Wet and Wild Fun

Today is a dark, dreary, cold day and since I'm a summer lovin', hot temps and sunshine kind of girl, it's hitting me hard! So, I thought I'd share a summery layout. I signed up for the Photo Arrangement Replay class (from Scrapbook Generation) that was going on over at Scrap N Yap last month.  I had bought the class a while ago and never did anything with it and I thought this would be a great way to get it done.I thought it would be easy to keep up with, then life happened! But I did get this layout done in the first week. I just never took the time to upload it to boards.

Once again I was able to use scraps from my stash along with some old photos of Shane (from 2002) on this layout. This was his first experience with the slip n slide, and he loved it! His favorite thing to do was to sit in the little pool of water at the end and wait for Abby and Matthew to come on down!

Ah, summertime - I miss you already!

Challenge YOUrself

There is a new challenge blog called Challenge Yourself that is starting up. Their first challenge will be in December and here is a little about them:

We challenge YOU to make it a goal to snap one picture a month with the ones YOU love and scrap about it!  It doesn't matter what you look like.  It's time to get out from behind the camera and start including YOUrself if those pictures!
 
I've been better lately about handing the camera over to someone else once in a while so I am the pictures, too. Now I just need to start scrapping them and this challenge blog sounds like it will help me do just that!

They currently have a design team call and giveaway going on, so head on over and check them out here.

Happy Halloween!

Since today is Halloween, I thought I would share a couple of layouts that I made a couple of weeks ago. My kids are all "too old" to go trick or treating, so I dug out some old photos for these layouts. For my first layout I used a sketch from the Weekend Warriors Sketch Class that I took earlier this month over at Inspired to Scrap.

They also have a Use it Up challenge going on, so everything from this layout (except the black background) came from my scrap box. The photos are of Abby, Matthew, and my nephew, Justin, before they went trick or treating way back in 1999! What a couple of cute vampires and such a scarey witch!

This next layout is of two of my nieces from 2007.

 

Once again I used a sketch from Inspired to Scrap and scraps from my scrap box. I love using up some of that "old" stuff!

Thanks for stopping by and have a fun and safe Halloween!

Getting Back In The Groove

3 months.
3 months since I've posted anything.
That's quite a while - even for me! So much has happened in 3 months - it really seems like it's been longer than that. So, here's a little run down of what's been going on since July.

We found out that Abby is going to have a little girl!

They have decided on the name Ada Grace and I cannot wait! I can say (with confidence) that she will be spoiled - especially since I get to babysit her once Abby goes back to work!

Abby started her first job ever in August. She graduated from MSU on May 17, had her first interview a week later and was hired as the K-4 Special Education teacher at her old elementary school.  I know that she is going to be a wonderful teacher! Here's a picture of her getting her classroom ready for the first day of school.

Matthew started his sophomore year in high school. He got his driver's permit over the summer and is slowly learning to drive. He is getting so tall and he is now taller that his Dad!  He has a great group of friends and is constantly busy with them on days off from school.

Shane started junior high.
It doesn't seem possible that my baby boy is in junior high! I have worried about this for a while - change is not easy for him, and not only was he going to a different building, but he was going to have all new teachers and a new para, and a whole new way of doing things. All of that worry was for nothing! He has adjusted to the junior high way of life quite well. His para is great with him and we have seen so many changes in him and we are just a quarter into the school year. He goes to p.e. with his classmates, and the coach has made a point of including him and letting him have his turn when they play games. He loves Wednesday since pizza is on the snack bar menu. He gets a slice and that makes him a happy boy! He still does a lot of echolalia - but his spontaneous speech is getting more and more frequent. Once again he scored advanced on his MAP - A test in communication arts!

On a very sad note - Mom passed away on September 14. It wasn't a big surprise as her health had been really bad since May, but it was, and still is, hard to let her go. I had no idea I would miss her so much, so soon. I am blessed to have such a wonderful family to help me get through this. I talk with my sisters just about every day and we all try to get together every couple of weeks for a lunch date. We all need each other a lot right now.

That is about all that's been going on in our neck of the woods. I have been scrapping quite a bit and hopefully will start back to posting when I get something done.

Celebrate America

I have another patriotic layout to share using Bella Blvd's All American collection. I have been wanting to try a sunburst layout for a while now, but just haven't sat down and figured it out. When I saw this sketch for the Plus One challenge over at Colorful Creations, I knew it was time to try a sunburst!

