Say hello to my little friend...

I found it at a little local shop called "Relics" that is my all-time favorite store in Peoria. If you are in the area...be sure to stop by (it's right on the river!) It is also now my children's favorite store because they were having a Spring Open House on Saturday and they had cookies and chocolates and Deb (the owner) gave them both bird feathers to play with and take home. Not sure how much they'll love it when we go next time and there are no cookies? :) It always scares me to death taking them into places like that, they are usually pretty good about not touching things and being patient...but they are also "very curious" as Tanner likes to remind me. That is his excuse for a lot of things these days. I'll often hear "I couldn't help it Mom, cause I was just SO curious." It must be a boy thing. (Or a boy who watches too much Curious George? Take your pick.) I love this silly machine so much I may have to give it a name! It is replacing my super rad 1983 broken electric typewriter I picked up at the thrift store for $4. May it RIP...it served its purpose well. But now it's out with the ugly and in with the cute!

Oh and one more quick thing. SNEAK PEEK! April is shaping up to be wonderful! Love the bright cheeriness of this kit!
Hope you're week is off to a great start!

Rainy day...

Sorry for my brief absence, it's a rainy day here and so I have been busy making some robot party invitations for my little guys birthday party, AND organizing and putting away a stack of layouts that needed to be put into albums. HoLy CoW that's a big job! As I was putting them into albums I could hardly remember which year we spent Christmas here and which year we spent Christmas in Colorado. I am going to have to do a better job of labeling with not just he date but the year. (Scrapbooking 101 right? Apparently I need a refresher course :) Otherwise I will just have to hope that they are in some kind of chronological order...and get over it! LOL! I really could, and sometimes do, spend all day in my scrapbook room. There is always something else I want to finish or work on, or put away, or get out. Or a stack of pictures I want to look through. I was on my laptop last night going through some old photos and was just in tears at how many wonderful memories I have had the privilege to witness. Many of those pictures I never got around to scrapbooking, because as I'm sure you do to...I take SO many! The longer I scrapbook, the more picky I get about which ones "make the cut" and actually get scrapped. But that doesn't mean I still love looking through them. I'm blessed. Blessed beyond what I deserve...thank the Lord!

Last night I was reading design blogs and I came across the link to THESE by Poolga. Fun! They are free wallpapers for your iphone. I couldn't decide which one I liked best, there were some really fun ones. (There were also some really icky ones so browse carefully my friends!) Which one do you like best?

The kids are begging me to take them to run errands today...we are out of drawing paper, which basically = the end of the world as we know it to them! They have finally broken down now and are drawing on the back side of some older drawings. I think it's inevitable...but who wants to go out on a rainy day? Not me! :) Hope your weekend is off to a sunny start!

Fans...

Yes we are...meeting up with Samantha Sibbet and Lexi Bridges for CHA was a blast! This is the last project I finished using my March kit. When I think about combining palm trees and sunshine, along with new friends, tons of brand new products, Inn-n-Out Burger, Anthropology shopping, and late night scrap sessions...and you have pretty much described heaven on earth from my point of view. This little instax photo (man I want one of those SO bad! Sam and Lexi both had one and I felt so left out :) was taken in Target as we were getting some snacks for our scrapping session that night. I am a grown woman and was walking around Target in my flannel jammies at 9 p.m. It was hilarious!
I added the fabric thickers from February's kit last month. This was a super simple page. 6X12 sized. It's always fun to switch up the size of layouts you make I think. This little instax photo would have drowned on a 12x12 page!
The first thing I did with my kit was cut this lady out of the patterned paper. She's just so fancy that I had to use her! :)

Thanks for all of your kind comments on yesterdays post. I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one feeling all of those pressures and expectations. We really all have so much in common you know? And we had the most beee-autiful spring-like day here today. It was almost enough to distract me from my taxes that need to be done looming over my head! :)

Just be exactly who you are...

Yep. That is pretty much the best advice I could give. Just be who you were created to be! I look around sometimes at the pressures I feel are placed on women...are you a size 2? Do you have flawless skin? Are you a super-mom who's children are always perfect? Do you volunteer and are on every committee? Do you make a 4 course meal every night for your family? Are you always "put together?" Let's face it...this list could go ON and ON. We are faced with trying to be someone elses idea of perfect...when really the only person who I want to please is the Lord. And you know I think he could care less if I am wearing make-up and if the house is spotless. I for the most part do strive to make our life run smoothly, and I do want my kids to eat their veggies, and LORD knows I don't leave the house without make-up on. (Because that would just be cruel to the rest of mankind. You have not seen me without it. But that's just me.) It's always a good idea to take a step back and think about who you are living your life to please. I am learning to be content at this time in my life. To not be running around trying to be something or someone who I am NOT. Maybe I should write this card to ME! :)
I whipped this up with "Clothespin." So simple and easy. (And on a side-note this one is NOT gonna make it through the post office sorting machine! This is a hand-to-someone-card. LOL!)
Sorry to get up on my soapbox today...but boy...sometimes I feel so much pressure to be someone I wasn't intended to be. And it's just me going against God's plan for me. I just need to be exactly who I am...the rest are just details. Hope your week is off to a great start!

