Rodeo Clown

Because we live in Texas I was super excited when Carta Bella came out with their Giddy Up Boy and Girl lines! They are just perfect for some of the events and activities we do around here! Particularly our trips to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

I haven't had a chance to play with the girl line yet, however, here is one of the layouts I made with the boy version.

Other than the Carta Bella papers and stickers I also used some copper colored pearls by Queen and Company as well as my Cricut for the title and star accents. The title was done using fonts from the "Old West" and "The First few Years" cartridges. The stars are from the "County Fair" Cartridge.

The journaling reads: "Going to the Houston Rodeo is always a great day. One of the highlights this time was meeting a rodeo clown and posing for these photos with him. Later that night we got to watch him as he distracted angry bulls away from the cowboys. You boys thought it was great! March 16th 2011"

Have a great Thursday!

Tin Foil Dinners

So sorry I missed the last two days. With school starting (including an online home school program for one of my sons)  things have just been crazy around here. I'm back today though with a fun camping layout to share. 

I grew up in a family that camped a lot! Living not to far from the Sierra Nevada mountains made it fairly easy for us to escape the summer heat and spend a week up in the beautiful forested mountains of places like Yosemite and Lassen Volcanic National Park. One of the staples of nearly every camping trip was eating "tin foil," or "hobo" dinners. So even though I don't have mountains to camp in with my own kids, (Texas is rather on the flat side) we still do go camping and we almost always have our traditional "tin foil dinners." 

The new Echo Park "Happy Camper" line was a perfect fit for these photos. just the right mix of "outdoorsy" and yet still bright and fun colors.

I've also got some Queen and Company brads and Washi tape here as well as some more stamping with my date and rotary phrase stamps by K and Co and American Crafts.

The journaling reads: "I suppose these are actually aluminum foil dinners but I grew up calling them "hobo" or “tin” foil dinners! Whatever you call them they are a super yummy hamburger, potatoes, butter and veggie mix. They are a camping family favorite and no trip would be complete without them!"

Thanks for visiting today!

I TOADally Love You

"Hoppy" Friday everyone!

One quick card share today, this one along the same design lines as the baby card I shared the other day. I made this one for my sweet husband a little while back. It  uses a cute frog cut and sentiment from Lettering Delights that I cut out with my Silhouette Portrait. The set is called Frogs and Kisses.

The papers are by Echo Park, Washi tape and baker's twine by Queen and Co. I also used a Cuttlebug embossing folder and a border punch by EK Success to add a little more texture.

I hope you all have a TOADlly great weekend!

So Much To See

One of my favorite stages of a new baby in when thy get old enough to look at and study everything around them. Claire seemed extra observant from the very start, but after a couple of months she became even more studious. These photos capture her straining to move her head so she could see her new toys from every angle possible. 

More of the fabulous My Mind's Eye "My Girl" collection here along with more Queen and Company Washi tape, baker's twine, and pearls, American Crafts Letters, and my K and Co. date stamp.

The journaling says: "Claire, you recently have begun to really study the world around you! You love to look at brightly colored objects and at people. You seem to always have a look of extreme fascination as you start to decipher your world! Looking at these toys above your car seat seems to be one of your recent favorite things to do!"

Thanks for visiting today!

He is Eleven Now

Well, he's actually closer to 12 now, but this is the layout I did a few months ago about his eleventh birthday. I'm having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that he is going to be 12 pretty soon, that he is coming into his teen years, and that he starts Jr. High next week. Honestly, seeing him reach these milestones is hitting me harder than sending him off to kindergarten did. I'm sure I'll survive. It helps that he is super excited for it all! 

