Cards, cards & more cards...

So I've been busy making cards, and helping kids with homework, and working, and, and, and... Still busy, still trying desperately to fit crafty time into my life.  Here are several cards I've made and taken the time to photograph.

The first two I used background stamps, my glue stamp pad and lots of Martha Stewart glitter.  I'd seen this technique used, purchased all the supplies to make it happen but hadn't had the guts to try it yet.  I love it...messy but oh so pretty.

This one was for a dear young man who is so close to our hearts.  He loves music so I thought the grungy, distressed look was perfect for him.



This last one was for my younger brother's birthday.  Lots of layers to make the card complete.

So as you can see, there has been lots of celebrating going on around us.  I just wish I could fit some scrapbooking into my schedule.  Maybe that's what I'll ask for for Christmas...time, just a little more time!

Have a blessed Thanksgiving my blog friends.

Feeling Like a Blog Slacker...

But there's certainly no slacking going on in my life.  I am so swamped between work, the kids' school and sports activities, my Bible study and MOPS work...the list just keeps growing.  Seriously!  I'm in some dire need of crafty time but it just never seems to materialize.  I do have another birthday card - the one I made for our oldest son who is now officially a licensed driver! How did that happen so fast???  For those of you with young children at home - don't blink because before you know it they will be all grown up.  Live in each moment and enjoy it all - I ought to listen more carefully to my own words I know because I blinked and I have a child driving and finishing up his last year of high school.  Anyhooo...onto celebrating him.

Because my wonderful mother taught me the importance of sending thank you cards, I have passed this little life lesson along to my children (often to their dismay) and make sure to provide them with thank you cards they can write for the gifts they so generously receive.

These are a lot of older products that I've had in my supplies for a while but I thought the colors and distressed look were perfect for a teenage boy. 

Another birthday...

I told you this time of year was birthday madness in our family.  Here is another birthday card I created for my wonderful Dad's birthday.

All the supplies used are from Echo Park Paper Co. For The Record line.  I have used that one for SO much.  The crazy thing is, I still have a lot of stuff left in my original kit.  Echo Park does know how to load up their kits!

I have yet another important birthday coming up soon so I'll be busy creating another card that I'll share once the birthday passes.  Until then...be blessed!

1st Days Layout...

So I finally got my hands on the Lawn Fawn Say Cheese stamp set and couldn't wait to start playing with it.  Seriously...that Polaroid style stamp is so stinkin cute!   I had high hopes of doing a layout with the kids' pictures from the first day of school this year only to discover that I didn't have any clear pictures from that day.  Really...what setting did I have that darn camera on anyhow???  I'm thinking I'll be doing a re-enactment with the kids so I can get good pictures - I'm sure my teenager will love that (wink!).  Anyhow...I was set on doing a first day of school layout - it's hard to change my mind when it's set on something.  I had to go back into the picture archives to find some that I hadn't already scrapped which took me back to 2009...the first year all three boys were even in school.  This is what I came up with.

Supplies Used: Acrylic die cuts - The Paper Studio; Alphabet die cuts - Jillibean Soup; Brad - Recollections; Cardstock - Bazzill; Die Cuts - Basic Grey; Embroidery Floss - DMC; Ink - ColorBox, Memento & StazOn; Patterned paper - Core'dinations & Basic Grey; Pen - Pigma; Stamps - Lawn Fawn, Studio Ali Edwards by Technique Tuesday & Imaginesce; Sticker - Karen Foster Designs

I started receiving the Studio Ali Edwards stamps in July and I've been watching a lot of Nichol Magouirk's videos over at Two Peas in a Bucket for inspiration on how to use them on my layouts and I love how I can create my own custom embellishments.  Besides...I love Ali's handwriting.  Now if we could only convince Kristina Werner to make stamp sets with her beautiful handwriting!

In the Running at GCD...

A little while back I created this card for my niece's birthday. 

Since I incorporated a large amount of GCD Studios product I decided to send a copy to Heidi Sonboul over at GCD.  Much to my surprise, I received an emal from her that my card was chosen in the top 3 for the month and I was in the running to win the kit of the month.   I'd love your support in this.  All you have to do is head over to GCD Studios Blog and leave a comment that you'd like to vote for me (Catherine Oakley).  Thanks in advance for your support.

8 Years Old Already...

I know I've been quite sparse around here but hey, it's back-to-school season which also means it's back to my normal work schedule and in the late summer and early fall it's birthday season in our household so I've been really busy trying to regain some semblance of a routine (I haven't had much luck so far). 

