Welcome To The Creative Memories Blog Hop!!!

Hi everyone! Welcome to my little blog! If you are visiting today as part of the Creative Memories Dream blog hop then you should have arrived here after visiting the Creative Memories' Digital 411 Blog. After visiting me you should "hop" on along to design team member Cindy Liebel's blog; {Life As We Live It}. Be sure and collect the clues from each stop on the hop for a chance to win some fun prizes!

I had a really fabulous time playing with the new Dream Specialty Paper Pack and Dream Layered Stickers. I used them to create the following layout about my youngest son Spencer and how much I used to wish he would just stay little when he was a baby. The Dream line is a part of Creative Memories' partnership with the Make A Wish Foundation. 

Make-A-Wish® grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy. In collaboration with Make-A-Wish, Creative Memories has developed these exclusive Dream products that can help you celebrate the wishes, hopes, dreams and achievements in your world. Each Dream product benefits Make-A-Wish with a $1 or $2 donation per purchase.

I used a lot of my favorite Creative Memories tools on this layout in addition to the Dream products. For the title and the cute little elephant I turned to my Cricut and the Creative Memories' Traveler, Stork’s Delivery and Cheerful Seasons Cartridges. I used a font on the Cheerful Seasons Cartridge for the "Just Stay" and a font from the Traveler Cartridge for the rest of the title. The Stork's Delivery Cartridge is full of all kinds of cute animals and this elephant is one of them.

I also used the Layered Stickers as accents on my page mixed in with a few hexagons made with my favorite Creative Memories Punch, the Hexagon Place 'n' Punch. To add a tiny bit more texture there are a few borders made with the Border Maker System and the Scallop Stitch Border Maker Cartridge added to the top and bottom of the layout. 

Here is a closer look at the journaling which I added to the hot air balloon after running the blue circle through my printer.

So thanks for visiting and letting me share! Again, your next stop should be to Cindy Liebel's blog.

And here is the clue from my blog:

Happy Friday everyone! Have fun on the hop!

Claire's First Smile

Not long ago miss Claire started beaming some super sweet grins at us! This is always one of my most favorite baby milestones. It marks the beginning of having an interactive relationship with each other and feels like a reward for all the long nights, diaper changes, nursing sessions, doctor visits, and months of pregnancy that precede it. Yes, I love how in one brief moment, and in one tiny smile, all of that effort seems well worth it!
With Claire her very first smile came deep in the middle of the night and it was so brief and fleeting that it made me wonder if it were real or not. I spent the next day or two coaxing her to smile again and sure enough, she did--lots of times! I raced for the camera every time, but it still took a couple more days before I finally caught one on (digital) film. Now she grins all the time and I have lots of smiley photos, but this one is still special because, well, it's the first of many, many, more!

I used more My Mind's Eye The Sweetest Thing collection for this layout again with a few scraps from my scrap box for the title and butterflies. The title was done with my Cricut with fonts from the Baby Steps and Birthday Bash Cartridges. The butterflies are also from the Baby Steps cartridge.

The pennants and clouds are punches (some of my favorite punches) by Fiskars (clouds) and Stampin' Up (pennants). I embossed some of them with my Cuttlebug and the Herringbone and Candy Cane Stripes Embossing folders.

The buttons are by Pebbles and American Crafts, and the twine and pearls are by Queen and Company. I also used a bit of a hexagon cut from the Teresa Collins Basics digital cartridge under the patterned papers on this layout for a bit of added texture.

The journaling reads: "As you approached six weeks old Claire, I started doing everything I could to get you to smile at me. It took a few days of me acting like quite a fool, but just before you turned seven weeks old you gave me your first tiny smile in the middle of the night. It instantly melted mine and I have loved every grin and beaming smile since! August 24th 2012"

And on a little side note, those of us on the Creative Memories design team are getting really excited about our blog hop coming up this Friday! I've created a layout I'm really excited about as part of the hop and I hope you will come and visit on Friday and complete the hop to see lots of exciting projects from the team and also have a chance to win some really awesome prizes!

Thanks for visiting today!

1 Month Old

I love looking at Claire's 2 month photos and seeing how much she has grown these past few weeks. She had some trouble with weight gain initially and weighed not much more then she did at birth at 1 month of age. Since then she has grown like a weed and looks so different from this photo taken at 4 weeks of age.

You can see how tiny her head was if you look close you can see Marc's thumb next to her head! Now she is bigger and has super cute chubby cheeks!

