"Teardrops" on a Happy Day!

Today is a big day for us as my kids are finally going to walk down the aisle as Flower Girls in a dear family friend's wedding!  We will be headed out the door for hair appointments in less than two hours and I doing a quick post before the festivities begin!

This month's Sweet Peach Crop Shop's kits feature such beautifully delicate colors.  I am always so impressed with Corrie's color sensibilities.  It is so enjoyable using her kits! 

This layout is inspired by these 7Gypsies clear charms.  It was total serendipity that I had these pictures on my desk!  They somehow moved themselves next to these charms... As I looked at the photos of her crying and these gorgeous clear "drops," it came to me, how I wanted to use these charms and what I wanted to title the layout. 

These charms are so gorgeous and usually I would be hoarding them instead of using them, but I sure do like the look here. I do, however, wish I have a few more to use on a mini-album or banner, so I guess I'll be shopping soon :)

One last detail shot here.  This elephant is a sticker from Glitz Design, it has tiny jewels embedded in the image!  It's not only cute but goes well with the theme of "remembering." I added it onto the Elle's Studio's tag and some Authentique stickers. 

Most everything I used here came from the Juicy kit, but the elephant is a part of the Sweet kit.  I only added brads and cords from my stash. 

That's it for this Sunday. I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend, we are leaving for the wedding soon! FUN times ahead :)

What I Have Been Up To...

Hmm... both "up" and "to" are prepositions, should I un-capitalize them in the title? de-capitalize them, lol? Jenny?

I haven't abandoned my blog nor have I been idle in the paper crafting department.  However, there are other more pressing things at the moment... like learning this thing before we go on vacation next week.  It's very similar to my "old" XSi but the whole point was to get the video making functionality, so there's a bit of learning to do there.

When my parents came back this year, my dad told me that he wanted to buy a DSLR.  Well that was a no brainer!  He should buy my 1.5 year old XSi and I shall upgrade to the one with video functionality! :)

I waited as long as I could and finally I bit the bullet and completed the transaction this past week, just in time for our upcoming trip.  I found the manual for XSi on Canon China's website and told him to read it.  So I guess you can say that he and I are learning together, at least I hope so.  Don't let this post fool you into thinking that I enjoy reading manuals! Ov vey, au contraire! But when one invests boocou dollars into a thing, and a free manual happens to come along with it, why one must at least read the freebie manual carefully :)

That isn't the only thing I've been doing either...

I also won this on ebay in the very last 20 seconds with my heart beating out of my chest! It arrived just two days ago and a massive undertaking of "making animals" with my Second Child began yesterday. 

When I first bought my Cricut, I really could take it or leave it. But in the last year and half, the cartridges have gotten out of control adorable :)  I am enjoying using my Cricut more and more, and it doesn't have to be for layouts (where I typically feel justified spending money.)  Second Child and I spent at least an hour assembling animals after dinner.  DH asked her what she plans to do with her animals.  She said that she will make a forest and her animals will all live there.  This gave DH the idea that we should paint a forest on her wall, I suggested that we could perhaps start with a pin board :) 

I have quickly turned my stash of animals into cards.  They are gifts, oh heck if they see them here before they get them :)  Please pretend to be surprised :)  Here are three of them. 

I feel like I'm typing at the speed of light.  I should go and continue ploughing through stuff.  Thank you so much for stopping by! 

Optical Illusion with the Color Room

This week at the Color Room, we have a really soft and pretty feminine palette.  Isn't it dainty? It makes me smile.  One can see projects flowing with shabby chic romance and muted charm... 

Well, then let my layout be a rude awakening to those warm fuzzies...  lol.  Seriously, I can't get over how "brilliant" this photo is!  Can it be more hilarious? 

First Born protested when she saw this layout, "But I wasn't kicking her!"  All right, so no one was kicking anyone.  The kids were chasing after bubbles and stomping out the ones that had fallen on the grass.  But who needs to know the real story when "optical illusion" makes it look like a scene of an aggressor and a victim? lol!!  You can't make this stuff up!!  Oh wait, in fact, I can and I have! or... Is this just a reflection of the everyday norm?  There might not be any real kicking in this case, but surely we aren't the only household where nonstop sibling combats, verbally or otherwise, happen?

Last week, I made a new discovery at Michael's: EK Success Feltworks felt!  They are 12" x 12" and really thick, not to mention there are at least a dozen of gorgeous colors to choose from.  Needless to say, I bought one sheet immediately and made the flower using the large rosette die from My Favorite Things and forced it onto this layout :) This stuff is really addictive!  I may have returned several times to pick up a few more pieces of felt, but who's counting? :)

I'm off to read some manual!  I got a new camera and it's time to read up on it.  Don't worry, my photos will not get all of a sudden amazing. For that, I'm gonna need actual photography skills, yeah, not happening, lol.

Steamed, Boiled, Braised, Poached...