Today we celebrate our middle son's 8th birthday.  Seriously EIGHT...how did we get here so fast???  Crazy thing is, it's my birthday too.  I couldn't have asked for a more amazing birthday gift than my sweet Zach.  

Supplies used: Cardstock - The Paper Co.; Chipboard heart - Jillibean Soup; Ink - Jenni Bowlin & Signo Uniball Gel; Patterned paper - Basic Grey & Echo Park Paper Co.; Punch - Fiskars & EK Success; Stamp - Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday; Stickers - Echo Park Paper Co. & Momenta

So every year we celebrate together with dinner and presents and yummy cake. Of course the kid steals the show most of the time - but tonight my wonderful hubby is taking me out after the kiddos are tucked into bed and the teenager is home from work to babysit. I can't wait - just me and him...celebrating!

Happy birthday Zach (my bestest present ever)!!!

6 Years Ago Today...

I had acupuncture to help get things going (even though contractions had started earlier that morning...I didn't want things to stop - I was READY!). 

I was walking around the neighborhood with my incredibly supportive husband in seriously HOT weather trying to keep things going.  I even resorted to the treadmill in our basement when it got too hot outside - seriously, my husband video taped it (not a pretty sight, let me tell you)

I was hurriedly walked from my OB's office to the labor and delivery wing of the attached hospital because things were GOING so fast they decided to not bother monitoring my labor in their office but to get me checked into my room ASAP.

With the help of my amazing husband, we welcomed our youngest son into the world and were incredibly blessed by this little boy.

Now he's not so little and he's turning SIX today.  He still blesses us every day with his sweet smile, silly antics and his snuggles.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR SWEET BOY!!!



All supplies used are from Echo Park Paper Co. except: Buttons - Cosmo Cricket, Michael's & craft supplies and Ink - Ranger Industries



 

Happy Birthday to My Niece

Wishing a very special woman a very special day...

Supplies used: Alphabet stickers - Cloud 9 Design; Border strip - GCD Studios; Cardstock -The Paper Co.; Corrugated heart - Jillibean Soup; Embroidery floss - DMC; Embossing powder - Stampendous; Ink - Ranger Industries, Technique Tuesday & Versamark; Patterned paper - GCD Studios;  Sticker - Jillibean Soup

Welcome Baby Boy...

A sweet friend of mine recently gave birth to a precious baby boy.  I was blessed to be able to provide her family with a meal just days after sweet Dawson was born.  Which also meant that I got to hold this itty-bitty bundle of God's love for us.  I don't know about you but for me...holding a baby just brings me into a state of amazement and shows me how truly incredible my God is to create such perfection in such a small package.  Anyhoo...I couldn't bring dinner over to the family without a little something for Mr. Dawson too.  To top off my gift, I made a card.

Supplies used: Cardstock - Bazzill; Chipboard label - Heidi Grace Design; Embroidery floss- DMC; Embossing powder - Stampendous; Ink - Versamark & Versafine;  Patterned paper - Core'dinations & Heidi Grace Design; Ribbon - Cosmo Cricket; Stamps - Basic Grey & Hero Arts  

 Lots of bits and pieces of older papers that I've been hoarding saving for just such an occasion.

At the Firehouse

Even though I didn't make Liz's deadline for Sketch #128 submission, she still inspired me (as she always does).  Here is her sketch...

And here is my layout...



All supplies are from Echo Park Paper Co. with the exception of: Brad - Nikki Sivils; Buttons - Michael's; Embroidery Floss - DMC; and Fire Engine Sticker - Karen Foster Designs



I used primarily product from Echo Park's For the Record collection and I love how versatile this particular line is.  I have used it for so many varied layouts and it works well for all of them.  I hope you enjoy.  I have more projects in the works that I'll be able to share with you soon - they just have to get to their intended recipients first.

It's Summer so Get Out & Play...

Here's a layout I just did featuring photos from a couple of years worth of summer fun.  As I flipped through the pictures I've printed, I realized that the majority of our summer is spent camping, fishing and in the case of our two youngest boys - digging in the mud!  Oh well...it's cheap fun and they could spend hours doing it. 



Supplies used: Alphabet stickers - American Crafts and Jillibean Soup; Brads - Basic Grey; Buttons - Craft supplies; Cardstock - The Paper Company; Die Cuts - Basic Grey; Ink - Jenni Bowlin and Ranger; Label Stickers - Jillibean Soup; Number stickers - Echo Park paper Company; Patterned paper - Basic Grey, Jenni Bowlin & My Mind's Eye; Pen - Zig Writer; Stamp - Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday

I based my design on the most recent 4x6 love class by Shimelle over at Two Peas in a Bucket but I only made a one-page layout instead of a two-pager.  Such a great design that can be made a simple or as complicated as you want.

