Little Brother Big Brother

I'm digging through photos that I have printed and I just love this one of the two younger boys curled up in their PJ's, watching cartoons and (gasp) getting along!  Since we are 3 weeks into summer vacation, getting along isn't always happening these days so it was nice to reflect on a calmer moment.  In the case of our boys, too much time together is NEVER a good thing and since they play with mostly the same friends in the neighborhood, they are together most of the time right now. 

I am thankful for our church's VBS and daycamp program that is going on this week.  The older of the two boys is busy at church or other fun places with VBS and daycamp and the younger boy is in VBS for half the day and separated from his brother.  This is a good thing for them and for me.

I really mixed it up on this layout - lots of manufacturers and lots of older products as well.  I'm making a real effort to mix in some old with my newer stuff in order to keep it all somewhat current on my layouts.

Supplies used: Banner – Jenni Bowlin; Die cuts – Echo Park Paper Co., Fancy Pants & My Minds Eye; Envelope – Maya Road; Ink – Distress Ink (Frayed Burlap) & StazOn (Timber Brown); Journaling cards – Echo Park Paper Co. & Studio Calico; Patterned paper – Echo Park Paper Co. & Fancy Pants; Pen – Pentel EnerGel Alloy & ZigWriter; Stamps – StudioAE by Technique Tuesday; Stickers – Echo Park Paper Co., Fancy Pants, Karen Foster Design, My Minds Eye & October Afternoon; Tag – craft supplies; Title – EK Success

I do hope that you are all enjoying warm summer breezes and calm, relaxing days.

 



Honoring our fathers...

Today I thought I'd share the cards that I created to honor all the fathers in our lives.

 

This first card was the card I made for my husband.  The template for the card is one I downloaded from the Silhouette store.  I used mostly an older October Afternoon 8x8 paper pad to put this one together.

 

 

This card was designed with lots of input from boy #2.  The papers are once again October Afternoon along with the stickers.  The gears were cut from an Echo Park Paper file I purchased through the Silhouette store.

 

These last two were for my Dad and my husband's Dad.  Both were created using the My Minds Eye Miss Caroline Dilly Dally 6x6 pad.  The letter stickers are all from Echo Park Paper collections with the exception of the red glitter letters which are old Making Memories product.  The banner stickers are also from an older Echo Park Paper sticker sheet.  I used the gear cut file from Echo Park Paper along with my Silhouette again for the second card.

Good Times...

One of my girlfriends has been in my life for 13+ years.  We met through our husbands (they were our boyfriends back then), we have been at each others' weddings, we have helped one another out with newborns - she even watched two of our kids while I was in the hospital having #3.  We have helped one another through tough times and shared SO many good times.  She is a joyful person and has a way of bringing the fun with her wherever she goes.  Needless to say, I love being around her.  I tried to encompass her fun-loving spirit with all the little phrase stickers that I added to this layout.

 

Supplies used: Alphabet stickers – Thickers (Jewelry Box); Border – Sassafras; Ink – Distress Ink (Frayed Burlap); Patterned Paper – Echo Park Paper Co., My Minds Eye & October Afternoon; Stickers – American Crafts, Jillibean Soup, October Afternoon & Websters Pages

I used my circle punch and punched the round red shapes out of the October Afternoon paper that matches the red bandanna print border sticker from the Sasparilla collection.  Inking the edges and using dimensional adhesive to attach them to my page helps them to stand out as embellishments rather than just patterned paper.  The Sparkle sticker is an older American Crafts sticker that was actually a rectangle shape that didn't work on my page but I loved the phrase and felt that it described my friend perfectly so I simply cut it out and added it to my page.  I was able to stretch my supplies on this one (since I didn't have a ton in this color scheme) by using only part of the green, scallop border sticker at the bottom of the page and taking the left over scallops and adding them to each of the embellishment clusters in my visual triangle.  The polka-dot banners are simply patterned paper that has been cut and the edges inked.  I pulled the dark brown from the title into the embellishment clusters by using asterisks from the Thickers set.  Is pulls it all together with very few supplies.

 

 

Next to You...

Okay so my hubby and I have a TON of pictures using the same self-portrait pose.  Seriously...it really doesn't change much yet we continue to take this picture (all the time).  You'd think we'd teach one of the boys how to get a good shot of their parents.  Although, they aren't always with us when we do this.  We've gotten pretty good at self portraits but it made me laugh when I started going through a bunch of pictures and found all of these photos.

 

Supplies used: Alphabet stickers – Thickers (Heart); Brads – Basic Grey, Echo Park Paper Co., Making memories & My Minds Eye; Cardstock – The Paper Studio; Chipboard – Heidi Grace Designs by Fiskars; Die cuts – October Afternoon; Ink – Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink (Charcoal); Journaling cards – Simple Stories; Patterned paper – Basic Grey; Pens – Signo Uniball (White) & Pentel EnerGel Alloy; Pins – K & Co.; Rub ons – Doodlebug Design Inc. (numbers) & Fancy Pants (circles); Stickers – Echo Park Paper Co.; Tags – Michaels & Silhouette Cameo; Woolies – Basic Grey

 

You'll have to excuse all my no make-up shots.  These pictures were all taken either out hiking or while we were on various camping trips so I'm less than glamorous.  I'm surrounded by all guys in my household so we do a lot of outside, getting dirty kind of activities...ain't nothing pretty about that but it sure is fun.