Uno, dos, tres...

One more gallery project to share today...and a few more sitting on my scrap table that I will share soon! One thing I noticed about my gallery this month was that I added a lot of journaling. I guess I just had a lot to say on these pages? I took this picture of Chloe in the check out aisle at Walmart as she was telling me to "say CHEESE mama." The lady behind us in line was laughing at us both taking pictures of each other taking pictures. Instead of that being the story I wanted to tell...I really wanted to write about what this picture reminded me of. (Journaling close up below.)

I added lots of layers here. I cut a few hearts from the sewing pattern and pinned them with a old pearl pin to add to the sewing feel of the embellishments. I also punched butterflies and layered the different patterns to give them a bit more interest. There is a fabric flower under there somewhere and also a few leaves cut from the famous paper in my last post. That chipboard flower comes just the way you see it! LOVE it! :)

Journaling reads: "Looking at this picture makes me want to remember your half-worn-off nail polish, the exact color of your hair that summer, this polka-dot shirt that I liked so much I bought it for you in 2 different colors. Your messy hair at the end of the day...(including the lovely haircut you had just given yourself.) The way you approach the world with child-like wonder...even the check-out lane at Walmart is full of found treasures to you! I have so much to learn from you!"

And one last shot of another sewing pattern layered flower I made in a smaller version with a sewn on button. I like the way this page turned out!

And since today is a rainy, gloomy kind of day here in the Midwest...I've decided to list a few things that brightened my day today.

1. Bubbalicious watermelon gum while I pumped iron with the manly men at the gym this morning...blowing bubbles and smiling inside the whole time. They must think I'm crazy! :) So GOOD!

2. The birds singing outside this morning...that MUST mean spring is coming!

3. A new pair of thrifted rain boots! (I got stopped by 3 little old ladies at the grocery store who told me how cute they were. And if they like em' well then SO DO I!) Chloe talked me into buying them...and to tell you the truth I can't imagine why I haven't gotten a pair of them sooner! Totally practical and comfy too!
4. Lunch date with Chloe and her entourage of Littlest Pet Shop animals who also each had a plate of food and a drink as well. :)

5. A chat with my sister!

6. Getting a lot crossed off the to-do list!

7. And I have to say, one of the best parts of my day is picking up Tanner from school. He walks out the front doors searching the sea of cars for ours...and once he sees us...well his face just lights up like a light bulb and this shy little smile creeps up from the corners of his mouth. I love that look.

What's brightening your day today?

Ton-O-Flowers

This post is dedicated to the flowers on this GCD paper from the kit. This was my favorite paper from the entire show. (It was hard to narrow it down to just one...but this one stood out the most to me.) So I turned this...
Into this...a little layout about my sweetie.
Love these sweet chipboard letters...so versatile.
In this shot you can really see the flocking on the leaves, and the sweet little buttons from the kit.

As I layered the flowers I curled up the edges of the blossoms to make them more dimensional.

And the journaling.

Hope you all are having a great weekend!

Flower Petals & Galleries

Putting my 6 year old to bed tonight he sweetly whispered in my ear "you smell just like the petal on a flower." I'm telling you...parenthood is a gift! A gift to treasure and cherish and soak up! But you knew that. Right? I wanted to share a project from my gallery with you...and I must admit that his page is definitely more "cutesy" than I usually like. I don't have an babies at my house anymore and I haven't scrapbooked anything baby in a long time. But in trying to come up with something creative to do with my fabric banner I thought this little sailboat would be perfect! I trimmed a piece of the Sassafras paper to fit inside of it and sewed it on. I then used a few layers of the vintage pattern to layer underneath it to give it even more dimension.
The wavy border of the paper was perfect for the boat to "float" on!
I freehand cut the boat out of some of the GCD paper in the kit and then used corrugated cardboard underneath to give it some texture and pop it off the page. I sewed it all around the edges to give it an outline. Finally I added some journaling underneath it saying "Sorrow looks down, worry looks around, faith looks up!" I took this picture of the kids on a missions trip to Myanmar in southeast Asia. They were filthy after a day at the orphanage and were standing watching some other kids play at this small park. The word strip sticker that is super hard to read in the photo says "Forgive the past and fall in love with today." Good advice...very good.

The only thing used here not in the kit is this little Gap teddy bear sticker. Every time we go to the Gap they give the kids one of these little guys. I think he's pretty cute...and I needed a passenger for my boat. I added a newsprint sailor hat (I had to call my mom to remind me how to fold the hat...hadn't made one of these in for-ever!) She knew, of course. I actually used print out of my phone book, so that I didn't have messy newsprint in my album.

Just so you can see it up close. :)

I will be back with some more of the gallery tomorrow! Hope you had a great day!