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.

 



Spreading the News

For this layout I used a Facebook photo that was printed at Walgreen's some time ago.  I don't know if they still even offer this service but the comments on the Facebook picture post take care of the journaling for me and all I'm left to do is pull the layout together.  The photo quality is a little grainy because it is a picture pulled from Facebook but it's a fun look every once in a while.

 

Supplies used: Alphabet stickers – Echo Park Paper Co.; Brads – Echo Park Paper Co. and My Minds Eye; Ink – Distress Ink (Iced Spruce); Patterned Paper – Creative Imaginations and Scrap Within Reach; Pen – Bic MarkIt (Black); Stickers – Creative imaginations and Echo Park Paper Co.; Wood veneers – Studio Calico

The papers I used are really old - so old in fact that I've never even heard of Scrap Within Reach but that's what it said on the back of the papers.  I won those in a RAK a while back and have been hanging onto them (I have a hard time letting go).  They work well for this layout of our oldest.  I like the grungy, masculine feel they lend to the layout.  The embellishments are a real mix of supplies as well but it pulls together nicely I think.

 

Welcome to the Family

Monday again???  The weekends sure do fly by around here, especially now that the two younger boys have started their baseball seasons.  We had lovely weather though and the seeds are starting to sprout out in the vegetable garden so it's all good.

 

Here's a layout I'd love to share with you.  This young man was a big part of our family for the year that he lived with us.  He is now preparing to start a family of his own...we are so excited for him.

 

Supplies used: Alphabet stickers – Cosmo Cricket (chipboard), Echo Park Paper Co., and October Afternoon; Brads – Basic Grey and My Mind’s Eye; Cardstock – The Paper Co.; Journaling card – Glitz Designs; Patterned paper – My Mind’s Eye; Pen – Pentel Energel; Stickers – Echo Park Paper Co. and October Afternoon

This layout was inspired by Shimelle Laine using 6x6 paper pad blocking. 

 

Hope your day is off to an amazing start.  Be blessed!



 

So I'm a little slow to get this updated with all that's been going on in our little world but you can follow my blog with Bloglovin by clicking on the link.

 

What have we been up to?  Oh a little of this...

and a little of this...

and lots of these...

 

My hubby and I were in Kauai for a 2nd honeymoon and had such a great time.  It's amazing how an entire week of just the two of us can refresh.  My amazing parents came out to watch the little boys for us.  They had a blast with their grandparents while we were gone and we knew they were in great hands so we could relax and not worry.

 

We've also started baseball season around here which means we're busy, busy, busy!  With hubby assistant coaching one team and head coaching the other, we're pretty much at the baseball fields all the time.

 

School is coming to a close for all the boys too.  The oldest is finishing up his first year of college (seriously...how did that happen?) and the younger two are finishing up another year of elementary school.  The weather has been lovely and I'm dreaming of days at the park and the pool.  Our garden has been planted so bring on the sun!

 

I'll have more crafty projects to share soon - until then...Aloha!

 

I hope you all had a lovely Mother's Day, either being celebrated as a mom or celebrating your own mom.  I know I did.  Our two youngest boys were baptized and that was an amazing gift...this sappy mom could not stop the tears from flowing!

 

Here's a recent layout I completed.

Supplies used:  Alphabet stickers – American Crafts Thickers (Jewelry Box) and Fancy Pants; Cardstock – Bazzill (Avalanche) and Neenah (Solar White); Die cuts – RAK fro Lisa Nazario-Gregory at http://what-a-beautiful-mess.blogspot.com/; Enamel dots – My Mind’s Eye and Teresa Collins; Ink – ColorBox Fluid Chalk (Ocean), ColorBox Pigment (Cyan), Distress Ink (Frayed Burlap), Jenni Bowlin (Cough Syrup & Lemon Drops) and VersaMagic (Tea Leaves); Journaling card – My Mind’s Eye; Patterned paper – Basic Grey, Crate Paper and Echo Park Paper Co.; Stickers – October Afternoon; Washi tape – Echo Park Paper Co.

The cute little cog die cuts were items I won in a RAK from Lisa Nazario-Gregory they arrived in my mailbox as plain kraft colored chipboard but they are super easily colored with any type of ink pad.  I love them so much and am sad that I've now used up all of the cute little cogs.  They match perfectly with the Echo Park washi tape.

 

The weather looks like it may finally be taking a turn towards Spring around here.  Highs are expected in the 80's today - yippee!  I hope Spring has sprung in your corner of the world and you are enjoying all the beauty it has to offer.