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!