"Birthday Luau"

I’m so embarrassed, but I’ve finally gotten around to scrapping William’s first birthday!

The PP is from DCWV Tahiti stack, and I had been saving these little bamboo sticks FOREVER to use on something, and I decided to wind them up together with some raffia, and voila! I kinda like it! :o)

I attached one of William's birthday invites I made and managed to print all my journaling out onto one of the MM spiral journaling sheets. I have to sadly admit that I wasted a couple of them before I got it right :o(.

"Lucky 13" LO

Here’s one of my latest… again, it’s a favorite because it’s all grungy/messy/doodle-y. :o)

It's William's "13 Month" LO and PP is from We R Memory Keeper’s “Teen Angst” collection.

The Bingo Card is from Jenni Bowlin - guess I was just "Lucky" the number 13 was on there - haha.

I made the felt accents myself. The dice were hand-cut and I used mini brads to do the dots. The clover was created by piecing 4 hearts together from a sizzix bigz die. (Thanks for lending it to to me, michelle!) :o)

Fry Guy

We went to eat lunch at BJs on Sunday and the kids meals came with fries in the shape of happy faces. William befriended one of these little "fry guys" and refused to eat him. He kept giving him kisses and he'd stick him out towards us to show off his new little friend with pride. But if we acted like we were going to eat him, he'd yank him back really quickly and hug him while he made the saddest little face and said, "nooooooo..." His new little friend stayed safely in his grasp in the car and all the way through our shopping trip to Target. But as we were in the checkout lane unloading our goods, I began to wonder where Mr. Fry Guy was... shortly after I spotted his half-eaten little face at the bottom of the shopping cart. I wonder what he must have said to make William turn on him so savagely....

Holy Cow! Cricut Carts for $10!!!

I will begin by saying I hate Wal*Mart. It almost takes an act of God to get me to go in there. But today I must swallow my pride and admit that I went there. DH needed some things for his new toy ('74 Bronco) and I reluctantly followed with Monkey in tow. As I cruised around their greatly diminished "craft section" while DH was in the auto section, my keenly developed 6th sense ("scrapper sense") caught sight of something unblievable. I saw the cricut logo... then I saw a clearance label above it that said "$10.00". I thought, "No way!" there must be a mistake! I whipped the shopping cart around (poor Wil almost fell over) and made a beeline as fast as I could for the little green cricut dude, fully expecting a mad rampage of other scrap freaks like me to come out of nowhere and fight me to the death for this amazing deal. There were 2 solutions carts - the Sans Serif and the Basketball. I have no interest in the b-ball, but I quickly whipped up the sans serif font and matched up the bar code to the clearance price. It was no joke! 10 bucks! There were 3 left and I grabbed them all. 1 for me, and one for each of my scrap buddies. I don't know why they were 10 bucks, but I wasn't asking any questions. Not sure if this is a wal-mart wide deal, but it may be worth a trip to your local wally world to find out! (Even if you hate it as bad as I do!) I found them on one of those "end cap" isles thrown in with a bunch of random craft supplies.... but if your 6th sense is as keen as mine is, you should have no problem finding them if they are there. Just "Use the Force...."

KWerner Design Challenge #47

I discovered an awesome inspiration site last night! kwernerdesign blog! I am SO moved and motivated by color that I took up her weekly color challenge on the spot!

Here it is!

I used the SU "Top Note" big shot die, the SU "delicate dots" designer series paper, the SU "Say it with Scallops" stamp set, My SU Scallop square punch, Martha Stewart brown twill tape ribbon, an MM acetate flower, a paper studio flower, and some Kaiser Kraft brown pearl accents. Unfortunately, I don't have any of the SU "in" colors, so I had to use my Staz-on ink in pumpkin. My first challenge - ever! And I had lots of fun! :o)

Enjoying Spring...

We’ve been in full swing when it comes to spring down here in Texas… just wanted to share a few pics of the buddy playing outside!

I am so happy we finally got a fence installed to seperate the pool from the rest of the yard... now my little monkey can run free without me having to be 1 step behind him! (Not to mention, he was also obsessed with throwing things in the pool!):

Lately it's been hard to snap a good close-up of Wil. But on this day, he was all about stickin' his face right into the camera lens and making a silly face!

My little "Conductor"...

Right now, the nectarine and apple trees are in full bloom! So beautiful!

Another little surprise I added to the back yard. The "inner kid" in me just wants to know who lives in there!!!:

"Bud-um"

I recently have been going on a gardening craze – especially when it comes to finding little nick-knacks for the back yard. We are so lucky to have such a huge back yard, I want to fill it with little “surprises” here and there for William to discover. I found this super-cute monkey at Hobby Lobby the other day and put it on a tree near his playground. Every time William sees it, he gets excited and points to it and says, “Bud-um!”

