my first order complete!

I did it! I got the order completed! Not too bad considering it was the first few days of school. But I will admit that the laundry has been piling up. eeeek.

I am so happy with how these invitations came out! I added the pattern paper behind the egg since the white was not working for me at all! I love how the colors work together! I used my Silhouette Sybill to cut the egg, the white part of the eyes, the title and the triceratops. She was a busy little cutter!! I am in love again with my Sybill. mwah...

I did the information side of the invite using the Jurassic Park font. Love how that turned out.

Here they are all ready to go to their owner.

I also purchased the cutting file for these great triceratops birthday treat boxes. Twenty four pieces of cardstock later... we have treat boxes!! Let me tell you, Sybill got a work out that day!!

Seriously, how can you not love these???

I am very excited to deliver them to my fabulous first customer!! I think I can do this business thing.

May your day be full of happiness today (and every day)!

first day of school 2012

The first day of school comes very bright and early this year for us. And to tell the truth, it was not so bright when I had to get up to get moving. Did not like it one bit. Nope not at all. I would like my summer sleeping schedule back please.

Kira was a bit nervous that day but we tried to keep things light and fun. It took us about five tries to get this photo. She kept making silly smile faces. Yup... she is that tall!! She grew a half inch from July to August! Crazy bean sprout.

All set for sixth grade. Love her new LL Bean backpack! And it was packed FULL for the first day.

An hour after dropping my baby girl at the Junior/ Senior High School, I got to drop off my baby boy for his first day of first grade!! He was so excited!!

He wanted to get in the van so bad and didn't want to wait for pictures.

Last one before heading in the gym to wait for the bell. First grade looks good on him!!

End of the day for Kira and her BFF! These two never take a bad picture.

All in all we survived. Alex is totally loving his new class and teacher. Kira is adjusting to life as a sixth grader. She is loving the fact she has different kids in her classes and not stuck with the 'difficult' ones for the whole year. The best thing so far... she wants to eat food in the cafeteria! They have a fresh sandwich option. That will save me a boatload of time in the mornings.

May the morning light be sunny and bright... but not too early for you!

sybill has work!

A friend of mine sent me a link to a card she was wondering if I could make for her son's upcoming dinosaur birthday party. The hardest part for me was finding an egg shape that would work!! I found one at the Silhouette site and before I could download it, I had to upgrade my software since it has been so stinking long since poor Sybill was running!!

I must say the upgrade was a wonderful improvement on how I had been doing things with her and I may even keep her uncovered and use her!! Seriously so much more user friendly than before.

Anywho... this is the invite test sample that I showed to her and the birthday boy. He loved it!! He didn't even want me to take it back so I could use it to create the others. 

Below the eyes will say Ryan is 3 or something like that when I get my act together. I was so tired I couldn't even see straight so I skipped that part but told her it would be on there. I am also going to print up the information on the back of the card. It is a 4X6 size so perfect for the envelopes that I have on hand.

I also purchased a cutting file for a triceratops birthday treat box. OH MY GOSH! It is so adorable. I whipped one up to show her and I gave it to her son since he was not gonna let that go!! Glad he liked it.

I have been cutting all the pieces and parts today in between picking up kids, dinner and bedtime. I have to do the printing tomorrow but I am very happy with how all the pieces are coming together. I'll get myself a little assembly line and crank these out.

Sybill is quite happy to be of use and I am so happy that I have my first order with my new business!! Woohoo! I'll post the finished products when they are done. I just love the eyes peeking out of this!!

Hope everyone who peeks at you gets a big smile!!

criss cross card

I have made this type of card before and I am not sure why I don't make it more. I really enjoy it. The tutorial can be found at Splitcoaststampers right HERE and the directions are wonderfully simple. Love that part!

I made one for my hairdresser that has returned from carpal tunnel surgery and I made this one to have on hand in case I need it. I can see me making more of them in the future!

I used DCWV stack papers for the pattern papers. The pink and the yellow are DCWV cardstock. The purple base is from my stash and the white is from a package of cardstock from Michaels. The ribbon I purchased many many years ago while going to Craft Fairs with my twin. I think I paid a $1.00 for this roll and it is still going strong!!

I cut the scallop circle and the star with Cuttlebug dies. I cut two stars and pop dotted the second one. The stamp image came with my Cuttlebug when I purchased it. There are three other designs so I will have to use them to show them off as they are so adorable!! I then used a white ink pad (Studio G from Michaels dollar bin) to show off the embossing.

Hope your day is full of fun surprises as things fall together!!

quality time

....with my girl Kira!

Last night I ask Kira if she wanted to go to Good JuJu and use our gift certificate to Crackskulls. She said yes so to downtown Newmarket we headed today. If it had been a little cooler, we would have walked the whole way but since it was a bit warmer than I like to walk in, we parked at the library and walked from there. Which is only a couple blocks... do-able.