I've got another layout I'm working on that I'll be sharing real soon...seems my creative mojo is returning (either that or I'm hiding in the house from the hot temps outside).  Until next time...stay cool!

Two in One Day...

Two posts in one day...that must be some kind of record as of late.  Liz over at The Scrappiest has got me inspired this week - which hasn't been easy to do with as worn out as my boys are making me with all this summer vacation fun.  Her sketch was fun and simple enough that I could add my own flair to it and make it work with my photos.  Here is her sketch...

You must check this one out on her blog...her design team did SUCH a great job with this one.  Here is my interpretation...



Supplies used:  Alphabet stickers - American Crafts; Brads - Basic Grey (small green), K 7 Co. (snowflakes) & Nikki Sivils (green corduroy); Cardstock - Bazzil; Die cuts - Basic Grey; Font - Digs My Hart; Ink - Copic G24 Willow; Patterned paper - Basic Grey (multi-colored), Bo Bunny (red) & We R Memory Keepers (yellow graph); Stickers - Cosmo Cricket ("daring" ), Echo Park Paper Co. (sled, swirl, "winter" tag) & Webster's Pages ("adventures")

Very non-winter color scheme for a winter layout but I love how the colors really draw you into the green sled and the yellow and greens in the boys' jackets.  So glad to have had some scrappy time!

Keep on keeping on...

I'm truly dumbfounded at how insanely busy summertime can be.  Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying the busy-ness of it and all the fun things we're getting out and doing but seriously, it's already the 2nd week of July.  The kids will be back in school in roughly a month's time...that's right, I said ONE month!  I better get going on all those places we wanted to visit or I'm going to run out of time.

The boys and I spent the other morning touring the Hammond's Candy Factory.  It was so interesting to see how they make all that yummy candy and I was blown away by the fact that they still make the majority of it by hand. 

We spent the prior weekend camping in the Crested Butte area - beautiful, I tell you!  Despite the LONG drive to get there, the western slope of Colorado sure is pretty.   We have lots more camping scheduled, lots more baseball games to attend (their season will be over at the end of this month), and lots more adventures to have.  In and amongst all this, I have managed a wee bit of crafting...

Here's a masculine themed birthday card I made recently...

And I'm anxiously awaiting my first set of Ali Edwards stamps...I've been looking at these for quite some time and I finally decided to join Studio AE for 6 months and see how it goes.  Now if they would just hurry up and get here already! 

Until next time...enjoy the sunshine.

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!

Dreams for a Graduate...

Blog neglect is a bad thing...but sometimes it's inevitable so to all my wonderful followers, my apologies for my recent blog neglect.  School is finally out over here and what I'm sharing today is one of the last "must do" projects on my list.  My beautiful niece is getting ready to graduate from high school and I really wanted to create something special for her. 

As an adult there are times I look back and wish that I had pursued my dreams more than I did...granted what freshman in college really knows what they want to be/do when they grow up???  I know I didn't but as a woman (married with children) I now realize that althought the time to pursue your dreams never ends - it sure is a lot easier to do when you don't have a family to incorporate into those dreams.   Not that I would change a single minute of my past because it has brought me to the blessings that I have now but I think every single one of us wishes we had pursued a dream that we let fall by the way side because it seemed impractical or didn't "fit in" with our overall "plan".  I have learned that I am so not in control of "the plan"...it's all in God's hands and has been from the very beginning.  I just hope that my niece grabs a hold of her dreams and goes after them with all her heart as she moves on to this next phase of her life.  Best of luck beautiful girl!

Here are some close ups of each panel in case you're interested...

 The sentiment says "chase your dreams you just might catch one"

Summer send off...

I don't know about all of you but my life seems to become very hectic towards the end of the school year.  Not only do I have to worry about my oldest studying enough for his finals (which begin tomorrow) but I have end of year parties, kindergarten graduation, field trips, and teacher gifts to plan out.  I'm telling you, I feel like a mouse running in circles on a wheel.  Although I have no idea how I'll keep the younger two entertained all summer and still manage to find time for myself, I am SO looking forward to school being over - although probably not quite as much as our teenager is!

So this morning I took some time to create a thank you card for one of the boy's teachers.  I still have one more to go but I'll find some time for that this afternoon - right after we shop for a new dryer since ours just quit working!  Here's the outside of the card...



