raspberry suite challenge

I was really happy when I saw the colors Dawn chose this week! I LOVE brown and kraft! They are 2 of my all time favorite colors to use for cards and layouts. When I saw the golden-orange color, I immediately thought of bees :) And since I had the new Honey Bees set from Papertrey, I thought it would be perfect. I had a little more trouble than I expected coming up with a design I liked though. In the end I got this from a notebook of sketches I have that I work on while I am out and have ideas. Here it is:

I hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by!!

supplies:
cardstock: papertrey ink dark chocolate, others from stash
stamps: papertryink Honey Bees
other: twine, quickutz scallop border
ink:tsukineko

10 years

So I know my profile says I've been married for ten years, but really it was just 10 years this Monday on August 31st. I can hardly believe that it has actually been 10 years. It certainly doesn't seem that long! Here is what we looked like 10 years ago on our wedding day:)

Boy, we did look young :) 10 years ago we got married in Virginia and then we went to Disney World for a few days for our honeymoon :) Because Tomio could only get so many days off at one time, we then waited till April and went to Europe for 2 weeks:)

I knew Tomio was taking the day off for our anniversary, but I didn't know what he had planned. He surprised me by having reservations at the Sheraton at Disneyland here :) We always like to celebrate our anniversary trips with the kids too so they came too. It was absolutely wonderful. The room was a beautiful oceanview. And it was really fun to think about how much our family had changed since the last time we had stayed at Disney:) We swam in the pool and played in the kiddy area for awhile the first day and then went out to dinner. After dinner, Tomio surprised me by having presents sitting on the bed waiting for me :) There was a card, which he spent over an hour choosing at the store :), and a NICE tripod for my camera:)( I was SO happy to get that--I love how he knows what I want.) AND a HUGE solitaire diamond necklace!! It is gorgeous. I had no idea he was getting it!! (Plus he already got me a pair of shoes and a scrapbook magazine subscription...yes, he does spoil me.)

We spent the whole second day at Disneyland. It was just perfect. I couldn't have asked for a better anniversary :) arigato ne, Tomio :)

a new project

I have this really fun project I just started working on. For the past few months, I've been trying to make a yummy sweet thing each week. Usually something new or something I haven't made in a while. Its been really fun and the kids have loved it too. Leah will often ask "so what are we making this week?" But, I'm sad to say, after I found the recipes I wanted and printed them out off the computer, they would all end up stuffed together in a much-too-full clear folder. SO, I decided to gather up all the ones I liked and would make again sometime, and make a cute decorated recipe card for each one:) And I am decorating a cute ring binder with plastic sleeves in it to keep them in :) Doesn't that sound so cute?! I know making scrappy recipe cards is nothing new, but I have never done it before, so I'm really excited about it. I just started yesterday. I went to the store with Tomio and got the binder with the plastic sleeves. I also made the first 2 recipe cards!! They were SO fun to make! I am so glad I decided to do it. It adds another fun aspect to baking each week. Because anytime I can incorporate scrappy fun into other fun activities, I am happy :) he he :) I haven't decoarted the binder yet, so I don't have pictures of it. I will post some once it's all prettied up :)

Here are the recipe cards I have made so far:

I made this cherry cobbler for my dad on Father's Day :) It was REALLY yummy. Definitely best served warm with some vanilla ice cream...ahhh heaven:) Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any pictures of the actual cobbler :(

Here is other one I did:

Cream cheese sugar cookies...so yummy!! They don't scream "cream cheese!!"lol:) but are really good. I think I actually liked them better the second day. And you don't want to over cook them. They are best a little bit soft :)


Don't they look yummy? I can't wait to make some more recipe cards :) hehe:) I already have several from the past few months to do. And of course a new one each week :)

Thanks for stopping by!! I hope you had a fun, relaxing weekend :)

Well, we've slowly been working back into our daily routines. The kids have been getting to bed on time, which is very important! Especially with Levi--he is NOT a happy camper if he doesn't get enough sleep lol. Even Emma has been going to bed around 10.

I have been able to take some more pictures of the kids the past few days too. I always take lots ( NOT to say too many :)), but it has been a little bit cooler so we have gone out on our deck, and I like taking pictures outside so much better. Here is my current favorite of Levi:

I love this one :) But, yes he DID need a hair cut lol! And he has since gotten one. Not really sure if I like it better though...I have the hardest time with his hair!!