We went to Good JuJu first. I love that store. Such an amazing amount of creativity from local artists and the owner Terry is amazing. She is the ultimate crafter who has turned her passion for creating into a business. So much fun walking through and looking at everything.

We picked up a couple of chocolate candles that are so divine to smell and pretty darn cute to look at, a piece of real fudge that we can eat and an owl hair clip for Kira. Good time.

Then we headed to Crackskulls for some ice cream and to check out their used book selection. We found a book for both Kira and Alex and were able to each have a nice sized bowl of homemade ice cream. oh yumminess.

While we were there I noticed Kira was wearing the most perfect shirt for today.

She said yes it was an awesome day with me!! Love her. Then it was time to head on home. Here she is in the van with the books and our bag from Good JuJu. I can't believe how grown up she looks.

Love that Terry "autographs" each bag.

May your day be filled with Good JuJu as well!!

who knew??

That you could achieve gold status on the Michaels Rewards card?? Not me. I was quite surprised when it showed up in the mail. Of course my husband could understand it. Not only that... he wondered out loud how long it would take me to get to platinum status. He's so funny.

I can't help it if we purchased some stuff for Christmas as well as art stuff for Kira there. Not to mention items to create two Pokemon clocks that are still not finished. But I digress...

I'm in the gold at Michaels. Go me!!

I hope all your days are golden too. (yup totally snagging your tagline Alien!!)

responsibility is as easy as this

Who would have known that one simple dispenser pitcher could give one so much responsibility and power??

Alex drinks a ton of milk. You are talking "serious owning moo cow would save us tons of money" amounts of milk. But he felt bad for constantly asking for milk. I had a light bulb moment and poured milk into this lovely Mickey head dispenser pitcher. I also pulled out some small cups that I found when cleaning this summer for him to use.

It has been wonderful. He gets his own milk for breakfast, lunch and dinner now (and all times in between!!) He is so proud of himself and I am too. Another bonus, Kira doesn't spill milk on the counter when she is pouring her own beverage! Win Win for everyone.

I do need to pick up another one of these pitchers so that the milk will not get that icky old milk flavor over time. Need to hit Walmart or Target.

Don't forget to drink your milk!!

christmas card sketch challenge

I am getting this sketch challenge done for the month since I know that I am going to be busy busy busy once school starts next week.

Here is the sketch I got to use for this card. Pretty neat, don't you think???

And here is my take on it.

I used paper from a DCWV Christmas stack from years ago. I pop dotted the image paper since the paper ribbon was a little bulkier than I had planned. I also heat embossed the image. I like the green of it. I also made four of this card to increase my stash of Christmas cards! Go me!!

Hope all your days are merry and bright!!

riddle me this: blog refresher sketch contest

And another sketch challenge at PageMaps. This one is for the Riddle Me This: Blog Refresher Sketch Contest. If you want in on the fun, you have until Sunday September 2, 2012 midnight MST to enter. Prize is Bo Bunny's new Mistletoe papers. Yummy!!

Here is my take on the sketch. I didn't have any pictures that small so I trimmed down a 4X6 on all sides a bit and went to town! Did some sewing which didn't turn out too hot. I think my machine is mad at me for some reason. The stitches kept pulling out or not even catching. I adjusted the tension and it seemed to help a bit. Maybe I'll have to drag the Singer back into the house. I stamped and embossed the circle accents. I painted a chipboard "3" and then embossed it so it matched better. I stamped the word "generations" using  some Studio G $1 stamps. I also used one of my Fiskars border punches. I think it is called apron or something like that. I really like the look of it. Papers are all DCWV. Miscellaneous ribbon that I had laying around.

I had this layout finished, photographed and the picture edited when I went to look at it this morning. I realized it was missing something so I added the title and the brads. I am much happier with it now.

Don't forget to hop over to the PageMaps blog and see what else is happening over there. And if you are looking for amazing sketches, check out PageMaps!! Thanks for stopping by!

fancy pants sketch contest from pagemaps

Yes I should be working on Disney vacation pictures but instead I went blog surfing and decided to work on some other pictures that were hanging on my desk and do a couple challenges while I was there. This sketch challenge is from my all time favorite sketch site PageMaps. Becky Fleck rocks and I use her sketches for 99.9% of all my layouts. Seriously love her.

Anywho... this is the sketch for the Fancy Pants Contest that is on the PageMaps blog. You have until Sunday August 26, 2012 midnight MST to complete this if you want in.

And here is my take on the sketch.

