2009!

Now that we are half-way through 2009 I thought it would be a good time to get my title page for my album finished! LOL. If you were to open the last 4 albums I have completed there would only be ONE with a title page in place! Even if I am only half-way through an album when a new year rolls around, I like a little place marker put in where each year starts. (No I don't mind having 2 years rolled into one album...that's just how I roll. But they do look really nice when each year has it's own album!) When I first took up this hobby in 1998...I had so many albums in the first couple years done I started calculating how many albums that was going to be in the next 40 years. I decided that I would try to focus on quality instead of quantity. (Really with no kids and not too much to scrapbook at the time...I had resorted to making layouts of my dog eating watermelon! And NO I am not kidding!) Even though my dog WAS really cute eating watermelon slices...those aren't the pages that will be my prized possessions! And unless I wanted to have a room dedicated to just holding scrapbooks it really wasn't feasible to have them all out and accessible.

Here is my 2009 title page! (The Sassafras number chipboard was just too perfect for it!)
The Hambly camera rub-ons and SL patterned paper also are included in our July kit!
This lil' monkey is from an Elsie Cake stationary kit I bought last year that was full of sock monkeys. The rub-ons are Basic Grey and the "Live Life" tag is from Old Navy! I hand painted the clouds with Making Memories "manila" paint.

I used a red Bazzill "bosher" as the 2nd "0" in 2009. (From our March 2008 kit!)

This strip of text is from the "Snorkel" Cosmo Cricket line also. I am now going to hunt down that layout of the dog eating watermelon...lol. Hope you have an inspired Wednesday!

The tooth fairy!

A certain someone lost his FIRST tooth last night while eating a slice of pizza! He hadn't even told me it was loose before then, but asked me to cut his pizza up and ate it with a fork because "it was really hurting." Needless to say...it fell out anyway and he was so excited!
He asked right away if we could put it under his pillow. He happens to have 3 pillows on his bed and he wanted to make sure that he didn't confuse the tooth fairy by having too many pillows, so he asked if he could take two of them off. I said that would be fine, and then he told Chloe that the tooth fairy was going to bring him $100! (I wish!) So being that this was my first time being the tooth fairy, I didn't want to mess up. I wanted it to be special, and wanted to try VERY hard not to wake him up as I took his tooth and left his prize. I tiptoed in trying to be as quiet as possible, but the hardwood floors were squeaking and he stirred a little...I suddenly wished I had some fairy wings or something on so that he wouldn't know it was me. Luckily he went right back to sleep. Then I couldn't decide where to put the prize...on his night stand? Next to his pillow? At the foot of his bed? It was so funny because I was having this conversation in my head the whole time...and finally just thought: PUT THE PRIZE DOWN and leave, or you most certainly WILL wake him up. (I must have spent a good 10 minutes in his room.) Once I left his room, I started questioning how much money I had left for him too...what is the going rate for losing teeth? I have NO idea?! All I had in my wallet was a $1 and a $5 dollar bill. The potential of him losing 10 teeth at $5 each is a little much. When I was a little girl, I got a quarter! What does a 6-year-old need $50 for anyway?
So I put together this little star (using the JBS chipboard star from our July kit!) Covered it with AC cardstock. Added some old Heidi Swapp letters that I have had in my stash forever (I needed something smallish.) I drew a little tooth onto white cardstock, cut it out, added grey chalk to the edges and a smile to finish him off. I glued him onto the felt wings that my mom had sent me (aren't they just to die for?) And used a string to attach the money to the star.

I stayed up pretty late getting it finished up, and thought I might regret that this morning because I knew I would be tired...but the squeals from his room when he woke up this morning and saw his prize made it MORE than worthwhile! Hope you have a great day!

Worth the wait!

I loved this day! Beautiful weather, fun people, parades, fawns, fireworks...it just doesn't get much better! (This little guy liked the way my hand tasted...while I was taking his picture!)
I could have just taken one home with me, they are the sweetest little things.

The sun was setting so it was not good lighting for photos, but I took lots anyway!

I can't believe how much my kids look alike here! The cutie on the right is Tanners best buddy.

The kids decided that dancing was appropriate for the National Anthem before the fireworks started, they were so excited!

My favorite...the fireworks!

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend! And last but not least I was tagged by Joanie to share some more about ME...so here goes!

All about ME...........
A – Age: 32
B – Bed size: Queen
C – Chore you hate: Ironing!
D – Dog’s name: Macintosh
E – Essential start your day item: toothbrush!
F – Favorite color: green
G – Gold or Silver: both...depends on what I'm wearing
H – Height: 5′6.5" But I have always wanted to be taller! LOL
I – Instruments you play(ed): guitar
J – Job title: You name it, I do it! Mostly mom, and kit club owner.
K – Kid(s): Tanner Graham and Chloe Saige
L – Living arrangements: Log home
M – Mom’s name: Lynn (and she is the BEST)
N – Nicknames: Heid (pretty exciting huh? lol!)
O – Overnight hospital stay other than your birth: None thank the Lord!
P – Pet Peeve: when people bite their fingernails and when people scrape their teeth on metal forks! It's like nails on a chalkboard to me!
Q – Quote from a movie: When you sit and look at a question for more than 2 minutes...move on...and so I did. (Too hard to think of just one...but I love Sandra Bullock so it would be one from her.)
R – Right or left handed: Right
S – Siblings: Jacob and Holly
T – Time you wake up: most of the time whenever the kids do, I don't function well before 7:30!
U- Underwear: Do you really want to know?
V-Vegetable you dislike: raw onions
W – Ways you drink your coffee: I hate coffee...ick.
X-rays you’ve had: teeth...that's all I remember? Unless sonograms count.
Y – Yummy food you make: fettuccine alfredo...I could live on carbs!
Z – Zoo favorite : Elephants!

