She's On The Go!

Hi everyone! I have another layout to share today featuring the American Crafts My Girl collection. This one is all about Claire as she started to crawl. She started out slow, but it took no time at all for her to really take off.

The title was done on my Cricut Mini as were the paper hearts. The twine, Washi tape, and pearls are all by Queen and Company. The journaling reads: "Claire, you started crawling almost 2 months ago with a funny combination of an army crawl and an inch worm push forward. It was adorable, but it didn’t last long. Before we knew it you were zooming around on all fours and going practically anywhere you wanted! Now you are an expert and I think you are very leased with your ability to be mobile without any help from us! 4/30/2013"

Have a great Tuesday!

Sweet Little Monkey

Merry Christmas everyone!

Today I just have a quick share of a recent favorite layout of mine. Claire used to fit in this adorable monkey outfit. It really fit her personality at the time too!

The papers and stickers here are by Lilly Bee, the buttons by Basic Grey, the Washi tape and enamel dots by Queen and Company. I cut the monkey out on my Cricut using the Stork's Delivery Cartridge.

The journaling reads: Grandma bought you this cute little monkey outfit Claire just as you started to sit up. We loved it from the cute ears to the soft tail because it fit your emerging personality so perfectly! You can certainly be an adorable “little monkey.” January 2013"

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!

5 Months

It's hard for me to believe that Claire is actually 15 months old! These photos seem like just yesterday!

Someday I'll have all 12 of her first year photo shoots scrapbooked, but at this rate it might be another year or two! Anyhow, here is Claire at 5 months:

The papers, buttons, and tags are by Basic Grey from their Knee-highs and Bow-ties line, Queen and Company Washi tapes and rhinestones, American Crafts large plastic flowers and letters. The ladybug was cut out on my Cricut using the Tiny Treasures cartridge. 

The journaling reads: "What a growth spurt Claire! You now weigh in at 14 lbs! You moved up to 3-6 month sized clothes, but can still wear some of your 3 month sized clothes. Your face is really starting to fill out and get that “Gerber baby look.” Everywhere I take you people come up to me and want to see you. They love your smiles and always say how beautiful and happy you are! You look super cute in your Christmas dresses at church. You met Santa and didn't holler at him. You are grasping things better and love to be in your play saucer and to have toys to hold. You still hate the car at night, but like it during the day. You seem to like music and you like to have me sing to you. You also like the “Baby Santa” DVD and sometimes I use it to get you to fall asleep. You don’t sleep through the night anymore, but you do sleep pretty well. You usually just get up once around 3-4am for a quick eat and then go straight back to sleep. You still charm everyone with your great big smiles. Your whole body smiles now as you wave your arms and kick your feet when you are excited or extra happy. You recently found your feet and often will grab and hold on to them when I change your diaper. You can roll over, but it is more of an accident than a choice. The drool is on and you are starting to soak your shirts more with drool than spit up. You are also constantly chewing on your hands and anything you can get in your mouth. You have a very strong little neck and are always trying to hold it up off the ground so you can look around. You are more patient than you used to be. You love to be held in a standing position. Dec 2012"

Have a great Friday!

Rodeo Hoedown

So every year our elementary schools have a hoedown around the time of the big Houston rodeo. The kids learn and practice their dances during PE and then all the parents are invited to come and watch the kids perform. The kids wear their western gear to school and have a lot of fun doing their dances for and with the guests. It's one of my favorite school days of the year. These are the photos we took before school for the 2013 hoedown.

The papers here are from the Carta Bella Giddy Up Boy collection, the awesome cow print Washi tape and copper pearls are by Queen and Co., and the chevrons, title, and accents were cut with my Cricut and Silhouette Portrait machines. The title uses the Old West and the First Few Years cartridges. The horseshoe is from the Create A Critter cartridge and the wagon wheel is from Tiny Treasures. The hexagon punch is from Creative Memories and the Border punch is by EK Success. 

The journaling reads: "I loved going to the school for this year’s hoedown day, it is a great Texas tradition and one of the best days of the school year! It was really fun having all three of you boys participating, especially since it was Spencer’s first time as a kindergartener! Each of you boys looked great in your western wear and did a fabulous job with the dances you learned. I loved having the chance to dance a little bit with each of you too! Spring 2013"

Have a great Thursday everyone!

A New Favorite Layout--She's A Cutie Pie

I don't often have favorite layouts, but every now and then I make one that I'm just over the moon about. This is my recent "favorite" layout of Claire; probably because I love the photos so much!