When I went to pick up the kids at my parents, I happened across this pictures of their dog Teddie and knew I had to scrap them. He was a big fluff ball and so sweet. Kira would stand behind him and try to catch his little stump of a tail... and he would let her!! His only flaw... he drooled A LOT!! This is how I remember him as he has since crossed the Rainbow Bridge and awaits us.

Every birthday my parents would get him a birthday cupcake. He always inhaled it and never really tasted it but I know he enjoyed it as he would then go looking for more. I miss the big bear.

My stamp slipped off the block when I was working but I went along with it as I think it gives the layout some character. And it kinda looks like how quick Teddie was. Papers from a DCWV stack from years back and some sewing.

jumperoo's adventure

My daughter the future film director took her Webkinz kangaroo with her to the playground last week and took a LARGE quantity of pictures and videos with her. I've chosen some of my favorites to share with you.

Here she is jumping for joy to be at the playground and free from the house.

Watching the clouds go by while relaxing inside the crawl tube.

Time to go. Watching the world pass her by.

It was sunny out so Kira lent her her sunglasses.

But she couldn't wear them while she was driving the van. She did pretty good until I had to take a corner, then she fell off.

After falling it was time to be restrained to avoid any more falling incidents.

She has quite the imagination. Let's hope she keeps it. Directors make big money to put vision to someone's thoughts/ written words.

more silly girl

Lunch out at Wendy's and we all had to try to blow our straw wrappers at each other. Kira clocked me and I got her good!! So good it stuck right there in the front of her head!!

Alex's didn't work so well as the hole was in the wrong end of his wrapper. Usually he does pretty good with them getting to Kira.

Yup... we are a silly family and happy to be that way!!

is it fall yet??

My nails seem to think it is!

I was going to do them all in orange and then decided to add the yellow. Please excuse my horribly taken care of cuticles and the bubbles in the orange nail polish. It is a cheap brand and I really didn't feel like starting all over with another color last night so I just went for it. I am thinking I will need to do this again around Halloween and add some white to recreate my favorite candy of all time... candy corn!!

Just thought I would share. :)

august sketch challenge

Another month and another sketch challenge from my FB group. I totally love that I have to scrap at least once a month something that I haven't previously planned out. Love it.

Here's this months sketch we had to use. Totally feeling it.

And here is what I did with it.

Such a fun day! It was so adorable to see each of the kids dressed up like mail carriers and finding their friends bags to put the Valentines in. I punched out the hearts and then sat there and looked at the negative paper that was left and decided to make it part of the layout. Added some of my hand made twine and am happy with how that worked out. I used my Sizzlit alphabet Aphrodite for the title. I probably should have fired up Sybill but wasn't feeling that adventurous yesterday. Pattern paper is DCWV Spring Stack from a few years back.

Here's hoping your days are full of love!!

will summer ever end?

Okay, it really hasn't been that bad with my kiddos...... except for yesterday. They started in on each other the moment their eyes opened. Must have been a bad case of the Mondays. At one point Kira was taking pictures of Alex being very silly. This was one such moment.

On the flip side... in two weeks they will both be heading off to school. I may miss them... until I arrive at Sunny's to have breakfast with the other moms trying to grab some sanity on the first day of school. Until then... they are all mine. Silliness. Fighting. Playing. Fun. 

All of it.

fighting crime

Fighting for Truth, Justice and the American Way.

(is that right?? I will admit I go to the movies with hubby for the eye candy they provide but I am not good on the tag lines and such)

Anywho... here are my three heroes! Alex and daddy finally wore their shirts at the same time! Then we had to grab his Build A Bear Starry who just so happened to be dressed as Captain America. Great picture of my guys. 

And then since he has been clinging to these heroes at bedtime, I had to snap a picture of him with all of them. I think we are in the nervous back to school time of year. He knows he wants to go to school but he is unsure of where he is headed and who will be there when he gets there. I'm waiting for the teacher letter with the invitation to visit before school starts. Hoping it comes this week. I think that will help my little guy a ton!

I need to remember to post this picture on FB on the Build A Bear Workshop page. Left to right- IronPuppy, Minty Hulk, Alex and Starry Captain.

scrap room clean up

I will admit I did not take any BEFORE BEFORE pictures. I started taking them after I had gotten everything off of the floor and put it on my desk. It was quite a pit during the BEFORE BEFORE stage... trust me. I had floor space enough to get the chair from in front of the computer to my scrapping counter space. And I would sometimes run over something that had slipped from the piles. I am ashamed it got so bad and could not share my shame.

Here goes your photo tour of my pit. This is to the left of my room when you walk in. And remember, it is a 6'X9' space with a large L shaped desk taking up most of the floor space. But it is all mine!!  :)

Yes those photo boxes are leaning. They are doing that because of the green box on the bottom of the pile. It was empty. And all the others on top of it... they are FULL. oh the shame. BTW... I am currently watching all the seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer while working in my office.

