Sandy Fun!

Well, I feel like I'm finally back in the groove after our looooooog trip this summer! We had such a great time visiting family, exploring California, Utah, and New Mexico, and especially spending so much time together as a family! I love being married to a teacher and having so much time in the summer together--it is such a blessing! 

My blog however has suffered a bit, and I intend to make up for that starting today!

My layout share today features more of the Echo Park Splash collection.

With the way we love the beach, and all the orange, this was a must have line for me! 

The journaling reads: "Playing in the sand at the beach is one of the things you boys love to do best! You build castles, dig holes, fill motes with water, and get sand all over yourselves! I’m glad we live close enough to the beach that you boys can do this often! March 2010"

Thanks for stopping by!

Brand madness!

A little plea for help today!

For the past month, Creative Memories has been competing in an online Brand Madness Tournament sponsored by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal to find the favorite Minnesota brand. 

Much like a March Madness-style tournament, the online competition started with 64 Minnesota-based companies, and now it is down to the final two: Creative Memories and the Mayo Clinic. Throughout each round, we have been counting on our passionate and loyal fans to vote us into the next round, and the championship round will be no exception.

Voting for the championship round is scheduled to start Monday morning, ending at 9 pm Ct on Wednesday night.  Since social media has played a huge role in getting us this far, we are using every angle we can to capture as many votes as possible. We would like to ask you to help us spread the word to promote the contest through your blog and round up as many votes as you can.

Background on the contest

Creative Memories has been called everything from the giant-killer (beating Target in Round 1) to the least-known brand in the tournament, but throughout the contest we have held an average of 72 percent of the vote in our rounds. Below is how we fared in each round. 

Round 1: Creative Memories 81, Target 19

Round 2: Creative Memories 69, Arctic Cat 31

Sweet 16: Creative Memories 82, Wheaties 18

Elite Eight: Creative Memories 62, Mall of America 38

Final Four: Creative Memories 52, Dairy Queen 48 (More than 24,000 votes cast)

Championship: Creative Memories vs. Mayo Clinic (Results announced Wednesday)

 

The Mayo Clinic, based in Rochester, Minn., has been receiving an average of 68.5 percent of the vote in their match-ups. The number of votes Mayo has been getting has been growing by big multiples with each match, and we expect the final match to grow even more. Below is how Mayo did in each round.

 

Round 1: Mayo Clinic 86 percent, Tastefully Simple 14 percent

Round 2: Mayo Clinic 61, Summit Brewing 39

Sweet 16: Mayo Clinic 72, General Mills 28

Elite Eight: Mayo Clinic 55, Lunds/Byerly’s 45

Final Four: May Clinic 62, Schwan’s 38 (Nearly 80,000 votes cast)

Championship: Creative Memories vs. Mayo Clinic (Results announced Wednesday)

We would love and appreciate any help we can get in our attempt to beat this well-known hospital. Follow the link below to vote starting Monday. Thank you!

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/feature/mn-brand-madness-landing-page.html

 

Upside Down Blake

Oh how we love our Blake! He is our high energy, loud, rough and tumble, all boy, kid! He makes every day more fun just by being himself and we love having him in our family. We can also really, really eat! He must have his father's metabolism because he is always hungry! 

Hungry Boy

This layout uses Studio Calico's State Fair line and some Crate Paper Toy Box embellishments. The journaling reads: 

"We joke Blake that your stomach is a bottomless pit, but in truth it really must be! All day long I hear you say, “I’m hungry,” “Is it lunch time yet?” or “Can I have a snack?” I know now that about an hour after any meal you start asking about snacks and when the next meal will start. I have no idea how you can pack away all the food that you do and still want more! It must have something to do with being a boy and the energy you expend all day long! What worries me most is how much you may be eating when you are a teenager—the grocery bills are going to be high I think!"

Thanks for visiting today!

Another June Scrapbook.com Layout To Share

Drive by post today! Just a quick share of a layout I did in June for Scrapbook.com. It uses some super fun new Echo Park Splash.

Sweet Summertime

The journaling reads: "Lately you Spencer, have spent a lot of time in the sprinkler! On this day we were watering the back lawn and you boys decided to take an impromptu run through the water. Stripping off your shirts you boys ran in continuous circles up and down the slide and through the jets of water. I think you all had a good time, but you Spencer seemed to enjoy it most of all! May 2011"

Hope you are having a great summer!

June Scrapbook.com Layout To Share

These past few weeks have been such a whirlwind of activity around here! Cub and Scout camp, swim lessons, birthday's and father's day, relaxing at the pool, a summer block party, finally having Marc off for some vacation time, two major projects for me, and lots of driving the kids all over for various things! Things finally slowed down a bit this week and I had some time to do my June Scrapbook.com layouts. I'm sharing one of my favorites today, The Baby Song.

It uses some very fun new Kaiser Craft called Party Animal. I adored the colors in this line and the super cute little animals. The journaling on this one reads: 

One afternoon back in 2006 or 2007, I was putting you Blake, down for a nap and you were very sad about it. You were crying and after a few minutes I came to see if I could help you calm down and go to sleep. When I asked if I should sing to you, you eagerly said yes! We had recently been watching Dumbo so I choose the lullaby from that movie. You instantly calmed right down and settled in for your nap. Ever since that afternoon I would sing that song when you needed comfort or to be settled down. You loved hearing the words of that song and would ask for “the baby song” all the time when you were upset. Now you are too old for that to work Blake, but every time I hear that song I think back to you at that age and all the tender moments we shared while I sang this song to you, stroked your hair, and watched as you fell asleep. (Photo 2006, journaling 2011)

I also wanted to mention that Pebbles is having their annual Design Team Call! This has been such a fun company to design for--so generous and the team is so well managed by the super sweet Lynn Ghahary. Working with them this past year has been a true delight! You can find out more details on their blog.

