Hanging out...

I have layout today of Levi and Miss Emma. These pictures are from a while ago, but they still love to hang out together :)

Pretty simple layout. I hand stitched the title for something a little different. I also added some hand stitching to the butterfly that I die cut from felt. The pattern papers are from Fancy Pants, which is still my favorite company for pattern paper, although Echo Park is definitely a close second.

Ok, that's all for me today. Levi isn't feeling well today :( so I'm off to sit with him. Thanks for stopping by!!

okay...

I think it's time for a layout. I've actually made a few layouts lately. I even *seem* to have gotten a little bit faster at it too. Which can be good considering I usually have the same layout sitting on my desk for a week. I haven't finished all of Levi's other birthday pages yet, but since I am no longer stuck under the " I must scrap chronologically" way of thinking (which is definitely the best choice I ever made. I enjoy my scrapping *so* much more now), I didn't let that stop me from scrapping the cutie-pix :)

Last year Levi chose Batman, and this year it was Superman. It's funny. Every year, I know Tomio is going to do an incredible job drawing the pictures on their cakes with chocolate. And yet, every year, he still manages to exceed my expectations. It think it is so fun for the kids that they can ask for any picture they want, and they know Daddy will draw it.( if only I had that talent). I am really sticking with the less is more look for my layouts (well, and cards too) lately. I still experiment with other looks too, but I always seem to come back to more clean and simple.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you are having some nice fall weather. It looks like it is finally getting cooler now here. yay :)

sickies...

Rhys had a fever on Monday, and while he is all better now, Miss Emma now has one :( Rhys is actually really good when he is sick, not whiney or anything. Miss Emma... well, not so much. But considering her normal personality :), not too bad I guess.Really praying she's better in the morning. She still is her talkative self though. We were sitting together on the couch while she watched some dvr-ed shows. The care bears she watched finished, and the normal tv show came on. It was some Japanese cartoon that my kids don't watch. Normally when  a show that is "unacceptable" comes on, my kids will say "oh, that's poop", kind of reinforces that it's not worth watching. Anyway, this time it was kind of like a witch that popped on the screen. Miss Emma looked at it and said " Oh! scary! Scary poop!" :) heehee:)

anyway...how about a layout today? This is me and Tomio back when we were dating :) let's see...I must have been16, which makes him 21. Sometimes it's fun to go back and do some older pictures too :) Pretty simple, but I thought it went well with the black and white photos.

Thanks so much stopping by today! Taking care of sickies can be pretty tiring, so I'm going to *try* to get some more sleep tonight. Hey, at least everyone slept 'till 6 today :) Hope you have a great day!!

I think it's time...

for another layout. I made this one a few weeks ago, but I'm pretty sure I haven't shared it yet. So sorry if  I did!

These pictures are from last year when Miss Emma was first learning to eat by herself. She's eating broccoli :) which was, and still is, one of her most favorite foods. She prefers veggies over meat all the time. And she insists on calling eggs "chicken", which I suppose, isn't too far off, right?! Anyway, back to the layout-- I used some Fancy Pants Papers and some Prima flowers. I stamped, colored and trimmed out some PTI butterflies. Oh, and I die cut the letters out of coasters from PTI too, just for something different.

Short and sweet today. We've got some school to do and then we are going to the kids' first lesson at their new swimming class. Hoping things go well. They are all super excited :)

Thanks for stopping by!!

no more stitches.

Miss Emma got her stitches out today. I knew we were going to have to walk to the doctor this morning to get them out, so I was a little worried when it started to POUR last night. Cats and dogs. But, luckily this morning it was totally cleared up. No clouds at all. After hearing her *scream* when they were stitching her up, I was pretty sure she wouldn't be too thrilled when they wanted her to lie down so they could snip them out. And in case I haven't mentioned it before...she is a tad strong-willed. just a tad :) (seriously, she is my 4th, so it's not like I don't have any experience with 2 year olds, but she is nothing like the others) She did cling to me for all she was worth, but surprisingly, after her initial crying, she stayed pretty still and calm while they took them out. As soon as they were done, she was ready.to.go. Glad it's done though, and the doctor said it healed up really well :) So glad the doctor is so close too. Made the whole ordeal a lot easier.

Anyway, here's today's card.

