love card

Miss Emma has started walking SO MUCH more just the past couple of days. I think she now might walk even more than crawl. Its SO cute though. She's still kind of unsure of herself, so she walks slowly with her arms out. I love it :) But now my baby is just WAY too big...*sniff, sniff*.

Well, here's today's card. Something really different for me.

I actually only used one stamp on this whole card--the little "love" :) I die cut the letters "l-o-v-e" several times and adhered them to my white base. Then I used a heart diecut to make my heart-shaped pennants. A little time consuming diecutting so many lol. But alot of fun. Sometimes its kind of fun to try to do something really different from what I normally do. All these papers except the polka dot one are Papertrey. The polka dot is Bo Bunny.The diecuts are Quickutz.

Thanks so much for stopping by!! Hope you are staying cool :) Since our new house has air in all the main rooms, I am :) heehee:)

Hello!! It has been really hot here, and muggy...ugh! lol. I can handle the heat without the humidity alot better. But I am oh-so-thankful for our air conditioning :) So at least inside our house can be cool :)

We are headed out to see Tomio's family again. Just a day trip with a stop at the really big driving range they have out there :)

Here is the card I made Tomio for Father's day.  I consider it a day to show my love and appreciation to him as a father and husband, so I usually make a love-y card :)

It's kind of different from my normal style of cards (though I'm not really sure what exactly that is...)

I used to of my absolute favorites---my text and wood grain backgrounds :) AND, my wonderful butterfly punch :)

Well, we are headed out the door.I hope you have a super fun weekend!!

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

nice and clean

Well, I cleaned out my fridge today :) It's been a little over a year since we moved into our new house, and I thoroughly cleaned the fridge when we moved. But goodness, it's amazing how dirty/messy your fridge can get in that short time. I mean, you just put food in it, right?! I feel so much better now though, that I did it. Every time I open the fridge, I kind of smile inside thinking "Hee, it looks so neat. I did that :)" (I realize most likely am not normal...:))

Anyway....here's a card :)

Just another fun little card I made using the house stamps.They are so cute even if you don't color them in :) I used rustic cream instead of white. Such a fun color, kind of like a light kraft. yum :) I used my woodgrain background stamp too. Another one that I wasn't so sure  I would that much use out of, but I do.All. the.time. Really goes with anything :) I added a little bif of turquoise for fun.

Ok, it is way past my bedtime, and since Miss Emma is sleeping well now, I like to get my sleep too. Thanks so much for stopping by! Sorry I haven't been able to share very many projects lately. The kids' school is just at one of those stages where it takes quite a lot of time....:) 'night!!

sweet baby cheeks

Leah comes back tomorrow :) Everyone is very excited :) I'm sure she had TONS of fun, and I can't wait to hear about it. And they actually ended up with mostly hot, sunny does the whole time they were there. Which is great considering it is rainy season here and it was predicted to be pretty much rain the whole time. I'm  sure she got some good use out of her new bathing suit :) Levi and Rhys did fine together, doing lots of boy things while she has been gone. BUT, we just need everyone to be together!! Keeps feeling like we are just not right. And Daddy said he can't wait to take her golfing again heehee :)

Here is my most recent layout. I don't know if I am normal or not :), but it takes me a LONG time to finish a layout. I choose my photos, then my papers, and just that can take one day. Then I can spend another day or two deciding the placement and then deciding it again...And then, yes, another day or 2 for embellishments. But since this is what I do for fun, I figure I can take as  long as I like, right?! lol :)Anyway, here is the layout I worked on last week:

Lots and lots of stamping, which although I almost always stamp on my cards, I really don't do nearly as much on  my layouts. But all the patterns on this page are stamped.

including these squares' patterns. I stitched some beads on the crown just for a some extra bling :) These text and music stamps are some of my go-to stamps for backgrounds. The text is Papertrey and the music is the same Cornish Heritage Farms one I mentioned the other day.

Some subtle patterns on these papers too that I stamped. I also threaded some beads on the twine just for fun :)

So glad you stopped by! I hope you are having a pleasant, not-too-hot week :) It has been a little TOO hot for me the past couple of days. But fortunately I have been able to stay inside with my nice cool air conditioning :)

happy :)

We sent Leah to her first camp on Monday. Rhys went to his in March, and it seemed like it would take a long time for Leah's camp to come. But goodness, here it is already the middle of June(!). She was so super excited. She said she could barely sleep the night before. I know she's having a blast. But she won't be back till Friday *sniff*. The boys keep commenting " I wonder what Leah's doing now." But, honestly, I think her daddy might miss her the most heehee:)

Here is a really simple card I made. I wanted to use my new Papertrey Ink stamps. So I just gathered up several of my scraps from previous cards and added some stitching. I think I'm going  to really like these adorable house stamps :) This is the biggest one. I like all the tiny little sentiments it has to put on the sign :) I like having all occasion cards on hand, so I went with "happy". I liked coloring new with my copics :) I added some paper piercing around the circle. Recognize the brown dot paper? yes, my wonderful double dot paper from Bo Bunny. Sadly, I think I am starting to run low *gasp*. The music pattern is a background stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms. It's actually HUGE--a full 6x6! I don't have a block that big, so I just put the paper on top of the stamp and smooth it with my hands. Works quite well :)

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you are having a fun filled week so far :) Its super hot here today, so we are having fun indoors :)

So you are HOW old?