Supplies used: Cardstock - The Paper Company (kraft) and Core'dinations (yellow); Die cut (butterflies) - Making Memories; Border sticker, patterned paper, journaling card, & stickers - Webster's Pages; Ink - Ranger; Ribbon - American Crafts; Punch - Fiskars; Stick pin - K & Co.; Sticker (rose) - Bo Bunny



I love all the layers on this one...I wanted it to feel really built up and sweet.  The inside has a small envelope that I decorated as well.  This will hold a gift card that several of the parents contributed to.

Enjoy and I hope you're all keeping it together as the school year wraps up!

Some SERIOUS Happy Mail!!!

I knew it was coming...Juliana told me when to expect it's arrival but none-the-less, I was stunned when I opened the box up.  Thanks to Juliana over at 17Turtles and her amazing giveaway from Mother's Day I am adding this to my stash of scrappy goodness.

Is that incredible or what?  I cannot wait to get my hands into that stuff and start creating.  Since I'm the only "girl" in my house I can see a lot of layouts all about me and my girlfriends...maybe even a project for my niece who is graduating from high school next month.  The Brave Girl stuff from GCD would be perfect inspiration for that I think.  Thanks once again Juliana...hop on over to her blog and check out her amazing work!

NSD Continues at Your Scrapbook Stash

Your Scrapbook Stash is continuing their National Scrapbook Day goodness through today.  All of the sketches listed here are fantastic and I wish I had more time to finish more of them up before the deadline but alas...life has been busy!  Speaking of busy, all of my boys will be done with school for the year in less than 2 weeks...my oldest will officially be a senior in high school at that point.  Seriously, how did that happen so fast???  In honor of the end of school, I thought it was high time I created a layout with their first day of school pictures from this year.  Better late than never right?  I chose to work with the sketch from May 8th shown here.

And this is what I came up with.



Supplies Used:  all supplies are from Echo Park Paper Co. with the exception of the journaling block from Making Memories and the "Time to go to School" sticker from Karen Foster Designs

So I had previously used some of the "B" side to the cool border paper in the For The Record collection so I had to improvise a bit.  I fussy cut the remaining portion of the postage stamp shaped border and adhered it to the dictionary patterned paper.  I extenededthe horizontal strips of patterned paper to help fill the space had the border gone all the way around.  The more I play with this For The Record collection...the more I'm wishing I had purchased two. 

Kindergarten "Yearbook" Project...

It's almost done...I still have to include the zoo field trip which is being rescheduled due to our icky snowy-rainy weather we have today and are expected to have tomorrow.  As much as I have loved working on this project, I really want to be done with this so I can clear up some space on my desk and get on to other layouts.  I've used a real mix of materials on this one...lots of what I had in my stash as well as a couple of new items I purchased that were very "school specific".  Anyhow, here it is...

Hope you enjoy!

Sweet Peaches and Chocolate...

The Sweet Peach Crop Shop is celebrating their anniversary this month with several sketches from Liz Chidester.  As most of you are aware, I love Liz's sketches so I had to play along.  I chose to work with sketch #3 this time.  You have until May 1st to play along so hop on over to Sweet Peach Crop Shop's blog and check out all the sketches.  This project is also my design team project for Crop Chocolate for the month of May.  The theme was "freestyle" so we could choose to create whatever we wanted.  So nice to have such creative freedom!

Here's Liz's sketch...

And my interpretation of the sketch...



Supplies used:  Cardstock, Patterned Paper & Title stickers (happy & day) - Echo Park Paper Co.; Ink - Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink in Charcoal; Pearls - craft supplies; Stickers (all others) Creative Imaginations; Thread - craft supplies



I adore these pictures of my husband and I that were taken at my brother's birthday bash...we were able to leave all the kids home with friends and fly out to Napa for a wonderful grown-up weekend back in October.  It was such a relaxing time for us and such a great time to spend being a couple instead of being "mom & dad".  I think that truly shows on our faces in these photos.

A Masculine Birthday Card...

We have another special birthday coming up this week in our family so I got busy and made a card.  I love this Circa 1934 paper line from Cosmo Cricket and it has such a great variety that you can easily make a card for a man or a woman.  I used clear embossing powder and my polka-dot background stamp from Hero Arts on the strip of red paper, my Fiskars stamp set for the birthday sentiment and some stickers from both Cosmo Cricket and Echo Park.  The ribbon is from a clothing tag that I had saved from a pair of my teenager's jeans and it goes perfectly.  Love it when that happens!

So I did get a little crafty on this week (besides that kindergarten yearbook I'm still plugging away at).  Maybe more to come since I have a couple sketches I'd really like to make use of.  Okay...I'm off to start on some turkey stock.  Can't wait to have my house smell all homey and yummy with that cooking on the stove.