I used the new My Mind's Eye The Sweetest Thing collection for this layout with a few scraps from my scrap box for some of the Cricut cuts.

 The baby themed cuts and the title on this layout come from the Baby Steps Cartridge, the rosette from the Ribbons and Rosettes Cartridge, the flowers from the Mother's Day Bouquet Cartridge and the #1's from the Birthday Bash cartridge.

I also dusted off my sewing machine for a few accents on this layout. I used to do that all the time and then got out of the habit. It felt good to use it again and I'll have to remember to pull it out more often.

The journaling reads: "Sweet little Claire, here are just a few of my observations of you at 1 month old.  You are still so tiny, weighing just under 7 ½ lbs so we have started pumping and bottle feeding to help you gain weight faster. You still spit up all the time! To help you with that we often have you sleep in your car seat to help you be upright and spit up less. You and I still spend a good part of the night awake, I read books on my iPod and cuddle with you while you take your sweet time eating. You are still a tiny bit jaundiced, but that is rapidly improving. Hair bands don’t fit your tiny head so I have to make them smaller. You needed more newborn clothes so for the first time ever I went and bought more newborn sizes, I also had to buy several packages of newborn diapers."

Thanks for visiting today!

It's Mini Session Time!

For all you local families:

Fall Family Mini Session Information for 2012

Hi everyone! I hope you all are enjoying the change into fall and all that it brings with it! Back to school, college football, and kids sports, etc. 

We have spent the past few weeks enjoying some football games and the smiles from miss Claire--who is now two months old!

Now we just wish the weather would think it was fall as well! :)

Thankfully by October we should finally start to enjoy some cooler temperatures -- and that means it is once again mini session time!

Here is the information for this year's mini sessions. The dates will be Sat. October 13th and Friday October 19th. I will have the following slots:

Morning sessions Sat. October 13th (call or email me for location):

8:00am

8:30am

9:00am

9:30am

10:00am

Afternoon sessions Sat. October 13th at (call or email me for location):

3:00pm

3:30pm

4:00pm

4:30pm

5:00pm

5:30pm

Afternoon sessions Friday October 19th at (call or email me for location):

4:30pm

5:00pm

5:30pm

Just a reminder, these sessions are mini sessions where my goal will be to get 1 or 2 family poses for Christmas cards etc., and 1 pose of each child. Sometimes there is time to get a shot of just the children together and just the Mom/Dad together as well. If there is time left after all of that, and you have a specific grouping or pose in mind, I have no problem attempting it! Typically a mini session will take around 20-30 minutes and will yield around 10-20 photos which will be edited and then given to you on a CD to print as you wish. The cost for these mini sessions is $30 per family. CD’s will be given out on or before November 18th.

I will begin booking on September 15th, hopefully giving everyone enough time find out about it and see if it will work for their family. I fill up very, very, fast! Last year all the sessions were gone before lunch time, and  almost all of them were spoken for before I even woke up that morning! 

To book a session call or email me with your first two choices (please do not call before 7am) and I will fill the slots on a first come, first served basis. 

I will have a waiting list for those who don't make it and if the list is long enough I might be persuaded to add an additional weekday afternoon/evening.

If you have any questions at all please don’t hesitate to call or send me an email!

Have a great weekend!

Ginger Williams

At The Bounce House

Hi everyone! Just another quick share of a recent layout today. Like the layout I posted about a week ago this layout uses the fun, summery, and bright Little Yellow Bicycle Splash line. I thought the bright colors would be perfect for this page about our family reunion day at a local bounce park. 

This line has lots of great little embellishments like these awesome paper flowers.

I again had some fun with my Cricut creating the title from some fonts on my computer as well as some "up" and "down" word embellishments to fill in the spaces between my photos. I again turned to my hexagon punch from Creative Memories for all the hexagon shapes.

The journaling reads: "A favorite outing during this year’s family reunion was to the local inflatable playground. All the cousins had a great time jumping and bouncing on the inflatables and the giant pillow as well as Spencer’s favorite, tumbling down the jumbo slide! The adults got in on the action as well and had a blast playing along side our kids and grand kids. 6/12"

Thanks for visiting today!

Cricut Chevrons, and Hexagons, and Baby Stuff Too!

**Update--This project is back after being published in the 2013 Cricut Babies Idea Book . If you can't see the card images try refreshing your browser.**

Over the weekend I made a fun discovery. I was glancing through the Letter Envy Cricut Cartridge looking for a cut to catch my eye and inspire some cards I wanted to make, and I found both chevron and hexagon background cuts! Yeah! I've wanted more options for these shapes and  I just fell in love with these two cuts on this cartridge!