In contrast 11 was easy. He was at complete ease in a great situation in his 5th grade class with wonderful teachers, he loved moving into Boy Scouts,  he was having fun with his extracurricular activities, and life seems easy and good.  All he really wanted for his birthday was a camera and some Legos....which he got. He's such an easy going kid :)

The papers here are by Bella Blvd from their very fun "Birthday Boy" line. The buttons and Washi tape are by Queen and Company, letters by Heidi Swapp and Echo Park. I drew the red star in inkscape, then converted it to an SVG file and cut it out on my Silhouette Portrait. I thinned a little red paint with some water and then poured it into a spray bottle for the paint splashes.

The journaling reads: It’s hard to believe it but you really are 11 years old now Ty! We had a good time celebrating your birthday together with your siblings and your grandparents. I think you were most excited by your new Legos and your new camera as well as knowing that you now move up from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. You were also excited to have your favorite kind of cake, cheesecake, which also happens to be my favorite kind of cake too! November 2012"

Enjoy your Wednesday!

Quick Card Post Today

I'm running out of time to write up a post today so I'm just going to quickly showcase a card I made several months back. I made it for a brand new niece of mine! Several little girls have come into the family --on both sides-- in the past year or two. I'm super excited for all these girl cousins to be able to grow up and play together soon!

This card uses my all time favorite Pebbles line "Happy-Go-Lucky." It's an older line but still adorable. The embossing folder is by Lifestyle Crafts and the giraffe is a cut from the Stork's Delivery Cricut cartridge.Pearls and baker's twine by Queen and Company. 

Have a good Tuesday everyone!

Your First Day

Another older layout to share again featuring the awesomeness that is the My Girl line from My Mind's Eye. I just used this line to pieces! It is definitely one of my all time favorite collections!

In  addition to the My Girl collection there is some Queen and Company Washi tape and buttons, as well as some American Crafts Thickers for the title. I gave my Fiskars cloud punches and my Cuttlebug a workout too.

The journaling reads: Claire, one of the things I remember about our first 24 hours together was how alert you were. Your brothers promptly feel asleep after delivery, but not you. You wanted to look around at everything! I also remember marveling at how tiny you were and how cute you looked wearing the tiny pink bow the nurse stuck to your head. I also adored taking hundreds of photos of you and I remember how sweet it was to hold you in my arms throughout most of your first night. Mostly I remember how glad I was to finally have you here! July 2012"

Happy Monday everyone!

Claire's First Birthday

Please pardon my photo heavy post today. I've wanted to share photos and projects from Claire's first birthday, but the weeks have been slipping away from me and I think I'll just do one big post covering everything rather than several different short ones. 

I really had a good time planning Claire's birthday! Thanks to Pinterest I had lots of ideas I wanted to pull together and make my own. Perhaps even a few too many ideas! I didn't have time to get to all of them, but I had a lot of fun with what we did have time for.

First off, here is the invitation to her party. It was heavily inspired by this cute cupcake card. 

Before her party we went to a local park for her one-year-old photo shoot. We had a tiny bit of wind, which made using balloons as a prop rather tricky (they kept getting tangled up), and Claire wasn't really all that interested in them like I thought she would be, but we still managed to get some fun photos out of our time there. 

A few days later it was time to party!

I made a giant cupcake.

And then we set her down next to it. She was excited to have such a large audience!

 It took her a little while to figure out that she could eat it. At first she just poked it and watched us smiling and laughing at her with amusement.  

Eventually she did dig in!

I believe she was excited to be allowed to make such a big mess!

Eventually it fell over, and at that point she had had enough.

The aftermath.

We also ate her favorites foods (guacamole is still a big hit with her), opened and played with presents and played with good friends. It was a very fun celebration!

 

We are certainly glad to have this little "surprise" in our lives! It's been a wonderful and blessed year and we can't wait to see what this next year brings! Thanks for letting me share her big day with you!

Enjoy your weekend!

2 Silly Jokers

From knock-knock and crossing the road, to what-do-you-get-if-you-cross jokes--we have heard them all around here the past year or so. Blake and Ty have entered the age of loving everything to do with telling jokes! Most of the time they are pretty funny, and you are both getting better at making up your own. 