Now pass this on to 5 other friends that you want to get to know better...so here goes! I'm tagging our DT members!

Amanda

Holly

Jaime

Lexi

Samantha

Boo!

We had a downpour all day today...I cannot EVER remember a 4th of July getting rained out. Everything cancelled! Not ONE picture was taken! What? Yes, you heard me right. *insert very sad face here*

We still celebrated...we just had to do it indoors. We spent the afternoon with friends and grilled for dinner...strawberry shortcake for desert. Then we played dominoes to finish off the night! The good news is that we get to do it all over again tomorrow...all of the fun that was supposed to happen today is now scheduled for tomorrow! And YES there will be many, many pictures taken! (Chloe's little heart would have been broken if she didn't get to feed the tiny deer! It's her favorite 4th of July tradition!) Hope you had a wonderful day! I am so grateful for our country!

Wow!

Here is a sampling of the amazing work of our new designers! First Lexi Bridges: LOVE the flower made from a dress pattern!
This might be my favorite? It's too hard to pick though! LOVE the corrugated background!
Oh, Mr. Campy...one of my all-time favorite lines of paper!

And this is the altered item she sent! This is beyond my creativity level! It's "sew" cute!

And next is Samantha Sibbet! Look at all those milk bottle tops! (Who would have though to make them into house shingles! Well I guess Samantha! LOL.)

I have seen a LOT of altered houses...but I think this one is my favorite of all time! SO beautiful!

The red, white and blue here is very appropriate for the big holiday tomorrow! I love how she layered the title letters! And the layers of patterned paper and the photo...well you get the idea. I like it a LOT!

So head over to their blogs and check out the rest of their beautiful work! I am so happy to have them! Hope you all have a fabulous 4th of July! Our day will consist of 4th of July parades, feeding fawns, bouncy castles, and bar-b-que! OH and FIREWORKS!! It's one of my favorite holidays every year!

Newsletter!

I just finished sending out the newsletter!! (I always try to post it here also for anyone who missed it in their inbox.) Be sure to check back tomorrow and see the new Design Team members beautiful work!

Freehand Scraps Newsletter
With summer in full swing…it’s finally time to introducing our latest kit “Navigate!” This kit screams summer…and is full of vintage touches and exclusives! With a bright summery color palette, a vintage map, and handmade felt shapes that coordinate, you will want to get your hands on one for sure! We have a super talented guest designer this month also! Gretchen McElveen was one of my instructors at the Scrap Etc. event last year and I have wanted her to design for us ever since! Be sure to check out her gallery as well as the rest of our wonderful designers HERE. Katie Haddox and Celeste Smith have finished their year commitment to designing here at FS and are off to other adventures, but Amanda Smith and Jaime Warren are staying to inspire us some more. I am so sad to see them go but we wish them all the best and have been SO blessed to have them! They are beautiful girls, inside and out, and really wonderful scrapbookers too!

Design Team Call
This Design Team Call has been SO fun, I have really enjoyed going through each and every one of your submissions! I spent literally hours and hours pouring over them and going to all of your galleries and blogs. (A lot of them I bookmarked! LOL) Thank you so much for sharing your art with us! I believe your pages and projects are your story…and the fact that you would share it with us is an honor. Really and truly, thank you for sharing a piece of your lives, the pictures of your children, husbands, dogs, cats, friends, vacations, jobs, I loved every minute of it! That is exactly why it’s nearly impossible to choose just a few winners! This has been such a hard decision! I thought I was doing pretty good when I had it narrowed down to the top 20! Now to just pick a few is gut wrenching! With that in mind, our new permanent designers are Lexi Bridges and Samantha Sibbet! Congratulations!! We are so very excited to welcome them to our team here! I am planning on sharing some of their work on the blog tomorrow. And if you did not get selected for a full time DT position, I still may be contacting you to guest design for us. (I have quite a list!) I will most likely be contacting you this week and next with more details. So I hope I will get to work with some of you in the future! Thank you again for submitting your beautiful work! And speaking of designers…be sure to check out this months gallery. There is loads of inspiration to be found!

Hope you have a great night!

Cosmo Cricket goodness...

I posted my gallery last night, but I can see that it didn't post the whole thing. Argh! So I'll share the rest today! I am so excited about this super CUTE kit! It's up for sale right now. This is a picture of Chloe and I relaxing after the slip-n-slide. (If you want a really good work out...just do the slip-n-slide! My abs felt like I had done 3,000 crunches for the next 3 days!! LOL.) This snorkel line just does it for me. It screams summer and everything that goes along with summer! Love it!
I love the look of the blue tulle "netting" tucked behind the waves. Tulle is easy to sew and very forgiving!
I hand cut the waves from the CC paper and then matted them with white cardstock to really make them "pop."

I love this picture of Chloe!

I transferred the Hambly rub-on onto white cardstock and then cut it out. I also cut the red bicycle from the CC "elements" page and used the journal spot for my title.

I know that you are all excited about the reveal and also the announcement of our newest DT members. I have the newsletter nearly ready to be sent out, but I think I may get it out tomorrow...I need to get just a few more details! Can't wait!!