The weather outside has been frightful!  With the heat index well over 110 degrees Fahrenheit, and 80% humidity, it feels like we are in some pots and pans being cooked alive!  I can't wait till Thursday when it will be a measly 88 degrees!

I got my contributor's copy of the Creating Keepsakes' Scrapbooking Tips and Tricks today.  I love it so much!  There are so many great layouts and ideas in this issue.  I am so pleased to have one project in this so I get a copy, woohoo!! :)

We are headed out East in just a couple of weeks. I don't think Atlantic City is in the itinerary but we will be going to the Jersey shores for one day.  Unfortunately for me, I will be fully clothed and completed covered to avoid the sun.  I am visiting a doctor to hopefully figure out the problem, but right now, I can't be in the sun for more than 10 minutes without developing a horrendous rash! 

Anyway, this layout was created for AdornIt last October as their guest blogger.  I also used a lot of fun stamps from My Favorite Things in this layout.


Thanks for visiting everyone, I will be back with a new Color Room layout this Thursday. 

As seen in a special issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the publisher.

Gardener for the Color Room

“Why try to explain miracles to your kids when you can just have them plant a garden.”
 - Robert Brault

This year the kids each got her own garden.  They are responsible for picking out what they want to grow in their little gardens, weeding, watering, and posing next to them with smiles for photos. Yesterday for supper, we ate the three baby bok choys harvested from Second Child's garden, not bad...  More have been planted now.
Here I have a rather simple layout for the Color Room when we were just getting started with gardening this year.  (By "we", I mean everyone else except the royal we, lol.)  This color palette is especially good for these photos, and for garden beds that are covered by soil only yet. 

The particular shade of green reminded me of Cosmo Cricket's Earth Love.  One thing I have noticed is that even though the new CHA is just around the corner, I find the releases from 2-3 years ago as tried and true as ever for me.  It's one of the reasons I find it difficult to purge. I loved the stuff when I bought it then and I love the stuff still :)  like the Earth Love collection!

Thank you for stopping by and I'm going to collapse on the couch and vegetate a little.  The Y kicked off Body Pump release 78 and it has several really challenging tracks!  A couple of them were like the Titanic, the song would go on and on... 

And don't forget to stop by the Color Room and say hi and check out the latest release!!  :)

School Layout and a Birthday Card

Believe it or not, I do not have any "first day of school" photos this past school year :)  I only have these on my layout because I happened to be at home on her last day!  I know she is very much looking forward to school starting again the second it ended :)  Not that her summer lacks activities.  She's off to a Chinese immersion camp starting next week for two weeks and we are headed to Philadelphia in August to visit Cheese, Blondie and their families!!  so pumped...

This layout is done using Sweet Peach Crop Shop's kit and I added just a few things from my stash: an OA border, chipboard, and some SRM Stickers. Overall, I just love the colors included in this kit, so perfect with my photos!

Here is a card I made using mostly products from the Sweet Peach Juicy kit. Only the cardstock and the tiny diecut border is from the Sweet kit.  I used a stamp and die set from My Favorite Things. The sentiment "mom" is actually a tag from Elle's studio, and I diecut it using the MFT set. Believe me, I struggled with the tilting of the typewriter, lol. 

Prior to joining the design teams of SRM Stickers and My Favorite Things, I had never used their products.  However, now that I am no longer on the teams, I use their products even more than before!  I am seriously hooked for life! 

Sweet Peach Sketch

My sweet friend Keri Babbit is the sketch artist at Sweet Peach Crop Shop and this week she provided us with this lovely sketch. I am all about rectangles and lines, but tilting things is difficult for me, lol. However I did manage it, and here is my take on the sketch.

My mother has more patience than I do and she can't stand the thought that someone's hair is in someone's face. :)   Particularly after a nap, someone's hair gets fixed up nicely while someone is still drowsy :)  I just take advantage of the whole situation and get a few photos while I can.  That crazy bow thing on her hair was inspired by something I saw on Gymboree.com.  The girls and I made a bunch together.  They didn't turn out looking like what Gymboree was selling, but this one seemed to be well loved and well used.

I triple layered the large square and used the Cosmo tag stickers, and a 7Gypsies rubon.  Everything except the rubons on this layout came from the July Juicy kit from Sweet Peach Crop Shop.

This sweet circle border is a new die I bought from My Favorite Things.  I just had to put it to use immediately :)

One last thing of note... I outlined the orange patterned paper from Webster Pages with a copic marker in some kind of shade of gray.  I don't mind the look at all. I think I have found another use for my collection of such markers! :) yay!  

Oh I hear the water toy being in use outside, photographer duty is calling!!  :) 

Back When She Turned Four

It seems like a long time ago and I must have her wear this BabyGap dress again soon!  There's no younger sister to hand that stuff down any more!  The other day, First Born was rattling off the advantages and disadvantages of being an older sibling. She listed "having new clothes as opposed to hand-me-down" as one of the advantages... So far, Second Child quite loves the idea of wearing her sister's clothes, so all is well.  My mother admonished me that I must also get some new clothes for Second Child.  Really?!  Is she that deprived otherwise?