The papers and stickers are from the Pebbles "Love You More" collection, the Washi Tape and enamel dots are by Queen and Company, and the border punch is by EK Success. The title was cut out on my Cricut Mini using the fonts from the Simply Sweet and Tiny Treasures cartridges.

The journaling reads: "Oh Miss Claire, you really are super cute! We all just adore you and we are constantly telling you just how adorable you are. Even your brothers comment daily on it! I think you have us all wrapped around your little finger!"

We Love Camping Food!

When we go camping the food is always a big part of the experience. We love to try out new Dutch Oven recipes and experiment with cooking over a camp fire. We have developed quite a few favorite camping dishes and this layout is devoted to them. 

I have been waiting for a chance to use my Campin' Critters cartridge on a layout for some time now and this was my opportunity! I cut the wolf, dutch oven, and large tag with my Cricut using that cartridge. I also cut out various tags from my Holiday Frames and Tags cartridge for the top of the layout. The papers and title stickers are by Echo Park

The journaling reads: One of my favorite parts about going camping is the opportunity to eat recipes cooked in the Dutch oven and over the campfire. We have lots of traditional favorites from roasting marshmallows, foil dinners, and Dutch oven cobbler, to more “exotic” recipes like roasted “Peeps”, Mountain Man Hash, biscuit on a stick, and molten chocolate cake. We love it all! Spring Break 2012

Happy Friday Everyone!

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!

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!

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!

New Queen and Company for Summer CHA 2013

I have had such a great time this past week playing with Queen and Co's new releases. Wendy has put together some really amazing collections of new Washi tape and Candy Shop embellishments! Here are the projects I made for her trade show booth:

These Christmas projects feature Queen and Co.'s new Christmas Washi tapes. 

I cut apart 6 of the Queen and Co.'s paper drinking straws for the border at the bottom. The journaling on this layout reads: “Many months before you were even born Claire, Grandma found this cute Santa dress for you. I couldn't wait to put it on you and take holiday photos! You wore this outfit for our traditional Christmas Eve festivities and you I thought you were the cutest little Santa?s helper ever! Christmas 2012”

Queen and Co.'s new Halloween Washi tapes are also super cute! I think this card turned out to be my favorite project of the bunch. I'm not sure if that is because I love Halloween and candy or because orange is my favorite color. Most likely some combination of the three. 

The candy corn embossing folder if one of my favorite Cuttlebug folders!

 The cute little ghost washi tape inspired me to put eyes on my washi tape banner. 

The journaling here reads: "For your first Halloween Claire you were the most adorable little witch! I got the idea to have you go as a witch from this hat I purchased many years ago when I was taking photos of newborns. Even through I stopped photographing newborns I held on to this hat just in case I ever needed it. And I am so glad that I did! It was a perfect fit for you and inspired the rest of your super cute ensemble. You certainly brought lots of smiles to many people in this outfit! –Halloween 2012”

Animal print Washi tapes are also being released! I had fun with the Zebra print tape here:

 And I used all the different animal prints along with my Cricut to cut out fun animals for this zoo layout. I used the cartridges Noah's ABC's (tiger), and Create a Critter (giraffe, gator) for the animals. 

The journaling reads: "We had so much fun visiting the Houston Zoo this spring! We have been many times before, but this time we got to see the new African Forest that they recently opened there! You boys thought that getting a better view of the elephants, giraffes, and rhinos was lots of fun; however, you all agreed that seeing the monkey pulling nectar out of the giant ant hill was the most fascinating part of the day! Spring 2011”

You can get a good look at all the wonderful products being released by Queen and Co this show by checking out their blog here. 

Thanks for visiting today!

They love Lego Hero Factory

With my boys it seems just about every toy they play with is Lego related. Lego Ninjago and Lego Hero Factory are among their top favorite lines with Lego Harry Potter and Lego Star Wars coming in close as well. Creating their own designs currently trumps recreating what they made with the instructions, so lately we have had a plethora of "original" designs coming through. Each time they finish a new one they ask me to take a photo of it so that they can still remember what they made after they take it apart again. This time Ty wanted to remember this new villain he created:

Once again, this is the fun All About A Boy line from Echo Park. The fun gears are all stickers from this line and I thought they were perfect for a Lego layout. The twine, washi tape, and rhinestones are from Queen and Company, and there are a few random stamped stars from some old Chatterbox stamps I have. The border and the title were cut using my Cricut and Sure Cuts A Lot 2.0. The weathered font I used for the word "Lego" is one of my new favorite alphabets. It comes from Kerri Bradford Studio. I love this alphabet and I'm sure you will see more of it in the future!

