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!

rainbows, big girl and day old balloons

Fun title for a fun post! We went home to Syracuse this past weekend to celebrate Kira's eleventh birthday with family and friends. We had a good time and even got to catch a few pictures of this great double rainbow at my parents house. The second one to the right (check down by the tree line) is the reversed image of the brighter one. The colors are backwards. Alex noticed right away. Such a smarty pants.

I grabbed Kira for a few outdoor pictures to remember her on this big birthday. I can't believe she is 11. I mean seriously... where has that time gone? This is my mom's Charlie Brown tree. At least it was until it grew up. Poor thing was decorated on its first year for Christmas and looked so sad and pathetic. Looking much better now.

The day after all the fun of the party and there sits the balloons. The mylar one is still hanging at the ceiling but the fun color ones are relegated to the floor.

The kids are in Syracuse spending some quality time with Nana and Papa. I'm sure they'll also get some time hanging with Grandpa too. This of course means that hubby and I are foot loose and fancy kid free adults. I love the kids vacation time!

the first of alex's turning 6 celebrations

Every year we head to Syracuse to celebrate Alex's birthday in February when everyone is on break. It makes his birthday stretch out for about a month. I don't think he minds much. Here's Kira, my father in law, Alex and hubby waiting for everyone to arrive so we can start the party!! As you can tell... Alex was beside himself waiting to open his gifts.

Here is a great shot of him opening a Pokemon figure. Cannot tell you which one of the 600+ there are, but he can and that's all that matters.

Another pretty exciting find from Grandpa.

Time for a big ole hug for Grandpa for such a great present. Can you say excited?? Love the smile on Grandpa's face.

Here's another happy smile for a Pokemon. Okay... so he can be a bit of a ham.

The AMAZING cake created by the wonderful bakers at Wegmans. I sent my parents into the store with a picture of a cake and they recreated it perfectly! We supplied the figures but they did the rest. I was so happy. I am writing a letter to the store for making my little guy so happy on his day.

Had to share this picture of Alex. Whenever he wears a shirt with buttons, that is where his hand usually rests. I love that I captured it for all time!!

Big wind there! Happy pre- 6th birthday big guy!!

It was a good but quick trip to Syracuse as we got snowed in on Thursday and had to leave on Friday instead. Hoping to go back at the end of May for the newest Foltz addition from brother and sister in law, but with these insane gas prices we'll have to see. Filling up caused major sticker shock to us. Seriously... we filled up in Syracuse after driving the entire trip and it cost us $71.55 for 18 gallons! Coming home it was $63.05 for 17 gallons. ouchie!

project life weeks 38-43

Here is the last batch of my pages. I know... we don't have that exciting of a life but it's ours. There are many things in this scrapbook that I don't think I would have ever scrapped traditionally but since I only need one quick picture and some journaling... all is preserved for the future.

The best part of Project Life?? You can do it however YOU want to. Love the flexibility of the products. Especially the new ones coming out now and in the future. You do not need to do a picture a day. You can do a layout for a month... or two. Or even a vacation album. Or maybe a few vacations in an album. With the different plastics available, you can set your album up however you choose. There are even these amazing Big Envelope Pages available. Talk about great for souvenirs and other goodies all scrappers collect. 

Sorry for the hard sell on Project Life... but I think it is an amazing way to capture life and all that entails. Enough from me... enjoy the pages.  :) 

project life 2011- weeks 7-10

Four more weeks coming your way!

Week 7-

Week 8-

Week 9-

Week 10-

Didn't do much yesterday. The day got away from me. Hoping to make today a better one. Would love to get Kira's room done. It's that never ending project that won't go away but needs to be done. The hard part is really done. We did get the trash out, 7 bags of stuffed animals are in hibernation and heading to the garage loft and the desk is stained and in the house. Need to rearrange the room and get things placed where they need to go.

oh yeah... and tackle the closet. That's very scary and I am not looking forward to that. Me scared.

Have a super one!

oh the fun i had

Yesterday I somehow ended up doing something I hadn't planned on doing. But I am glad I did!! I spent a good portion of the day working on photo collages! I need to order pictures for my Project Life and then realized I hadn't printed any pictures since Christmas!! eeek. That is a ton of pictures. Especially since you have to take into account Alex and his MANY birthday parties!!

I decided I would take the best of all these pictures and create collages with them to save me the time of ordering all those prints and then trying to scrap them. I'll be able to slap the collage on the paper, journal and add some fun embellishments and I'll be good to go!! Many layouts done and memories saved. Of course it took awhile to go through and find just the right pictures to use for each event. But I did it.

Below are a couple of them that I did and liked!! The first is some time we spent with FIL in February. Alex was obsessed with his new game Trouble and insisted everyone play. So much fun.

The second one here is of my bunny. This bunny was bought by my dad on the day I was born. He has lived a good and full life. He has actually spent MANY MANY years hiding away in my childhood closet. Poor thing. One of his ears comes out and he lost an eye sometime back. In fact, I don't ever remember him having two eyes!! He was bright pink with a blue satin ribbon. I know this since I have pictures of him in that state.

Funny side story to this bunny... my dad had bought him for me and brought him to the hospital and left him in a chair in my mom's room. The night nurse hadn't seen him come in and when she went to check on my mom during the night, she about had a heart attack as she thought someone was in the room!! Poor lady.

Anywho... I decided he needed to move on but I couldn't be the one to toss him in the trash. So I let my parents do that dirty deed. I did have the fun of taking some pictures of him before he left the building. The ones of Mr. Bunny at the curb, were taken by my dad as a way of trying to make me feel guilty for deposing of him. I like to think he is going to a better place.

Of course my stuffed animal loving daughter, wanted to adopt him. It was hard but I put my foot down. May you find peace, Mr. Bunny.

I used Picasa 3 to make all my collages. Now that I have the hang of it, it's a simple process and pretty darn fun!

Have a great Monday. Mine is jammed packed today.

Is it Tuesday yet??