Not quite Christmas...

Well, no tree yet. But Tomio told Leah that we would be putting it up next week, and there's not much chance he'll disappoint his princess lol :) I love hearing the kids talk about how much they are looking forward to Christmas. And you never know what they will remember the most. Their stockings are usually filled with tons of different kinds of candies and treats. Also the past few years I have been getting just a small figurine or toy to put in too--almost as an afterthought. I didn't know it was that big of a deal to them, but just today I heard them talking about what they had gotten each year and wondering what toy would be in their stockings this year :) So I guess I better be sure not to forget to get something this year!

Again, I wish I had something Christmas-y to share, but I don't. ( I must make something Christmas-y this week!! I must! :))

This is a layout I made a little bit ago when I was just starting to get into 2 page layouts. We go see the Cherry Blossoms every year, and I always have way too many pictures. So I thought this was a good way to get lots on my page.

I don't know how well you can see it in the photo, but I did some machine stitching around the edges. I also did some paper piercing around the title. Simple, but there were so many photos I didn't think it needed too much other stuff going on :)

Thanks for stopping by! I hope your week is starting out well :) I made some yummy apple butter so we got to have homemade apple butter for breakfast, so I'd say that's a pretty good start for our week :)

supplies: cardstock: paper reflections, pattern paper: basic grey,chip stickers: basic grey, brads: basic grey & doodlebug, buttons: autumn leaves, die cut letters: quickutz

a thank you card.

It's officially very cold now lol. I am happy to say that our new house does seem to have much better insulation than our last one. YAY :) that was one of my main requests lol. The plan is to put up our Christmas tree this weekend, but it depends on Tomio's work schedule. Apparently they have had some "issues" at work , which means more work for Tomio at home :( We're all looking forward to it though-it's our first Christmas in our new house, so we get to decide where everything goes :) so fun! And I have Miss Emma's stocking all made and ready to go :)

With all this Christmas talk, I wish I had a Christmas card to share, but unfortunately it is a thank you card　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Almost everything here is PTI- again :) Since I wasn't sure I *needed* the bird stamps, I wanted to try to used them on several different cards. And I have been so pleased I got them! They are so cute, and really can be used on just about any type of card. I stamped PTI's text background on berry sorbet cardstock for the background. Then I stitched on the two scallop borders for extra interest. I really love the look of sewing on cards, but my sewing machine has been very tempermental lately so I haven't used it much. I *think* I got it calmed down :), so you might see alot more stitching on my next few cards!

Thanks for stopping by! It's almost the weekend-hopefully ours will be full of Christmas-y fun. When do you put up your tree? Is it a big event at your house? We usually spend all day decorating the house :)

supplies: cardstock, stamps:papertrey ink, ribbon: stamping bella, buttons:autumn leaves other: scallop punch:fiskars, machine stitching

a new challenge!

I realized that I haven't been participating in many challenges lately. So when I found this one at Embellish Magazine , I thought it would be great one to try. I've mentioned before that trouble I have with most greens lol. But, I discovered I LOVE how it looks paired with the coral and brown!! Such a yummy combination :)

This is what I came up with. I have had these owl stamps for about a year, but I haven't used them nearly as much as I would have thought, so I was glad for a chance to use them :) Most of the other supplies are from Papertrey. I used the Cuttlebug swiss dots folder on the Berry Sorbet. I love how crisp it turned out! I really enjoyed doing this color challenge, so hopefully I will get to play along each week :)

Thanks for stopping by!!

supplies: cardstock: papertrey ink, label dies: spellbinders,  text stamp: papertrey ink, owl stamp: october afternoon, sentiment: stamping bella, ribbon:offray, twine:papertrey ink. buttons:green-autumn leaves, brown-papertrey ink embossing folder: provocraft, gems: hero arts

never thought I would see the day...

I love Rhys :) He's my well-intending, often-misunderstood, sweet big boy :) But... he just doesn't like to clean up, and if he does, well, it will pretty much take all day lol. So, yesterday when I was putting together Leah's new dresser and he was supposed to be cleaning up his room, I was not at all surprised to hear "....no, it's not clean yet Mama". Then came the surprise. "what were you doing?" I said. "....I was reading...my Bible" Rhys replied. I can't tell you how surprised and proud I was. You see, up until a couple months ago, he wanted just about nothing to do with reading. It was just too frustrating for him and took too long. We did reading in school, but it was always slow and not very fun for all involved lol. But we kept at it, slowly seeing progress. And this was huge for him. So who knows if it will happen again, but for once I was actually happy with what he did instead of cleaning his room :) 

It's nice to see you're actually helping them learn :) It was a good day.