This one came together really quickly. I had made each of the elements before, they just happened to work really well together. I really love the Embellishments images and the pretty fonts. And having the dies to match is so fun. Pretty sure I wouldn't try cutting it out otherwise lol. The pattern papers are from Fancy Pants. I also used my new Hero Arts Solid Dots background for some subtle depth. And I'm definitely making a dent in my stash of too many flowers :)

Thanks for stopping by! Hope your week started off well.  Hoping for lots of crafty time this week. (As I do each week lol )

really?!

Can you believe it is already June?! I just can't--the year is half over! aaahh! I'll be happy if the first few days of June are anything like what the rest will be, though. They said it was the coolest day in June they had in 22 years here. I would love a cooler summer :)

Have a layout to share today. Some of my favorite pictures of Miss Emma from the park near our house.

I'd been doing a lot of two page layouts with lots of pictures, so I thought it would be fun to try doing some really different ones. I like printing the pictures with a white border to help them pop. The pretty striped paper is from Fancy Pants. I went for years without even owning any flowers, and then after I got some, I went for months without even tryin to use them. But lately I've been really liking them and putting them on layouts and cards. I think I might have gotten a little carried away though heehee :) There's a little stitching, a little stamping and a little embossing too.

Thanks for stopping by! Are you reayd for the weekend?  I sure am :)

since I'm on a roll...

I thought I would share another layout that I made :) I'm actually really happy with this one. I made it for a call Creating Keepsakes was having, but I guess they were looking for something else. But I was really glad I made it. Reading is such a big part of Leah's life right now that I was so glad I documented it.

I used real pages from an old book that was in pieces :)

And I had fun with the journaling. See? I made it look like one of the pages from the book :) fun:)

And I used my favorite buttefly stamps. Did some stitching, and added some fun embossed clouds :)

Leah seriously reads all.the.time. I can barely keep up with enough books for her! She's already had her Nana and Aunt Coo'gug (long story with that name lol) provide her with dozens. Good thing we can get her English books from the library at the American school here.

Well, that's all for me today!! So glad you stopped by! Hope your week is moving along smoothly :)

No excuses...

I'm not going to make any excuses as to why the blog here has been so quiet. It's all just typical stuff going on around here. Stuff that I should be able to handle just fine. I guess sometimes the everyday is a little more than you expect. Or maybe it's just me? At least Miss Emma seems to be doing better about sleeping through the night without screaming :)

And now for a card. Kinda  simple really. But not completely "CAS".heehee.

 I love the subtle look of the woodgrain stamped on kraft with antique linen distress ink. Just perfect. And I seem to have a thing for adding these pins to my card lately. The cute felt "love" is from Fancy Pants. I {heart} all their fun felt shapes that they released a few years ago (!) I don't know what I'll do when I run out though! gasp! I use them on my cards and layouts too.

Anyway, I'm off to bed. I still feel like I am making for some missed sleep.  Thank you SO much for stopping by even though it has been so quiet around here. Hope you had a great Easter weekend :)

a little tired and a layout.

Well a new week started again. I have been so tired lately. I guess I shouldn't complain, since I get to stay home with the kids and Tomio is the one who has to go out. See he's been so busy at work that he has to leave by 6 most days. Which means that I get up and get him breakfast etc. before he heads out. That itself is tiring enough, but Miss Emma seems to have decided now would be a good time to start waking up in the middle of the night and scream, and scream...and scream. I've tried everything I can think of but it hasn't helped.

So I'm tired. Maybe some extra coke will help :) And at least the coke-shortage that seems to have been going on at the stores near me has ended and I was able to find plenty for the week. yay :)

I thought I would share another layout today(!) I actually really like how this one turned out. It is from the same sketch as the one I shared a little bit ago. But I like how it has a totally different look.

I love the "wonky" scallops at the bottom. I didn't really have any, so diecut several circles and cut them in half and tucked them in. I also like the little felt car. I like adding stitching and buttons to felt shapes :)

Well, that's all for me today. I'm really hoping to get a nap after school today... :) Thanks for stopping by! I hope you had a great weekend!!

Christmas time~yay!

I think our Christmas tree is actually getting full of presents now :) And I don't think Tomio is even done with his shopping yet heehee:) I think I enjoy Christmas time as much as my kids do! We do make sure that they really know and remember and celebrate the real Reason for Christmas. They love the advent calendar I made with Scriptures we read each day about the birth of Jesus.

