S'more Love...

I've had very little scrappy time lately - due to entertaining my kiddos while they are on summer break.  Which is totally okay...I spent the first week of their break a little frustrated because I couldn't find time to sneak away to my craft room and work on projects.  Then one night when my hubby and I were talking about just that, I had a total "ah ha" moment.  The kids are only on break until early August and then all 3 of them will be in school full days, 5 days a week.  And, despite the fact that I will increase my workload in children's ministry at church during the time they are at school and the fact that I will spend several hours on a weekly basis volunteering in the two younger boys' classrooms, there will still be plenty of time for me.  Time to run errands in peace (without all the "I want this, I want that" or the "we don't want to go to the store"), time for getting the daily tasks associated with having (and maintaining) a home done, time for all that laundry (and ironing), AND time to craft as I please, in solitude or with my favorite music blasting through the computer speakers.  So...my blog posts may be a bit sparse but know that I will be back in full force come August. 

I do have a layout to share with you today though.  I was feeling especially glum about my lack of crafting the other day and some neighborhood friends of the boys solved my dilemma for me by coming over and playing...thus, relieving me of my duty as primary entertainer of young boys for a while.  I used a sketch by Jana Eubank as my inspiration.

And this is what I came up with...



Supplies used: Alphabet stickers - American Crafts; Buttons - craft supplies; Cardstock - Bazzill Basics; Chipboard elements - Colorbok & craft supplies; Font - CK Wood House; Journaling card - Glitz Designs; Patterned Paper - Cosmo Cricket (wood grain), Echo Park Paper Co. (brown wavy) and My Mind's Eye (polka dot papers); Stickers - Echo Park Paper Co.

These fun photos of our younger boys enjoying s'mores was taken last year but we have already eaten our fair share of s'mores during our camping outings this year.  I think it is the boys' favorite part about camping actually.  Who could blame them?

A Tribute to Dads

So now that Father's Day has passed, I can share the cards that I made for the amazing fathers in our family.

The Fiskateers inspired my Father's Day card for my hubby.  I can't get the sketch to link up for some reason but here's the card I made...

Supplies used: alphabet stickers - Echo Park Paper Co.; card base - Michael's; corrugated hear - Jillibean Soup; embossing powder - Stampendous!; ink - Ranger, Versamagic, Colorbox, StazOn; patterned paper - Echo Park Paper Co.; punch - EK Success; sewing machine - Singer; thread - craft supplies

Here's the card the boys gave to my hubby...



Supplies used: alphabet stickers - Deja Views; brad - Basic Grey; card base - Michael's; corner rounder - EK Success;  ink - Colorbox; patterned paper - Bo Bunny; pen - Uniball Signo white gel pen; stickers - Bo Bunny



And here are the cards that we sent to my father-in-law and to my dad...



Supplies used: alphabet stickers - American Crafts; card base - Michael's; chipboard - Cosmo Cricket; patterned paper - Bella Blvd. and Core'dinations; punch - Fiskars; ribbon - Michael's



Supplies used: card base - Michael's; die cuts - Making Memories & My Mind's Eye; ink - StazOn; patterned paper - Bella Blvd.; ribbon - Michael's



I've been busy in the kitchen - taking advantage of some wonderful produce we've come across and doing a bit of cooking and canning.  I'll share more on that later.

Creating Keepsakes Blog Feature!

My recent layout "We [heart] Our Silly Boy" is featured today over at the CK & Me portion of the Creating Keepsakes blog.  You can check it out here.  I was thrilled to get Megan's email this afternoon sharing the good news.  Here's to hoping I can eek out some more time for crafting in the near future.  I do have some cards to share but you'll have to wait until after the recipients have had a chance to receive them before I can share them with you.

Have a blessed day!

Loving Our Silly Boy

So my husband took the younger boys camping this weekend which left me and our teenager hanging out at home.  He wasn't up for a whole lot seeing as he'd recently had those wisdom teeth out and things are not healing as quickly as either of us would like.  It was nice however to be able to take care of him without having to worry about the needs of his younger brothers.  That is a luxury I rarely have.

I also managed to fit in a bit of scrappy time which I feel I haven't had in quite a while.  I worked on a layout of our youngest with a photo I have had from last Father's Day.



Supplies used: Acrylic (heart) - The Paper Studio; Baker's twine - Your Scrapbook Stash; Border strip - K & Co.; Chipboard - Basic Grey & Fiskars; Corrugated hearts - Jillibean Soup;Ink - Tsukineko StazOn and ColorBox; Patterned paper - Echo Park Paper Co., GCD (green hounds tooth), Pink Paislee (brown) & October Afternoon ( wood grain); Punch (small star) - EK Success; Rubons (date) - Doodlebug Designs; Stickers - Creative Imaginations & Echo Park Paper Co.; Staples - Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher; Twine - Fiskars

This was the first chance I've had to work with the Jillibean Soup corrugated products and I love that I was able to take an ink pad and ink the hearts up to be whatever color I wanted yet the kraft of the cardboard still shows.  It adds such dimension and really allows customization of your embellishments.  I'm so excited that I have a package of the corrugated alphas to play with too!

All of my boys are home safe and sound...a little (okay a lot) dirty but with so many fun stories to share with me.  They had a blast with my husband and although they completely wore him out...I'm pretty sure he had a great time with them as well.  I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures he took - I can assure you they will be showing up in layouts in the future.

Congrats to the grad...

Here's the card I made for my niece's graduation.  I love being able to make "girly" stuff - with a house full of boys, it's not often I get to use frilly things!  Plus I was able to use some of the new GCD papers that I won in a recent RAK and some of the Webster's Pages journaling cards that I ordered from Your Scrapbook Stash not too long ago. 



Supplies used: brad - Sassafras; cardstock - The Paper Co.; ink - Tim Holtz and Tsukineko; journaling card - Webster's Pages;  patterned paper - GCD Studios; stamp - Basic Grey; thread - craft supplies



I've also started to invest in the Tim Holtz Distress inks for the first time.  I really like the way I can age the entire sheet of paper I'm working on or just the edges and how soft and natural it ends up looking.  Loving them! 

Our busy summer schedule is in full swing.  Son #1 just had his wisdom teeth surgically removed yesterday (okay, that was not so fun and he's hurting pretty bad right now).  Son #2's baseball has started and he has his first game tonight.  Son #3 starts baseball next week and my wonderful husband is coaching his team.  We scheduled out our camping trips - and let's just say we're spending a lot of time with mother nature this summer.  All of that, along with Vacation Bible School at our church (which #2 & #3 will both attend and I will work) and the prospect of son #3 playing flag football starting at the end of summer - whew...I'm wiped out just thinking about it!  Whatever happened to the lazy days of summer???  Gonna have to fit some time in for lounging around AND scrapping!