This is a recent layout I made of my boys : ) gotts love 'em :) (but I don't think I will ever understand them lol)

                                                        

                                    

Some fun Fancy Pants stamps and some Prima papers. I like the way the distressed edges of the craft paper looks with the "live it up" stamp.

Thanks for stopping by!

supplies: cardstock: paper reflections, pattern paper: prima marketing, diecut letters: Quickutz diecut heart and wings: bosskutz, diecut labels: spellbinders, stamps: fancypant, buttons: autumn leaves

the weekend

This was the first weekend in a long time that Tomio didn't have to do work at home. So Saturday he went golfing :) I was glad that he got to go, especially since pretty soon the weather is going to be way too cold. Sunday we went to church and then Tomio found out that his friend from work had just had a baby, so we went to visit them. That was of course fun because who doesn't like to see newborn babies?! :) By the time we got home though, it was already evening, so that was about our whole weekend. Nothing too exciting :)

I didn't really have much scrappy time at all. I had hoped to on Saturday, but Miss Emma had other plans lol. I did finally get some pictures off my  camera of the cards I made the last couple of weeks.

This is pretty much all papertrey :) It's simple, but I like it. I love the damask designs for the background! Especially in the versamark. I stamped on the the flower with the text backgrounds to add some interest. I really like stamping the pattern on the flower--I will definitely be trying that again. Spring Rain was one of the first colors I got from papertrey, but this might be the first time I actually used it though. It's such a nice shade of light blue and I love how it goes with the Dark chocolate--so yummy :)

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy the last bit of your weekend :) Its already Monday here and back to real life lol :)

supplies: cardstock, stamps, buttons: papertrey ink, ink:tsukineko, flower:prima marketing, label dies: spellbinders, scallop border punch: fiskars, embossing folder:provocraft, other: gems

fall party fun :)

 We ended up having our fall party later than we first planned, due to unexpected bouts of the swine flu :) But since it is just all the cousins getting together, the timing is pretty flexible. They had SO much fun! I was having trouble getting Leah's costume to work out with what we had, so Daddy came to the rescue and they went and got one :) Daddy also put the finishing touches on Levi and Rhys's costumes in the morning before he went to work :)

Here is Goku :) Daddy drew on the circle for him. He was SO proud and kept telling everyone about it. Here is Levi with Rhys, er, I mean Goku with Vegeta :) Daddy drew the lines on Rhys's costume too. I LOVE how they really made the costume come together!

                             

                                        

Leah was a nurse. She made her own hat since the costume didn't have one. I think she was supposed to help Levi and Rhys when they got hurt fighting lol.

Miss Emma was a butterfly :) I was sure she wouldn't fit ths outfit anymore, but I thought I should try it just in case. I was so happy it still did!

They are all already discussing what they want to be next year lol. At least it gives me time to think of how to make their costumes if they decide early :)

Thanks for stopping by! I should have some scrappy stuff to share tomorrow. Hope you have a great weekend.

sports and a card.

Well, the kids had a blast at Sports day. They got to try out several different sports and see what they liked. Rhys was somewhat skeptical of rugby, but it turns out he thinks its pretty cool :) Leah said she really liked tennis, which is yet another thing she has in common with her daddy :) Levi did really well too. I was afraid he would need me more, but stayed and listened to what the teachers said. He was glad they spoke English. I told him the kids would too, but he informed me afterwards that "lots of the kids didn't speak like me" lol. Everyone was exhausted and went to bed early afterwards. I took my camera, but I am so sad I didn't even get one single picture :( But it was just impossible to hold Emma while going  from each of their groups and take pictures with my Canon. (it really doesn't work one-handed, I tried...) I'm glad they had fun though, and it was cute to see how proud they were when they told Tomio about all they had done.

I've been swamped lately and haven't had nearly enough time to create thing like I would like :( But I do have one more card that I made I can share:

Lots of Papertrey again :) This is my absolute favorite Christmas set--Merry and Bright from Papertrey Ink.

SO versatile and so much fun to mix and match the trees. LOVE it :) I thought it would be fun to try some different colors for a Christmas card, and I really like how it turned out. The polkadots are a stamp from Fontworks. I like the little bit of interest it adds, but unfortunately using it makes me think I might need to get the Polkadot Basics from PTI...lol  Does anyone have that set? Is it as useful as it seems?

Thanks for stopping! I hope to have more crafty stuff to share soon. It's almos the weekend-yay!!

supplies: cardstock, ribbon, button, Christmas stamps and sentiment: papertrey ink, polkadot stamp: fontwerks