So, I guess I have to explain the “Bud-um” thing… well… William is having a bit of an identity crisis. He thinks he’s a Monkey. It’s completely my fault, though. I always call him “Monkey,” but I also call him “Buddy” a lot. So he’s great at pointing himself out in pictures and saying “Bud-um” (aka “Buddy”). He also points to himself and gladly declares, “Bud-um!” But, every time he sees a monkey… well, you guessed it… “Bud-um.” :o)

LO Round 4

I saw this one in a mag and had to lift it. I think the original said "Every Boy needs a tire swing." I just changed it up a little to fit my purposes. :o) I used the new K&Co "DayDreams" paper. But I have since obtained the October Afternoon "Hometown" kit that the original used... so I kinda wish I'd held off a little. :o)

The idea for this one came from the scrappin' mamas thread, and the inspiration for the design came from a round robin we did - Thanks Stephanie! :o) The background PP is from the Colorbok "Friendly Forest" and the lined scroll thingy is from Jenni Bowlin.

This is a direct lift from Scrappin' Mama Stephanie that I finally got around to! She had such a creative idea, I just had to copy it! (Thanks Again, Stephanie!) :o):

I love love love this one. I lifted it from a digital LO I found online. The PP is from the Sassafrass "Fawned of You" collection. The title's kind of "glared-out" but it says, "Hey mom! CHeck out my new ride!":

The only thing I wish I did different on this one was use a solid CS for the title. It's a little tough to read - it says, "The Ladies Man". I couldn't resist cuz Wil's just surrounded by girls in this pic and getting tons of attention. :o) I aged the photos in photoshop and used a "70's" theme to it. PP is Basic Gray "Archaic".

The inspiration for this title came from Jack Black in "Kung Fu Panda." :o) I used a softer approach int eh design though and used the My Minds Eye "Out & ABout" stack:

Another one of my favorites... Can you tell I like the "messy/chaotic" look? :o) I had so much fun with the details on this one. PP is Basic Gray "Boxer":

LO Round 3

Here's a total lift from one of my scrap mags. All the dark parts of the PP and the chipboard are foil - but it's tough to see in this pic. PP is Paper Studio "Kaliedoscope" from Hobby Lobby.

Another lift from a mag... Not sure if anyone would pick up on it, but I messed up and used two "4s"! I have since corrected it :o). PP is from the Colorbok "Friendly Forest" collection:

The title says "Top 5 playtime activities" and here are the corresponding captions for each pic printed on a transparency sheet:

I had fun doing some handstitching on this one. PP is from the DCWV "Green" stack.

I finally got a LO done just about William and our 2 weimies, Chessie and Samson. PP is Basic Gray Periphery:

This one was a lot of fun... I had some great pics of William playing in some boxes when we were getting ready to move to our new house last year:

Couldn't resist this one... William in his little Harley outfit. I just wrote the lyrics to "Bad to the Bone" for the journaling. PP is from DCWV "Rock Star" stack. I cut the letters out using Sesame Street font cart and some actual Harley Davidson PP with foil flames on it:

LO Round 2

Here's a round that I just feel kind of "blah" about... but I'm going to post them anyways.... you never know what may inspire someone!

I used SCAL to cut the batman logo on this one from a batman ding font. The PP is from the DCWV "All About Boys" stack.

Just a silly LO from when DH put the head of William's birthday Pinata on. PP is from DCWV "Safari" stack.

Just another "William being Silly" LO. PP is from My Minds Eye:

I was excited to do this one, but wasn't too happy with the result. (see detailed pics below). PP is from Me & My Big Ideas "Modern Milan" collection.

I printed 2 pics - 1 color and one B&W and cut out the color version and pop dotted it on top of the b&w:

The flower was the result of 3 new products I got: The big shot, the cuttlebug flower petal die & emboss kit, and Core'dinations "Black Magic" paper. So I cut the petals using the big shot, then I embossed them, then I sanded each one to get the black off and let the color show through.

I think if I had made the title bigger, I would have ended up really liking this one. PP is from Basic Gray "Ambrosia" collection.

To make the Spaghetti sauce "splotches" I used SCAL to cut out some splotches out from a ding font and make a stencil. Then I just used some color box cat eyes to put the stencils on!

You can't really see it, but I liked the "rainbow" thread I used to stitch the purple paper on, and the purple metallic MM paint I used to paint the chipboard letters on this one:

This one just ended up being too "loud" for me. PP is Basic Gray "Obscure":

I tried to see if I could get away with the flowers and pink on this one.... not too sure I liked it.

I didn't mean to post this one in this group... but oh well. I actually really like it. It talks about each of these items and how they are such a wonderful technological advancement. But at the bottom, there's a caveat that says by the time he gets to reading this in several years, they'll probably be considered "old fashioned." :o) PP is Basic Gray "Obscure":

2 Page LOs

Here are some of the 2 page LOs I've finished in the last couple of months...

This first one is from last summer and is about the love I have for our new back yard! PP (background) is from the DCWV Summer Stack.

Another "Backyard" LO from last summer... this one is about William's playground. PP is from My Minds Eye "Just Dreamy" stack

This is our trip to Dallas last June:

ANOTHER Backyard LO (lol) This one is with William and his cousins. PP is K&Co "Blue Awning"