I've got one more Christmas card today. Really simple. I love how just adding some jewels can make a simple card really pop. These stamps I used today are all from Fancy Pants. I have one of those big 12x12 sets they released before, but I never use them much anymore now that I have my oh-so-fun Papertrey, Verve and Unity stamps. But I thought I would dig them out when I was trying find a BIG snowflake (which I didn't have). Anyway, I just kind of whipped this card out really quick when I was just playing.I love light blue  and brown together :) Thanks for popping by! I hope you are having a lovely weekend. We are planning on going out for a fun family dinner tonight!

how about a layout?!

I know :) You really might not think it from what I usually share here on the blog, but I am very much a scrapbooker...at least as much as I am a cardmaker.So I thought I would share a layout instead today. These photos are from a couple years ago(!) But I just love them :)

These are just pictures I took of Leah and Rhys being silly. What I love is how you can see just how much they *do* love each other :) When Rhys walked by when I was making this layout and saw these pictures, he said "that's when Leah still liked me"....I thought that was so sad though! Really of course, they get along the same, but Leah is a little more shy about gving him hugs and kisses than she was then. Rhys I think still likes them, even though he's a boy :) I really like these papers. They are from a K& Co Valentine's paper pad, but I thought they were perfect. I don't know if you can see it very well, but I stitched all along the wavy line. I didn't have a scallop border that skinny, so I actually cut a Quickutz "bead" border and then cut it in half. It was a little tricky to get it cut evenly though.

I finished off with this cute tab die from Quickutz and some Fancy Pants felt. I love adding stitching to my felt shapes :) Oh, and can you see that I stamped a music background on the peach-y piece? Just something to keep it from being too flat :)

Thanks for stopping in! Are you ready for a new week to start?! I *think* I am. :)

too much internet?

My kids LOVE *love* getting books from the library. Leah reads books like nobody's business --really just about anything:) Rhys likes reading 2nd grade level ones, while Levi likes to have me read him lots of picture books. His current favorites are this one:

and this one:                                    

  

He'll tell me which one he wants me to read by the title. He'll either say "Let's read Click Clack Moo!" OR, "Let's read GOOGLE, GOOGLE, quack". :) And no matter how many times I read it the proper way or Rhys tells him, he never says "giggle". Now I'm pretty sure when I was little, the word giggle was alot more familiar to me than the word "google". And I'm also pretty sure I can thank the internet for that....:)

ANYWAY :), I have a card for the challenge at Embellish magazine today. The challenge is to use the colors red, pink, yellow, and brown. And to use felt. Here is what I came up with:

I honestly just don't use alot of red. I noticed I don't even own much read cardstock at all. But I really like the way the red looks stamped on the pink cardstock. The music stamp is from Cornish Heritage Farms. I stamped the label with Polkdot Basics 2 in Old Paper distress ink. The pink flourish is from Turning a New Leaf. For the flowers I used Papertrey Ink felt (yum!) that I diecut with a Quickutz flower. But instead of using the centers that came with it, I used some Fancy Pants felt buttons. I finished them off with some red baker's twine. Oh, and the sentiment is from Verve. I love all their wonderful Scripture Plain Janes.

Thanks for popping in! I hope you gave a SUPER day :)



cute pink labels...

I went through my cabinets and  put cute little pink labels with red letters on all my canisters and tupperware. It really only started with me needing to have a place to put my new salt...but then I had to make sure it wasn't confused with baking soda. And then the sugar looked like it needed a label, since the salt beside it looked so nice. And then, of course I had to find a container (and label...) for the cocoa...and the cornstarch. I *think* I might have gotten a bit carried away. But it did inspire me to straighten the cabinets with all of Emma's bottle supplies in it too :)

Something a little different for today's card. This one basically started with me wanting to try to use some summer sunrise paper and the Wonderfully Whimsical stamp set. But I think it turned pretty nice.