Moving along...

The printer is much better than it had been since it wasn't working at all and I had to remove everything off the top to switch out ink cartridges. Can you see my Silhouette Sybill??? She is under the pink book. Yeah... I can't find her either.
 
Moving along the desk top. It really didn't look like this when I was using the space. This is after I had pulled everything off the floor to vacuum.

The red bag is holding paper that I picked up at my LSS for use in the business. The Build a Bear bags I use to hold my paper scraps for recycling. When they are full into the recycle bin it goes.

Continuing along the desk. As you can see yesterday it was raining. So it was a perfect day for cleaning up. Didn't hurt that my honey got me a new chair either!!

Shelves. EEEEEK! Seriously. How did I function??

During dinner hubby and I were joking about making a bet whether I would get it cleaned up before bedtime. I decided not to since I probably wouldn't have it done... Should have made the bet!!

AFTER!!! Hey look... boxes standing upright. I have recycled the poor squished box. It will be much happier now. I can see desktop!!!

Moving along. Look!! You can see Sybill!! I am going to fire her up and cut something. Really I am. Yes chocolate fishes live in that jar in the corner. Much better for me than M&M's. In the Tiffany's box on the ledge is a lovely pen that hubby was given from Build a Bear. I should use it.

The stuff on the printer needs to be scanned and filed. Kids school stuff.

More desktop. Who would have thought??? The mug holds my paper scraps as I am working and gets emptied into the Build A Bear bag on the floor. The other container holds non recycled items for the trash.

The shelves look much better. Which is good. They couldn't get much worse!!

Newest storage item in my room. It holds my smash book stuff. Someday I'll actually use it. It also holds my cards for the business and my spellbinder dies.

Thanks for stopping by. I do believe today will be a work on the Pokemon clocks day. I have been avoiding them for a few months now. Bad mommy.

all official like

The time has come.

The great reveal.

I know you were ALL looking forward to it.

My business card.

I am in love with it. Kira helped me with the logo. It comes from Staples and believe me, they made it E A S Y!! They had twenty five pages of logos to choose from and this is the one that was the most ME. Yes I did go through all 25 pages since my wonderful hubby asked if I had and I hadn't then I started thinking that maybe there might be another one that would be MORE ME. But of course this was the one.

I printed them up at Staples at their in store printing shop and I love them. Really love them. Have I mentioned that before?? And as you can see on the card, my website is up and running. Take a hop over and let me know what you think. I'm all for improving things as this is my first endeavor with actually selling any of my cards.

Thanks for looking!!!  

she is a nut

and she is all mine!!

We had eye appointments on Tuesday. Both her and me. We knew we would be getting her a new pair of glasses so she went around trying different pairs on while we were waiting our turn. She grabbed this pair and I knew I had to share!!

She did end up with a lovely pair that has a leopard pattern on them. Of course I forgot to snap a picture of those before we ordered them. Guess you will have to wait for the great reveal to see them. But trust me... they rock!!

a day in the life

It is summer. 

It is hot. 

All is good. 

You can tell how good it is just by looking at those two happy little faces! I mean seriously... does anything else say summer like that??? I thought not.

We headed out to Jacksons Landing in Durham and met up with my friend Nicole and her crew. Thank goodness we got there early as it started getting pretty darn hot by the time we left.

Alex ran around good and hard and Kira ran around with her Webkinz Kangaroo and her camera taking pictures and movies of their adventures. I need to get a few as they were pretty funny. I think my favorite was when he started driving the van with me.

Anyway... it was a great time out and about. I'm sure the McFlurrys afterward didn't hurt in the least either.

Love those happy smiles!!

masculine cards

Why is it so hard to work on masculine cards? I always find myself reaching for flowers or bling. I really have to think about MALE before I create. I am hoping I succeeded in creating some worthwhile masculine cards for terri's treasures (hoping to get the website up at the end of the week)

This stamp is tricky as it has stars on the letters. It worked better once I switched to my black ink instead of the brown. All inks are not equal! I think I'll stick with my black in for stamping. Lots of sewing.

More sewing, stamping and embossing.

See... doesn't the sentiment look better in black??

Switched this one up with placing the sentiment big and on top.

I tried to ask hubby what he thought about them and if he thought they were masculine enough. He shrugged his shoulders and said he thought so. He's more for the Shoebox Greeting cards of Hallmarks so I guess these are pretty tame. (and boring)

I am going to try again with some other papers I picked up at Wholly Scrap! on my shopping trip. Maybe the next batch will say MASCULINE more than these.

BIG P.S. HERE.... Happy Birthday to my dad!!