I mentioned before that I turned 30(!) in February. I kind of felt like it was a big deal at first, but I've gotten used to it now. It always really bugs me though that I actually have had SO much grey hair since I was about 25 that I have to dye my hair regularly to cover it up (ugh...) When we went to Disneyland the other day, the worker at the Carousel came up to me when I was in line with Leah, Rhys and Levi (Miss Emma was asleep with Daddy). She motioned to Levi and asked how old he was. I responded that he was 4. Then she motions to me and says (in true Japanese fashion with leaving out the subject) "how old?" Kind of taken by surprise, I say "me?" When she nods I say "um, 30..." Embarrassed she mumbles something about us being just fine then and walks away. Apparently, you need to be at least 16 to accompany a child 7 or younger.... hee hee :) I guess it can't be too bad if I can pass for under 16, right? lol :) And just in case you  are curious after that story, here is a picture of me from my 30th birthday....

Not really the best picture of any of us, but I don't really have any others :( I really need ot be sure to get more pictures with me in them.

Anyway, here is another layout. Wow, alot of layouts in a row instead of cards! hee:)

Oohh, I guess I shouldn't have taken the picture on my dark floor with the dark background.... I liked this paper, but it is alot busier than most pattern paper I tend to use, so I had kind of a hard time. But I think it turned out ok :)

More stitching on felt :) Definitely my current fave :)

Just a little close up of the journaling. This is fun font I downloaded for free at 2peas. Kind of fun I thought :)

Thanks for stopping by! I hope your week has been going fabulously well :) With my obvious stamp obsession :) I am enjoying Papertrey's release peeks this week :) I love all the fun inspiration. Unfortunately, they always make me want everything...what can ya do, right?! :)

no dentist yet...

I didn't make it to the dentist again. I have one more trip left, and I keep having to reschedule. Really not planned that way, really! :) But at least this time the earliest appointment was only  a week away, instead of a month. So if all goes as planned, I will have my last (for awhile at least!) dentist appointment next Sunday. I'm so glad. I'm actually not really the kind that minds the dentist in general, but this is at least my 4th time recently and I will just be happy to be done.

Anyway :) I have another Christmas layout to share. I actually scrapped these pictures once before, but I thought it would be fun to do them again :)

These are from 2004 I think (!) I didn't actually redo the page from before. I just chose some of my favorite pictures and did the layout and journaling from a different point of view. So fun to do old pictures of Leah and Rhys :) The pattern paper is from Fancy Pants :) and the dotted cardstock is my much loved Bo Bunny double dot cardstock. Really, it is just perfect for, well, just about everything :)

I like threading twine through my tags and then loosely securing it down.Just a fun little detail :)

Thanks so much for stopping by! My week is off to a pretty good start, and I hope that yours is too!!

supplies: carstock: die cuts with a view; pattern paper: fancy pants and bo bunny; diecyts letters and tag: quickutz; felt accents: fancy pants; cookie stamp: papertrey ink;

a baby and birthday layout

Ever since Levi had to get stitches, I worry SO much more. He's a boy, so he's wild. period. But it's so hard for me not to freak out every time I see him fall or bump something. sigh. Hopefully I will stop worrying quite so much....sometime.

Anyway, here is a birthday layout I did of Levi when he was 2 (awwwww....)

Sorry, I seem to have forgotten to take pictures of each page separately. But since I tweaked my blog so I can post bigger pictures now, maybe its ok? Since Tomio drawing on the cake is such a big part of their birthdays, I thought I would kind of focus on that. The pattern papers are Basic Grey Urban Prairie (did I mention that is my all time favorite line from Basic Grey?! Love it!!) Lately I can't seem to stop stitching on felt. I already loved using felt, but with the stitching for definition...aahhh just my thing :)

Oh, here is a picture of my cutie Levi with his stitches:There were 3 over his left eyebrow. I put a barrette in his hair to keep it out of the medicine. I thought it was so cute hee hee :)

Thanks for stopping by! I'm off to the hospital to visit my newborn niece : ) Have a super fun day!!

supplies : cardstock: bazzill; pattern paper: basic grey; felt: fancy pants; diecuts, embossing folder: quickutz; buttons: papertrey ink; brad: doodlebug

June!

Wow, I don't know about all of you, but I just can't believe that it is already June! The weather is officially supposed to stay warm from now on too. (Well, at least according to the weather man lol) We went to Disneyland on Monday. The kids had fun. We had fun too. We've gone to Disneyland or Disneyworld for several events for us, so it is always fun to go back. Unfortunately, it was really crowded---ugh!! (and "really crowded" here in Japan is NOTHING like "really crowded" in the US. trust me.) It was still fun though. We were all exhausted the next morning, and poor Tomio had to go straight to work. We didn't sleep in or anything though. The kids and I went to the hospital to get Levi's stitches out and get Miss Emma a vaccination. Not fun things, but I was glad to get them done.

Here is another Christmas card I made a few weeks ago. ( I just realized that since I have been working on layouts for the past few weeks, I haven't made any cards at all. I am pretty sure that is the longest I have been without making a card in at least a year.wow. I guess I know what I'm going to be working on this week :)....)I made this one for a challenge to use black, gold, silver, and burgundy. Not colors I would normally use at all. But I actually really like how it turned out. It is just a small 3.5x3.5 card. I stamped the silve snowflakes on the burgundy before stamping some text. I love the look it created. Pretty simple after that. I did some hand stitching with silver thread and distressed the edges of the white sentiment panel oh-so-slightly :)

Thanks SO much for stopping by! I hope you are having a stress free week so far :)

supplies: cardstock: black-Bazzill; burgundy-world win; stamps-snowflakes and sentiment-verve visual; text -pti; circle cutter-quickutz; ribbon-sei; ink-tsukineko