This layout is done using WIP's July kit, which is still available here. The kit is a fun mix of Lily Bee papers and a little Daily Junque from Pink Paislee.  I had big plans for those tags.  I misted a couple of them in yellow and thought they looked great... until the next morning.  I felt terrible having wasted two otherwise good tags, but I just couldn't force it onto my layout!  So after some thought, I went plain and printed some journaling on one and used some OA rubon on the other.  I connected them using the Darice hemp cord in the kit.

The blue border is cut with a Papertrey Ink border die (Lydell is gonna kill me for not sending it to her already!) with the Lily Bee alphas included in the kit and an SRM sticker "birthday girl" :)  I really need to do better scrapping birthday photos.  This is just a start I hope...

Sweet Peach Crop Shop Layout

How lovely it was to have a three-day weekend!  We were busy in good ways.  The kids stayed with Yeye and Nainai for a night so DH and I had to go strawberry picking without them on Saturday.  That was nowhere close to being fun, just an hour of squatting and hurting my knees!  We attended a birthday party at Uncle Steve's and had a smashingly good time.  The kids did some bicycle riding with my parents and what not's...  I did a lot of scrapbooking, specifically, using Sweet Peach Crop Shop's July kits.

I am very happy with how this one turned out :)  From the beginning to the end, this layout was about re-acquainting myself with a tried and true technique, playing with some products, trying a specific look, and having fun making something pretty.

I wanted to do something with the negative of the chipboard letters in the Juicy Kit. I got a bottle of white mist by Studio Calico a while ago, and finally I put it to use on this page. I did go a little mist happy and used 1/3 of a bottle in misting the background here! lol.

I cut the chipboard piece into half using scissors. I mounted the top half onto a piece of October Afternoon and the bottom half I used as the misting template.

After watching the mist dry and much arrangement and adhesives, I arrived at the final layout.  Here are a couple of detailed shots.  I thought adding these wood grain stars onto the muted background cardstock is a good look.  And who else adores Crate Paper's eclectic buttons?  The big one is just way too adorable not to showcase :)

The little bracket border is created with a new die I purchased last week from My Favorite Things. It's so dainty, I love it! :)  I am totally addicted to MFT's dienamics.  If only I knew what I know now, I would have bought them all while I was on MFT's design team, you know, with a discount! :)

That's it for this day after holiday post!  I could really use another day off to make more projects, soon enough hopefully...

 

Also, Lolly will be doing a Front Porch Live tutorial on Wed. July 6th at 8:30pm CST on UStream.  She will be demonstrating putting together this adorable project, so don't miss it!!  See you there!

 

Guest Designing for Fancy Pants

I had the delightful opportunity to work with Fancy Pant's Baby Mine collection as their July guest designer. I really loved getting all the fun embellishments that come with the collection, ideas flowed generously straight from Fancy Pants. 

This layout is one that I've been wanting to do for a while, and I need to take more pictures for some variation on this subject.  In her world, she has many babies and favorites :)  Unlike her older sister, she adores her babies / dollies / animals.  A gift of a plush whatever to her is sure to be a hit, and the latest acquisition will surely accompany her to dreamland every day and night.  One day I found her in her room having arranged her clan on the floor thusly... Some of the most treasured ones were even covered by her own blanket... It tugs at my heart.

I really loved the label diecut paper and I used it strategically to stretch that one paper onto two layouts :) I am pretty proud of this, lol. It just so happened that I had a tiny photo of her holding the bunny up so I thought I would put them in the hot air balloon, totally gratuitous embellishing, lol.

I am sad to report that the Mama Bunny did not come back to our yard this year. Did Second Child disturb the baby bunnies too vigorously last year? Oh my goodness, I took a lot of pictures, all the while I was a bit grossed out. I wouldn't touch these things!! Second Child didn't seem to mind!

Then I did three cards. There's no resisting doing  baby cards with this collection, so with the help of an SRM Stickers sentiment, this is the first one I did. 

I knew what I wanted to do with these diecut fishies as soon as I saw them.  So here it is an extremely simple card, made easier by Fancy Pants' darling diecut animals from Baby Mine and another SRM Stickers sentiment. I like this one quite a bit :)  coz it's a bit humorous :)

Lastly, I played with Fancy Pants' filter flowers.  I pleated a couple of them into a flower and added a big button. It looks okay.  My pleats were uneven, maybe the next flower I make out of the filter flowers would be better. 

Well, that wraps up my exciting guest gig with Fancy Pants.  Thank you Amy and Fancy Pants for the opportunity and thank you for stopping by!  Happy Canada Day today and Happy Fourth of July and long live long weekends!