I used them as background for these two baby cards.

On the front of these cards I used some clothing cuts from the Baby Steps Cartridge. The ribbon is by American Crafts and the baker's twine by Queen and Company.

I actually decorated the inside of my cards this time as well. The booties are a continuation of the dress cut on the front, and the sentiment is from the Creative Memories Stork's Delivery Cartridge. 

All of the patterned papers for these cards comes from the Cricut Imagine Elsie Cartridge. I flood filled the images from the Baby Steps and Stork's Delivery Cartridges and cut them on my Cricut Imagine. I love how easy the Imagine makes designing Cricut cuts! So fast and simple!

I cut the chevron and hexagon patterns out on my Cricut Mini. I wielded a plain matching shape from Letter Envy to the intricate cuts to make the card base with my Gypsy. I love how well the Cricut Mini handled the tiny intricate cuts from these patterns. The Mini really is a great machine!

More cuts from Baby Steps and Stork's Delivery for this inside of the boy version as well.

Thanks for letting me share!

She Loves Grandma's Quilt

I admit I was very eager to scrapbook these photos from Claire's newborn photo shoot. They are some of my favorites because they mean more to me than just a cute photo of my daughter. When I look at them I see the love my mother has for her grand kids. She pours so much time, effort, and love into each of the quilts she makes them and I was so happy to have images that capture the feeling I get when I see her special  creations. She is such a fun and wonderful grandma and I truly hope my kids will know how lucky they are to have her as friend and example in their life.

The papers and stickers here are from the Echo Park So Happy Together line, the title was done with the my Cricut and the Simply Sweet and Cricut Alphabet Cartridges, and all those fun hexagons were made with Creative Memories new Hexagon Punch--one of my all time favorite tools!

The journaling on this layout reads: "Every time a new grandchild is born grandma makes each of them a beautiful quilt. These quilts are true labors of love and they become such treasures to us. Claire is still a little too small to use hers much, but we did use it a little in her newborn photos. I loved the way she just curled up on top of the quilt and took a long nap. Clearly she loves her quilt already! July 2012"

This quilt has an interesting story behind it. Almost 8 years ago when Blake was born my mom spent a week with us in Las Vegas to help me out. During her stay we made a visit to a local quilt shop and I saw this beautiful quilt kit. Mom and I both just fell in love with it and mom told me she would get it and then if I ever had a girl she would make it for her. 

Well a few years went by and we had another beautiful baby, but a boy. So this kit stayed in the closet and my mom made this amazing quilt for him instead.

After Spencer was born we thought we were done having kids and so I was pretty sure this quilt would end up going to another little girl in the family. 

So when we found out last year that we were having another one and then when we found out it was a girl--I was so excited that my mom still had this kit!

In case you wanted to see a better view of the quilt, here is a photo of my mom holding it up just after she finished it. (Isn't she so talented?!)

I just love the bright colors, the bugs, the chenille accents, and the super soft backing that makes it perfect for cuddling up with Claire underneath it. Thanks mom for making Claire such a treasure!

Swim Like A Fish

Today is the first day of school here and so I'm lamenting the end of summer. Summer is by far my favorite part of the year and normally we spend quite a bit of it soaking up the sun, vacationing and having the time or our lives. With Claire being born in July that kind of made this a different summer for us. We stayed home much more and did a lot less of our usual summer activities. We still have a wonderful time, but this summer was more about cuddling, kissing, and learning all about baby girls than it was about frolicking on the beach. Thankfully in June we did have a family reunion that included a day of beach time. I made this layout about Spencer and his new found love of wave riding on his inflatable lobster with photos from that day.

I used the new Little Yellow Bicycle Splash line for this layout. I loved that it came with a bunch of cute paper embellishments, like these flowers and the banner I put my title on.

I cut my title out with my Cricut using Sure Cuts A Lot and some of the fonts on my computer.

The fish come from the Life's A Beach Cartridge.

The journaling reads: "During this year’s reunion you Spencer, had a blast trying your hand at riding the waves on your little inflatable lobster. You used it to mimic your older brothers who were riding the waves on their boogie boards. You laughed and smiled for hours while you ran back and forth catching a ride on the waves every few minute! It was really fun to see you becoming braver and having such a good time."

