Hanging Out...

Thank goodness I had some extra crafty time last week otherwise, I wouldn't have a project to share with you.  You see, our youngest son came down with strep throat a couple weeks ago, then he came down with the flu (my guess is, his weakened immune system from those darn antibiotics made him more susceptible to the coughing and sneezing that was going on in his classroom last week).  Then our middle son and I got the flu and we've been doing a lot of laying around and nap taking.  I'm feeling like I'm on the mend finally but the middle boy is in the thick of it unfortunately.

Needless to say, I'm glad I finished up this layout last week.  The photos were taken this past Easter and I just love them.  It's not too often that our oldest is with us at family events anymore (between work and his lovely girlfriend) but he did humor us and came along for our annual Easter egg hunt and dinner with family friends.  When I took these photos, he was hanging out watching all the little kid hunt for eggs.  Looking back, I am beginning to realize how few and far between these moments will be now that he's getting ready to head off to college. 

Supplies used: Border sticker - Crate Paper; Brads - Basic Grey; Buttons - GCD Studios & Sassafrass; Cardstock - American Crafts; Die cuts - Kerri Bradford (title) & Lori Whitlock for Silhouette (pennant bunting); Ink - ColorBox Fluid Chalk (charcoal) & VersaFine; Journaling tags - Basic Grey & Echo Park Paper Co.; Patterned paper - Crate paper, Echo Park Paper Co., Fancy Pants, Glitz Designs & Little Yellow Bicycle; Stamp - Studio AE by Technique Tuesday; Sticker - Crate Paper 

I based my layout on one of Jana Eubank's sketches.  I love how clean her sketches are and they really open it up to be creative.  Thanks for stopping by and be blessed...



Wrapping up Valentine's Day

I hope you were all blessed with lots of love on Valentine's Day.  The kids sure had fun passing out their Valentine's to their classmates this year.  I created their cards based on an idea that Lisa Dickinson used for her son last year...I saw it here on her blog a while back and then while browsing through Michael's for something totally unrelated I saw these blank cards with windows in them and nearby, I spotted the buttons.  PERFECT!  I knew there would be tons of candy passed out by their classmates and I didn't want to add to the sugar high but I wanted their cards to have something special for them to give their friends.  Thank you Lisa for your creative genius! 

 The cards themselves were a dove gray and a little boring so I added the dashed lines in red gel pen around the window to give them a bit of pop.  I was able to use my 1/16" hole punch (it has a long reach) to punch the holes and then I inserted the buttons, added the little sentiment banners (I'm stuck on you... on the outside and Happy Valentine's Day! on the inside), and the kids signed them and delivered them proudly to their classmates.

Cute, kid-approved and relatively easy - now that's my kind of Valentine!

Little Lovey Dovey

I worked on a Valentine's Day decoration the other day and I've slowly been putting together the boys' Valentine's cards for their classes.  They are done but not photographed yet.  I got the idea for them from a post from Valentine's Day last year over here at Lisa Dickinson's blog.  I didn't go looking for the exact post but when I get around to sharing the cards we made, I'll track it down for you.

Here's the Valentine's hanger I made for our house.  It's made with a blackboard tag from Michael's dollar bins.  I'm pretty sure I bought this last spring and it's been hanging around my craft room just waiting to be dressed up.  I just embellished with some Basic Grey goodies and a couple of die cuts from my Silhouette Cameo until it felt full enough and that's it.  Simple, cute and festive!

Keeping up...

My goal for my blog was to post at least once a week with something crafty or beautiful to share.  So far, so good!  This little goal is also helping me to carve out a little time for myself to spend in my craft space being crafty - something that had gotten a bit lost in the shuffle of being a stay-at-home, working part-time in children's ministry, trying to shed some extra pounds & support my wonderful hubby while he does the same wife and mom.  I'm thrilled that I am so far staying on top of it all.

My latest layout is a photo of one of my brothers and I while we were in California celebrating his 40th birthday.  First off, the party was over the top amazing.  Trust me they know how to throw a party!  More importantly, my husband and I were blessed with the opportunity to spend some time celebrating my brother and the amazing, wonderful man that he is.  I have to say he is one of my best friends and I hate that we live so far away but having this chance to be with him, laugh with him, cry with him and most importantly celebrate him was incredible.

Supplies used: ATC - Fancy Pants; Border strip - K & Co.; Button - craft supplies; Cardstock - American Crafts & Bazzill; Chipboard element - Basic Grey; Die cuts - Glitz Designs & Silhouette Cameo; Felt embellishments - Little Yellow Bicycle; Font - Rough Typewriter; Ink - ColorBox Chalk ink (Charcoal), Distress Ink (Tea Stain) & StazOn (Jet Black); Journaling card - Shabby Chic Crafts; Patterned paper - Basic Grey, Cosmo Cricket & Fancy Pants; Punch - Fiskars; Rubons - Fancy Pants; Stamps - K & Co. and Studio AE by Technique Tuesday; Sticker - Echo Park Paper Co. & October Afternoon; Washi tape - craft supplies

I worked from a sketch from over at PageMaps that Nikki had posted on her blog as a challenge.  I knew I needed to have purple be one of the main colors since it really is the only non-neutral color in the photograph but to be honest with you, I'm not a huge fan of purple so finding enough stuff in my supplies took a lot of work - thus the extensive supply list.  I ended up combining so many different manufacturers and new and old items but I love how it turned out.  It's now hanging in my craft room so I can enjoy it and not miss my brother quite so much because I can look up and see his smiling face whenever I want to.