And here is my layout:

supplies used: patterned paper, alpha stickers, flag - Bella Blvd All American, corrugated stars, outdoor denim ink, B1416 Keyboard Uppercase Alphabet stamps - CTMH, twine - Doodlebug Designs

This picture is of Shane on the 4th of July. We had already taken several posed shots of the family and I took a couple more of him afterwards. He was just having too much fun with his little flag - making it flap and wave in the wind. He is not much of a picture taker, but I have finally figured out that if I give him a prop - like this little flag - he is more than happy to take pictures!

I am also entering this layout in the About A Boy challenge to use only red, white, and blue, and the Scrap Our Stash challenge to use red, white, and blue and at least 3 premade stars.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your day!

All American

Once again summer is flying by. I can't believe my boys will be going back to school in just about another month. The 4th of July was just last week and I've already made a layout about it - that's fast for me! I decided to play along with the challenge over at ScrapStuffz this month. Here is their inspiration photo:

I love so many things about this photo. The 4th is one of my favorite holidays, so it was easy to be inspired by it. I loved the colors, the stars, the arrows, the starbursts....so many ways I could go with this! In the end I decided to go with the colors, the stars, and the 4th of July theme. This is what I came up with:

My kids were such good sports posing with their flags! It makes me happy that even though they are all getting older, they still humor me and my silly ideas. I used the super cute Bella Blvd All American collection, added a few sequins and a July 4th  badge that I found at that dollar store.

I have a lot of photos from the 4th (between that and our trip to the lake, I took almost 300 photos in a 2 day period), so I should have a lot of things to share!

Another Patriotic Card

When I saw the new card sketch up over at Sketch N Scrap I knew just what I wanted to do.  With the 4th of July on its way, I decided to make another patriotic card.  Here is the sketch:

 

And here is the card I made:

I fell in love with the Bella Blvd - All American collection, and couldn't wait to start using it. Another quick card that is ready to be sent to someone special!

Fourth of July Card

supplies used - patterned papers - MME - Summer Splash 6x6 paper pad, stamp - Dear Lizzy, phrase sticker - Bella Blvd

This week's Got Talent III mini challenge over at My Scraps, was to use this card sketch and you had to include a polaroid frame on your card. I've had this polaroid frame stamp for a while and have never used it, so I thought this challenge was the perfect time to get it inky! I had these papers on my desk from a layout I made last week and I needed to do a patriotic card for one of the card challenges over at S-N-C. Once I got started it came together really quickly.

I love the look of the polaroid frame stamp and I am sure it will be appearing again - on layouts and cards!

Father's Day Weekend 2012

I have another layout using my Scrap Your Stash kit that I made up at the beginning of the month. Slowly I am getting this Echo Park collection used up. I only have a few full sheets left, and the scraps are getting smaller and smaller! I love using up my stash!

Last year on the Saturday before Father's Day, the whole family got together for a picnic at Bennett Springs. We were celebrating my birthday and Father's Day at the same time. We all had such a good time, visiting and enjoying grilled hot dogs, and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful evening!

I used the current sketch (#6) from The Paper Bakery. I loved it the minute I saw it and headed straight for my scrap room to get started on this layout.

 

This is a photo of me and Dad - so happy that I have it to remember this occasion!

His Favorite Place To Be

Another quick post today. I figured I'd better hurry and get caught up, because with the long awaited for (at least in our household!) release of the video game "The Last Of Us" being tomorrow, my computer time will be greatly limited! The hubby and the oldest son have been driving me crazy for the last two weeks - antsy for this game to be out! Our internet is not the best and me being on the computer while they are playing online - well, they say it slows it down too much for them to play.

Anyway...I joined in the fun over at My Scraps & More with their Got Talent III event. They will post a challenge every Friday starting on June 7th and going through August 16. Then every Tuesday, starting on June 11 and lasting through August 20, they are posting a mini challenge. For every challenge you complete, you get an entry thrown into the pot for their grand prize. Plus if you get your layout done before the weekly deadline you are entered in for their weekly prizes.

Their first challenge was to create a layout using NO patterned paper. At first I thought - this is going to be a hard one - and it did take a little thinking because I love my patterned paper, but thank goodness for washi tape - it saved the day!

I started off with a sketch from last weekend's Weekend Warrior class at Inspired to Scrap. I misted my background with blue and silver mists, I used washi tape to make my border along the edge and I also punched a circle out of washi covered cardstock. I had to go old school with my letters since I didn't have any dark blue alphabet stickers and my cricut wasn't wanting to work right. I pulled out my old letter stencils and traced and cut my own!  I can't say that this is my favorite layout, but I'm pleased with how it turned out.