Thanks for visiting today!

Hi! Yes, I am still here!

Yup--still here! I just had to give my self permission to take a short blogging break! I had so many things on my plate for a few weeks, things have been so busy! Anyhow, that's why I decided to put my blog on the back burner for a bit. Sorry to those who have said they keep checking in here and finding nothing new!

Today I have a look for you at some simple Father's Day cards I made for the Pebbles Blog:

These cards use my new favorite punch--Postage Stamp Place 'n' Punch from Creative Memories. I adore this punch--it's so versatile and cute and you can punch anywhere on your page! I love that feature and wish more punches did that!

Have a great Wednesday everyone!

Spencer's Duck Face

As promised, more Hello Sunshine today on another of my May layouts for Scrapbook.com.

Your Silly Duck Face

The journaling reads: "At least once a day I find you Spencer with your lips pursed like this! I call them your duck lips and even though I have no idea why you pull this expression so often, I do know that it always makes me smile! May 2011"

Gotta run today, lots to do! Have a good one!

Plenty of Sunshine Here

In paper and in reality! We have had so little rain it is really beginning to be quite hard on the lawn and landscape. We water and water, but it is just soooooo dry! It does make nice weather for playing outside though, and we have done lots of that, and hope to do more when Ty starts to get a bit better. 

As for paper sunshine, here is a May scrapbook.com layout using American Crafts' very fun, bright, and playful collection Hello Sunshine.

Piggyback Rides:

The journaling on this one reads: "Ty takes such good care of you Spencer! One of the things he does for you is give you piggy back rides. He loves to pick you up run around the house or yard with you on his back. You laugh and squeal with delight and hug his neck, and I smile every time I see this manifestation of his love for you! May 2011"

Ty really does do this all the time, and I'm glad I finally got out the camera and got some photos of it. It really is cute to see what a tender heart Ty has for Spencer. He is a great big brother!

Another Hello Sunshine layout tomorrow!

Have a great Wednesday!

More Campy Trails...

Well I thought things were more or less back to normal, but I was wrong :) Poor Ty has really been struggling with allergies and asthma lately. We been to the Dr. a few times trying to figure out what to do to help him, and he's now on a whole bunch of medications/breathing treatments and he is home from school for a bit trying to rest up. He is bummed to be missing some of the last days of school, which are normally much more fun than other days. Hopefully though the rest and medication will help stop the endless coughing that is keeping us up at night and make it so he can enjoy being outside again soon!

Anyhow, before all this started we were able to spend lots of time outside and even do some camping! So I thought I'd put American Crafts' Campy Trails line back to work for some May Scrapbook.com layouts with a true camping theme.

 Little Naturalist

The journaling on this one reads: "Spencer, I loved watching you during our last camping trip! You were fascinated by the small ant holes around the campsite. It was a pretty common site to see you squatting or lying down right over their holes so you could watch them move in and out. Thankfully, these ants were not fire ants, and you never had a problem with them biting you! April 2011"

Camping Entertainment

The journaling on this one reads: "Camping at the beach gave us lots of extra things to do during our last trip; however, we still found time to partake in the usual camping entertainment as well. We flew kites, took bike rides, played horseshoes, explored the state park, and sang campfire songs while roasting marshmallows. It was a really fun and relaxing trip! April 2011"

Tomorrow I'll have some "Hello Sunshine" for you!

Have a great day!

New Pebbles Card

Hi everyone, sorry for the long absence! We have been sick around here and busy with some projects that I just couldn't share. I'm hoping to finally shake this lingering cold this weekend as it has been driving me crazy all week. Not enough to really slow me down too much, but enough to be really annoying!

Anyhow, now that blogger also seems to be working again, here is a little card I made for my Mom that went up on the Pebbles blog this past week. 

It's a simple one, using their Happy Go Lucky line, but I had fun putting it together!

Hopefully I'm back now to a more regular blogging schedule! Have a happy weekend everyone!

Spooktacular

Yes, it is waaaaaay to early for Halloween, but not so in magazine land so I whipped up this fun little card using my Cricut and the totally adorable Mini Monsters Cartridge. For someone who loves Halloween as much as I do, this cartridge is perfect. My mom and I have already started cooking up some fun home decor plans with the images we can cut with this cartridge. 

The papers here are from American Crafts' Campy Trails line. I adore the colors in this line and even though we love to camp and I really need to scrapbook some camping photos with this line, somehow they keep creeping into lots of my other projects as well! Good thing I ordered lots! :) Anyhow, I also used my Creative Memories Reminisce Accents cartridge to cut the orange lattice work for the roof. It just felt like it needed a little something more up there!

And on a side note, have you discovered Pinterest yet?! I think I may be in love! I've had so much fun browsing and pinning there...and discovered so many inspiring and simply cool ideas! I'm not sure how I ever surfed the web without it before! Email me if you want an invite!

Have a great day everyone!

Romp, Chomp, and Stomp

This week on the Pebbles blog they are showcasing layouts and projects made by mixing the great Pebbles lines with lines from their parent company American Crafts. I had a lot of fun with my project, some dinosaurs for Ty's bedroom wall. He has been after me to help him get some dinosaurs up on his wall ever since we let him have his own room last summer. Once I stumbled across these adorable dinosaur SVG files at Lettering Delights I knew I finally had a great way to get some fun ones made!

These papers are a mix of Happy Go Lucky, Hello Sunshine, Ever After, and Campy Trails. I used my Cricut to not only cut the dinosaurs but the little captions as well (The caption font is SS Whimsy). Be sure and check out the other great American Crafts/Pebbles projects all this week on the Pebbles blog!

Have a happy Monday!