This layout uses the "Boy Crazy" line from My Mind's Eye. It's a favorite of mine--no suprise with three boys in the house! It also uses Some Queen and Co. Washi tape and buttons, Some boarder punches (Hexagon one from Creative Memories--Zig-Zag from EK Success), and American Crafts, Echo Park, and Pink Paislee letters. 

The journaling reads: "You two boys just love to tell jokes! Almost daily I hear one or both of you say “Mom do you want to hear a joke?” Sometimes you get them from books, sometimes from school, and sometimes you make them up (they don’t always make sense though). One of my favorite ways to foster this new love is to slip jokes into your lunch boxes along with a note from me. It is always fun to hear your reaction to them when I pick you up after school! I love my two jokesters! --Spring 2013"

Have a great day!

Brand Spankin' New

I love the "moment of meeting" when the nurse places your baby into your arms for the very first time! I feel so lucky to live in an age where we have the ability to have photos of these moments! For my mother, grandmother's, great-grandmother's, etc. they only have these moments etched on their hearts, thankfully I have that as well as video and photographs, and even a scrapbook layout. These are Claire's first moments in our arms.

The journaling reads: "These are the very first photos we have of you Claire! We took them just moments after you were born while we each got a chance to hold you. I loved seeing you with your eyes open! You were so alert, and you seemed just as interested in meeting us as we were to meet you! Welcome to our family Claire!"

The Echo Park Bundle of Joy collection was perfect for these photos! I used my Silhouette Portrait to cut out my title and journaling spot. (I created the journaling spot in my Creative Memories' StoryBook Creator software).

 I also added Queen and Co. Baker's twine and pearls, and some stamping with some American Crafts and K and Co. stamps. Thanks for visiting today!

Going Home Outfit

I'm trying to catch up on some older layouts and get this blog of mine updated with all of my current projects--so for awhile I'll have posts every weekday--and after I catch up I'll try to be better at posting several times a week!

The journaling on this one pretty much says it all, so rather than repeat it I'll just post it at the top this time: "I have always loved shopping for a going home outfit. There is something about it that makes everything feel so much more real! I picked out this ladybug onesie for you Claire because I was so excited to have something pink with ruffles on the sleeves and on the bum! I loved dressing you for the first time in it—and you looked adorable! July 8th 2012"

Lots of Echo Parks "Sweet Girl" line here. I cut the title out on my Silhouette Portrait and added some Queen and Co. Washi tape, baker's twine, buttons, and mini rhinestones. Lots of Cuttlebug embossing on this as well as stamping with my K and Co. Smash date stamp. The butterfly stamp is by Martha Stewart.

Thanks for visiting!

Lego Aces High

Aces High is a computer flight simulator that the males in my extended family find quite fun. They like to fly together as a group, reenacting flight missions from WWII. Over the past couple of years my boys have become old enough to participate and enjoy the male bonding that goes on during these missions. After the most recent gathering with their grandpa, Blake decided to immortalize their fun in a Lego rendition of his favorite parts of the simulation. He created an airplane, tank, and ground gunner. All his own designs!

I used the Echo Park "All About A Boy" line for this layout. I cut out the airplane and tank using my Cricut and the Art Deco and Boys Will Be Boys cartridges. The title was done with my Silhouette Portrait using the font airstream, and an alphabet from Kerri Bradford Studio--Weathered Door. Some Queen and Co Washi Tape, some Cuttlebug embossing, and some small punched airplanes (Creative Memories) finishes off the layout. 

The journaling reads: "Blake you love to “fly” with grandpa when you do Aces High together on the computer. One day you decided to build a Lego version of your favorite part of the simulator. You designed your own airplane, tank, and ground gunner. I was blown away by your creativity and ability to turn what you did with grandpa into a Lego creation. I love your creativity Blake! Fall 2012"

Have a happy Monday everyone!