2 Sketches 4 You Ultimate Card Showdown

...oh it is a biggie...

...so I figured I'd thrown in my hand and join the competition...

First, the sketch (Laura's sketch #27):

drumroll please...


The Card:

a close up:

and a lil' bit closer:

I wasn't sure about it at first. but I like it! I used Me & My Big Ideas Fashion District line. The floral stripe is actually fussy cut from another sheet of paper, but I like the way it looked layered on the bold stripes. I cuttled and inked the blue rectangle and punch the butterfly out of the striped paper. You know me, it needed a little bling, so I used the tiny rhinestones on the butterfly, and then it needed a little sumthing extra, so I added the ribbon on the seam and the buttons... and VOILA! I really like it...

Working on a gift...

...it's my very first paper bag album...

...it's not quite finished yet, but so far, here is the front cover:

The first and second pages:

the third and fourth pages:

the fifth and sixth pages:

the seventh and eighth pages:

I have two more pages and the back cover to finish, but I really like the way it's coming along...

I used mostly basic grey's urban prairie line that I have been hoarding for quite some time now... And I added lots of bling... I really like bling... ALOT!!! :)

A Photo Scavenger Hunt

Limelight Papercrafts is turning one... and having all sorts of fun games and prizes you can see here . Jennifer's game is a photo scavenger hunt for these three types of photos:

~A cat nap
~Something yummy
~Four

Basically you jusat have to make a post (or send an email) of your favorite photos or best interpretations of these three and then link it back to her post.

So, without further ado, my pics:

for a cat nap, here is my youngest taking a little snooze in the mega blocks containers:

for something yummy: here is my youngest again, when she was only about 18 months old, eating her favorite~ ice cream:

And for four: Here is Zachary, on his 4th birthday while we were in Disneyworld:

I encourage you all to enter too! Should be a fun contest!

You have to check this out...

...ok, so I am not really a scrapbooker, per say... Let me explain... I have always been crafty and such... I get it from my mother, the "craft-a-holic" and admitted pack rat, you know, the "there might be a use for that sometime in the next millenium" hoarder of all things good, and even kinda crappy type...

Anywho, the summer after my senior year of high school I spent hours and hours scrapping every picture I could find from my birth through my senior year of high school... My whole life up to that point fit neatly into about ten or twelve 2" binders with the extra pics stuffed into shoeboxes on a nearly shelf... I was so proud... I even took a few of the binders with me to the dorms that first year of college...

Well, the summer following my first year in college, while no one was home (my mom, my pop, and I were all working that afternoon), an overloaded electrical outlet in my room shorted out... The outlet was near my bed and soon a small fire turned into a 3-alarm blaze... It destroyed everything I owned in the world from pictures to clothes to stuffed animals and even melted the $2000+ computer I had bought with my own money the previous summer... poof! just like that, all my memories gone forever... Hours and days of works destroyed in a matter of minutes...

The upside is that no one was injured... We even had a brave neighbor who broke down our front door, knowing our 2 dogs were inside, and searching for both of them until he was able to get them out of the house...

Anywho, I guess I was sort of disheartened... not that I was deterred from ever crafting, but more discouraged from scrapping... But lately especially, I have been feeling the pinch to put something together for the kids to have when they get older...

I found the perfect contest to keep me motivated this summer:




So, go! Check it out!

So I noticed something immediately after I posted...

...alot of the pictures I take of the kids are of their backs... I'm sneaky like that... j/k... I don't know what it is but when they know that their picture is being takenm, I get the goofiest faces, or half shots... But when I sneak up behind them to capture the moment, they look so calm and peaceful... Don't get me wrong, I look the big cheese smiles, and have buttloads of toothy grin pics, but the pics I gravitate toward, when I look at them on the commputer, after they have been uploaded, are those that show the kids just taking everything in... Like this one with Allie looking out the window on the ferry:


They did stop for a couple of face shots, I got creepy smile and apathetic look here:

And just plain, stop taking pictures mom!

So, there you have it...

I've been busy, I swear...

...I really do... It has been a busy birthday month and much more... I figured I'd take some down time as an opportunity to show you all some pica of what I have been working on... wanna see?

In no particular order, mostly because sometimes the picture uploader thingie just leaves me completely baffled, and also because sometimes I upload pics and hide them in folders, not so much on purpose, but more because I figure I'll remmeber where they are later, and never do...

Last week we took another trip to NYC, we took the ferry over to Ellis Island, which the kids thought was too awesome:


My mom's friend's daughter had a baby shower, and I made the invites:

My aunt came into town, so I made her magnetic goodies to take home with her:

And of course a giant clothespin to match:

My mom's (my kids call my parents, greyma and a-pop) birthday was this month, so I gave her this big altered chipboard photo frame, here's the front cover:

Here's the left interior:

And the right:

I also played with my camera a bit, especially when we had some freaky weather. These clouds came rolling in randomly one Saturday afternoon:

And on the first warm weekend, we took a day trip to the shore, (oh and by warm I mean it went from 30 degrees to 80 degrees in one week), here's the girls by the water:

I also snapped some pics of the shed in my parents yard. Something about the new spring green, the clear blue sky and the rustic, worn look of the shed just grabbed me:

It has been busy around here as we prepare for the end of the school year, moving, again... grrr..., my birthday and our anniversary... I ordered some new supplies to play with and am thinking about adding some new items to my Etsy shop, so stay tuned and I more to be more diligent in my posts... Cross my heart... (not my fingers)... :)

I can't believe it has been a month... (Warning: This post is very image heavy...)

...or nearly a month since my last post! Gasp!
My apologies... The good news is that we are all happy and healthy and I have been a busy little bee...
Let's see what has happened since my last post...
Well Zachary turned 6 on March 23rd. We celebrated by taking all 3 kids to Dave & Buster's for lunch and then an afternoon full of gaming. His birthday happened to fall on a weekend full of soccer for Erica, but we knew that Zach would be terribly disappointed if his Big Sister wasn't there so we worked it out and everyone had a blast... Well almost everyone... D&B tends to give me one of those throbbing migraine headaches afterward... but thats life I suppose. :)
I had been working feverishly to get things done for my first craft fair which was last Saturday, the 4th. My dad's bday was on the 3rd and my parents came over for dinner and fun. We all had a really good time, actually. The next day I had my show. This is me and my show: Yeah!


My mom had these awesome candy jars on a rack in her basement and we painted the rack bright green... Each jar had a little "treat", one for gift tags, one for cupcake toppers, one for holiday tags, and one for my business cards... See:

These were a few of the hair bows all packaged up and ready to go:

I so love the little bees!

I also did these gient 6" clothespin photo holders:

Big view of the setup: (I had these all in order, but blogger hates me today):

You can see the bows on the far left, next to clothespins, candy jars in the middle, big clothespins, and then mini cards on the shelf...

These sold like free candy, set of 3 clothespin fridge magnets:

more big uns':

I really liked the way we displayed hair bows:

So the show went ok. There really wasn't a ton of attendance, but I did manage to make a few dollars, and everyone seemed to swoon over my stuff and the set up. It kinda gave me a big head... :)

The following day we got together with Jim's family to celebrate his mom's bday, (the end of March through early May is busy for bdays in our families). We all had a nice afternoon and it was fun gettting everyone together.

So, now, I am spending my free time uploading my items to my Etsy shop. I have the clothespins finished and plan on tackling the hair bows next. I miss creating for fun, but I hope to get back in the saddle soon! :)

Hoppy Easter everyone, the bunny is almost here!