I stamped the music background in brown to kind of soften the look of the bright summer sunrise. I stamped the house from Wonderfully Whimsical and colored it with my copics. I stamped the text background so to give the green some more texture. I just hand cut the hills and layered them on. Then I matted it on the dark chocolate base and stitched around the edges. Oh, the cloud is from Fancy Pants. I added some red stitching to give it some definition and tie it to the red in the house. I love all the different little sentiments you can fit on the sign :)

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are having a crafty week :)heehee :) If we get enough sun today, I'm hoping to wash my sofa cushion covers....exciting :)

park play and a card

We made it to the park 3 times this week. It was so nice to just be able to get out of the house for a bit. Miss Emma was a little wary of the grass and park area at first.But after I went with her  a few times and showed her how fun they were, she really got into them :) By the third time we went, she was trying to run off to the play area as soon as we got there :) We have our own "spot" as we call it, that we always go to. We lay out our blanket, sit, eat, and relax. Well, really we don't relax-ha! They like to run wild. There is a tree they like to climb right by our "spot" too. Leah has mastered it quite well, but the boys are still working it. Rhys can get up with a little help, but his goal is to make it by himself heehee :) I hope the nice weather keeps up so we can keep going all fall :)

Here's a kind of different card for me. I think I like it though. I could easily change the sentiment for another occasion if I wanted. I stamped the text on white cardstock with Old Paper distress ink. Then I inked over it before I cut it into the 1 inch squares. The polka dot paper is from Fancy Pants. I just went through my button stash looking for ones that I thought went well. I tried actually stitching down some of the buttons since I had heard it was sturdy and simple...but its not for me lol. I actually had harder time getting it to look nice. My current favorite way to adhere buttons is with glue dots.

Thanks for dropping by! I hope you are enjoying your weekend :) I've been working on a layout, so I've been enjoying mine :)

i know...

I know, its been a week since I last posted. Tomio's "Big Holiday" (as the kids call it) started. When Tomio's off from work, the kids are off from school. We didn't travel anywhere far this time, but we've been having fun just taking it as easy as possible :) We rented the Back to the Future movies and watched them with the kids heehee :) It was really fun to see them again with the kids. I loved them when I was little. Even Levi had fun, he started pretending his toy cars were time machines :)  So its been good to have some down time with the family. I do kind of wish I had more time to scrap, though. But I've pretty much gotten nothing new done in the last week. I do have a card I made a few weeks ago that I didn't share yet.

I used the Its a Celebration set from Papertrey. This was actually one of the first sets I ever got from Papertrey. I heat embossed the cupcakes with clear embossing powder and diecut them in little circles. The fun pink pattern paper is the "B" side of a Fancy Pants paper. It added just the right amount of interest without being too busy.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you're having a relaxing summer. I'm off to check on littleMiss Emma :)

melting...

Just when you think it really can't get any hotter, it does. I almost melted when I brought in the laundry this afternoon. At least it dries quickly, right? :)
Miss Emma is saying a few morw words now. Her current favorites are  "whoa" and "wow" which she says whenever she thinks something is cool or when she falls down :). And "Daddy?", which she says as a question with both of her hands out with her palms up as if to say "where's Daddy?". Then you are supposed to ask her "where's Daddy?" Sadly, the answer she usually gives for that question is "bye byes" :( But she will point to him if he is home :)

Ok... I have a card for today! yay :)

Sorry no detail shot :( Not sure why...

I actually don't use pattern paper as much on my cards. I kind of like to make my own when I can. But this orange seemed fun :) I used my much loved CHF music stamp on the pink panel at the bottom. If you look closely I *think* you can tell that the yellow has a light pattern too. I did some straight stitching down the sidese and some zigzag on the pink panel. I colored my pearls to be pink to match the flower. I also pierced some holes under the sentiment just for a little more interest.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you are managing to stay cool :) I haven't gotten to eat nearly enough ice cream yet this summer. Needing some...preferably a double :)

And since I talked about Miss Emma, I thought I would add a picture of her too :)

Still raining....

Well, it's still rainy season here, which means it rains pretty much everyday.  Its not like I really have to go out in it all that much, but it does make it alot harder to get my laundry dry. And the humidity is almost stifling I'm pretty sure there are only a couple of weeks left of rainy season~yay!

I thought I would share a layout today. Some super silly fun pictures I took of Levi last December :)

It was just so cute and silly I HAD to document it:) I don't really even know where he got the idea lol. Mostly Fancy Pants products here. Love the kraft pattern cardstock.

Kept it pretty simple. I really like these fonts though. Two of my go-to fonts. They are of course from Quickutz :)

Well, thanks for stopping by! I'm off to check my laundry before it starts pouring rain again :) Hope you're having a fun week!

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 :)

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