So as much as I have loved having Claire with us and the fun joys of a new baby, I'm glad we got this fun day of beach time in too! Maybe now that Claire is older we can squeeze in another one before it gets too cold!

Thanks for visiting today!

Welcome Home Claire!

So sorry for the lack of posts. The combination of lack of sleep and the need to spend half my day feeding Claire has made for less blogging time than usual. Still, I have been getting a few projects done and I thought I'd quickly post one today.

This is a layout about the boys welcoming Claire home for the first time. They were so excited to have her here and just showered her with affection and attention.

The papers and stickers are from the new So Happy Together Collection by Echo Park.

I used my Cricut for the title and white accents. The large heart is from the Paper Pups Cartridge, the small hearts from a Martha Stewart Cake Cartridge, and the butterflies from the Art Philosophy Cartridge. I used Sure Cuts A Lot with my Cricut and some fonts on my computer to cut the title.

The journaling reads: "We are so happy Claire, to finally have you here! Your brothers were so excited to have us bring you home from the hospital! I think they were most excited to “show” you the bedroom we prepared for you. They gave you the grand tour explaining every detail to you. They really wanted you to know how loved you are and how much fun they had helping get the house ready for you! July 2012"

Thanks for stopping by today!

Eating in New York City

A couple of summers ago we had the chance to do an East Coast Road trip. It was a lot of fun! We saw so many things and I of course took a ton of photos! It has been taking me a very long time to scrapbook everything from that trip but I recently dig back into these photos. This layout was one I did a few months ago for the Circle blog using some images from the Creative Memories Traveler cartridge and the City People Cricut Craft Room Exclusive cartridge.

The journaling reads: "Tasting some simple NY food was a fun part of our day in the city. For lunch we bought hot dogs in Battery Park and for dinner we had pizza in Times Square. Marc didn't care much for the sausage dog he ordered for lunch, however the other hot dogs and especially the pizza was wonderful! The boys loved the giant slices! 6/10"

The papers and embellishments from this layout are all made by Basic Grey from their Wander line. One of my all time favorite lines of theirs!

Thanks for visiting today!

Spencer's iPad Miracle

Last year I did several projects for an upcoming scrapbooking idea book by the always fabulous Courtney Walsh. Sadly we recently heard that the book has been canceled. I don't really mind though as this project gave me the chance to create one of my all time favorite layouts. I thought I'd share it with you today as it is a good starting point to talk just a little bit about Spencer and the wonderful progress he has been making lately.

About a year ago Spencer's understanding of how to communicate using his iPad suddenly took off. He uses an app called Proloquo2go to "talk" to by touching pictures that then give a verbal output. This layout is about what an answer to prayer this was and what a joy it is to have Spencer "talk" to us.

This past year Spencer has continued to make remarkable progress with this program. He says his prayers with it, participates in school and church programs with it, and communicates his wants, desires, and even his little boy potty humor with it. He tells me he loves me daily and calls me "Mom" with it. It melts my heart every time! 

I love to see him exploring the menus and discovering all kinds of new things he wants to discuss with us--it is a continued miracle for him.  We also transitioned him from the iPad to the iPod Touch which he can wear around his neck and keep with him much easier than the heavier, bulkier iPad. I love the window to his soul that this tools gives us for Spencer.

The layout itself features a mix of Cosmo Cricket and My Mind's Eye papers. The papers are also embossed with my Cuttlebug. The puzzle punch and the postage stamp rotary cutting blade are tools made by Creative Memories. I also used their Custom Cutting System for the circles and their Stork's Delivery Cricut Cartridge for the hearts on this page. The letters are by Basic grey, american Crafts and Sassafras Lass.

Thanks for letting me share today!

Surfing Cousins

In June my family had a great time together during our annual family reunion. On our beach day it was really fun to watch the cousins all having a great time riding the boogie boards together. The older boys pretty much spent as much time as possible riding the waves. It reminded me a lot of me and my brother Adam spending every moment we could on our boards when we vacationed in Mexico as teenagers. Good Times!

This layout is another with the fun and summery Echo Park Paradise Beach collection. The beach Cricut Cuts are from the Creative Memories Traveler cartridge, and the title was made from fonts on the Birthday Bash and Birthday Cakes cartridges. 

The journaling reads: "For the first time I think all of you boy cousins spent at least some time riding the waves at the beach! In the past some of the younger ones were still a little scarred of the surf, but not this time. Even Spencer and Hyrum caught some waves! Ty, Blake, and Hyrum spent just about every spare moment they could on their boards this time! 6/12"