Here is a card I made with some of my new PTI goodies:

I love this little bee :) Isn't he so cute? I used PTI's Fresh Snow ink for the white. It really is the most solid white ink I have used. (And I've tried quite a few...) I love how it looks on the kraft. You definitely have to let it dry or heat set it though. It takes quite a while to fully dry--but worth it I think:)

supplies
stamps: papertrey ink green thumb, honey bee
ribbon: papertrey ink ocean tides
ink: papertrey ink fresh snow, Ranger distress ink walnut stain
other:martha stewart lace doilie punch, japanese cardstock and gems

Thanks for stopping by!!

berry sweet

I haven't had much time to create anything the past couple of days since school started back. But I really wanted to make something for Dawn's
Raspberry Suite Color Challenge. I especially wanted to this week because I really liked the colors :) and I wanted to use my new PTI stuff I got :)
Here are the colors this week:

Aren't they fun? I love cream, and I just got some Hibiscus burst from PTI that I wanted to use:) Here is my card:

One of the new sets I got from PTI was the Green Thumb set, which has this ADORABLE strawberry image :) I liked alot of the images in the set, but this was the main reason I wanted it :) It's pretty simple, but I wanted the focus to be on the berries :)

supplies
cardstock: papertrey ink (hibiscus burst)
stamps: papertrey ink (Green thumb, Honey Bees)
buttons: foofala
other: white gel pen, nestabilities, versamark ink

eta: I changed the photo of my card because I was feeling like it was missing something, so I added the ribbon :) Much better now :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Today was the last day of Tomio's break....sob....Of course, HE'S the one who has to go back to work lol! But it really has been nice for him to be around so much. And when Tomio goes back to work, everything else goes back to normal too, which means the kids' school starts too. And regular meals at home. And regular cleaning schedules. But structure is good, right?! Unfortunately, all of this means less time to scrap too :( I have really loved scrapping and making cards alot during the summer. I am going to try to keep making lots anyway :) I like to try to do at least something scrappy everyday. Even if I don't get to finish my project in one day, I like doing something. I love having my nice scrapping room now because its easy to leave things out if I'm in the middle of it.

Here is a layout I made a few weeks ago.

This was one of those layouts that came together really quickly :), which actually does not happen very often for me lol! I printed out my pictures, right away found some paper that I thought matched really well, and I liked the first way I put everything down. The "thank you" is Quickutz Marigold alphabet. i just LOVE it! I almost didn't get it because I generally prefer the cookie cutter alphabets and it is on the 2x2s. But I liked it so much I got it anyway, and I am SO glad that I did :)

Supplies:
cardstock: core'dinations
pattern paper: fancy pants
felt shapes: fancy pants
letters: quickutz
tab: quickutz die
brads: making memories

Thanks for stopping by!! Enjoy what is left of your weekend!

new stuff and holidays

My parents just got back from the US a couple of days ago. The kids were all thrilled of course to finally get to see Nana and Papa again :) I don't know if Nana and Papa were AS thrilled to be expected to play games all evening right after their plane ride...:) Even Miss Emma was happy to have Papa hold her again!

I always have them bring back a TON of album of stuff when they come back. (Thanks!! Bob and Dod!) And I do mean a ton :) With the shipping prices too outrageous for things like punches and especially cardstock, I just can't justify ordering them much here. So, once I year Tomio lets me splurge on a bunch of stuff I want, and they bring it back for me. I have been spending the last couple of days going through all my fun new stuff and playing with it :) Yay :) This time I got alot of

Papertrey Ink stuff. I absolutely LOVE all their stamps and cardstock and buttons and ribbon and...but I really can't pay their shipping prices for overseas. I also got lots of kraft color cs and some Verve stamps too. Anyway, I have been having fun with all my new stuff :)

Tomio's "big holiday" isn't over yet :) This is definitely the longest summer holiday he has had. It has been so much fun :) The kids have all loved having Daddy home so much. And I must say so have I :) I know he hasn't gotten done half of the things he wanted to do, but he always makes sure to do all the fun things the kids (and I :)) want to do. It will be so sad when he has to go back...sigh....

ANYWAY:), here is layout I made the other day. The journaling is a cute conversation that Levi and I had:) I was really glad to put it on paper so I wouldn't forget about it later.

I wanted to add a little dimension to my letters, so I rolled them out 3 or 4 times and just glued them together. It takes a little extra time, but I love the look:)

Supplies:
Cardstock- American Crafts
Pattern Paper- Fancy Pants
Diecuts( sun, heart and letters)- Quickutz
Buttons- Basic Grey

Thanks for stopping by!