to someone!

So, that is it from me today but I'll be back tomorrow with fun news!  Have an amazing Friday!

Backyard BBQ

Good morning! Now that you've made it past Monday how is your week looking?  Mine is pretty normal...some days busier than others but that is good and typical, huh?  I thought I'd come here and show you some super fun pages I made with a new kit that Amanda has made called Backyard BBQ.  I don't have any specific photos for this set right now but we have an annual Memorial Day BBQ that I thought this kit would be perfect for so...I made up the pages ahead of time!

I like the idea of the pages done ahead of time so that I know exactly how many and what orientation the photos should be.  I could even stage some of the colors if I wanted.  My favorite part of this layout is the little scene I made on the left hand side.  I just love making up stuff like that! 

Anyway, I hope you are getting lots of crafting done, whatever type of crafting you love!  We are getting VERY close to the wedding and that is getting exciting!  I do believe I'll have another wedding card for you all to view pretty soon!  I know, I know...why do I need so many?  I don't--I just like making them!

Well, you guys have an amazing day!  I'll be back soon!

Birthday Circus

Good morning friends! I am back today to show off a super cute and fun kit newly released at A-Manda Creation! This kit is called Birthday Circus and, as you can see, can be used for pages other than birthday. I've never taken my kids to a circus or used that theme for birthday's so I wasn't sure what I was going to do.  I decided the bright colors and fun embellies could be used for just about anything though so I found some photos of Kyler from preschool and scrapped those instead!

So above is the two pages next to each other. I didn't just flip the layout this time but instead used the same papers in a different way.  Then I used the same type of photo layout but less photos on the right side.  I really like the way these came out. 

Okay, so that is it for today.  I should be back to share more soon.  I haven't shown you the Easter goodies I made so maybe I'll be back with that.  Have a fantastic day friends!

Easter Layout

Good morning! I hope you had a great weekend!  We had a pretty nice weekend.  Monday was Kyler's birthday, too so lots of celebrating!

The sad part about Kyler's birthday is that late morning he developed a fever and it has held on since then.  Not sure how things are going today but I know there is no school today for sure and possibly tomorrow.  The bad part is...it is only a 3 day school week for them as they had Resurrection Monday off (remember he goes to a private Christian school) and Friday is their teacher planning day for the 4th quarter.  I think I will need to get his homework today, not that he is necessarily where he can do it but at least we'll have it at home.  A doctor trip may be in order as well today...we shall see. 

Okay, this page's layout is the Let's Get Sketchy challenge for this week.  It is another great sketch!

Well, you have a great day everyone!  See you soon!