The journaling reads: "Ty, you just love to build new things with your Legos! Lately you have been having lots of fun building new characters with your hero Factory Legos. -Fall 2012"

Have a great weekend!

Your First Cub-Cake

Marc and I are in our fourth year of helping make a cake for the annual Cub-Scout Blue and gold banquet. This year however, was Blake's first time! We had a lot of fun designing and making this Lego semi truck cake with him! It's our "fanciest" cake to date and I love how excited you were Blake with the final result!

(Now only 5 more years of cakes to go--we ought to be real experts by the end!)

This layout uses the very fun All About A Boy Line by Echo Park. It's a new favorite of mine and I LOVE the colors and stickers in it! Perfect for layouts of all my three boys are up to! 

I cut the the main portion of my title out directly from my background paper with my Cricut using the font on the Birthday Bash cartridge. I then backed all the letters with various papers--some of them embossed with my Cuttlebug and the Lifestyle Crafts Zig-Zag embossing folder. The white sub-title was cut on my Silhouette Portrait using the Simply Glamours font--I really like the results of die-cutting this thin and scripty font!. There is also some Queen and Company Washi Tape and buttons here.

The journaling reads: "Making your cake for your first Blue and Gold banquet was a group effort Blake! The theme was transportation so you decided you wanted to make a semi truck. You have had a fascination with them lately so we weren't surprised by this! I helped you bake the cake and then dad helped you cut the cake into the right shape. We frosted it and you helped add the wheels and the logos I cut out from frosting sheets. In the end we all had a lot of fun and it looked great! You won an award for the “Legoest” cake! Spring 2013"

Thanks for visiting today!

Your Watermelon Dress

If you have ever been to my house then you may have seen that my powder bath is decorated with watermelon trinkets that I've collected from all over. I'm not sure why they appeal to me so much but they are a favorite thing of mine to collect. This love of mine has recently rolled over to Claire's outfits. Before she was born my mom and I went shopping together and we found some really cute clothes. One of my favorites was this little watermelon dress.  I wish I had better photos of the watermelons along the bottom of the dress part, but you can kind of see them in the bottom right photo.

I used the Echo Park Sweet Girl collection for this layout. The title was cut with my Silhouette Portrait, and the Watermelons were cut with my Cricut and the Doodlecharms cartridge. The Pearls are by Queen and Company. I used my K and Company SMASH date stamp again along with some older stamps by Cornish Heritage Farms. 

  The journaling reads "Right after we found out that you would be a girl Claire, grandma and I went shopping for girl clothes. We had a great time together looking at so many cute choices for you! One of my favorite things we bought that trip was this little watermelon onesie. Once you came you looked so sweet in it. I had you wear it again and again because I loved it so much! Summer 2012"

Thanks for coming by!

Welcome To The Creative Memories Baby Blog Hop!

Welcome everyone! I hope you are having a wonderful time exploring all the wonderful blogs of the design team members. They have come up with some wonderful ways to use the It's a Girl/Boy lines and I have loved looking over all of them myself today! You should have arrived here from Chris Robertson's blog.

If you are just learning about the hop you can start at the beginning by going to the Creative Memories Traditional Blog here. Be sure to collect all the letters so you can have a chance to win one of the amazing baby lines for yourself!

For those of you who are regulars to my blog you will know that last July I had a baby girl, so having Creative Memories come out with a wonderful baby girl line this year was just perfect timing for me! I have loved creating with it and can't stop making new layouts, cards, and other items with this fabulous line!

For today's hop I have a layout to share about my sweet daughter and her love for Puffs! 

 Claire is our 4th child. She has three older brothers who adore her and are her biggest fans. For a long time we thought the boys would be our only children and therefore we were very much out of the baby mindset when we found out Claire was joining our family. 

Having her so long after the boys made it feel like we were starting over again and re-learning these super fun baby stages. Even though that can sometimes make things challenging, there are advantages too. One of the things I like about this fact is that there are some fun new and improved products that didn't exist when the boys were little. Puffs are one of those.

(Yes, sometimes they stick to her face--silly girl)

 They had just come out when Spencer was little and I remember using them a time or two with him, but he was too old to use them for long and quickly moved on to more advanced food. Claire has had a love affair with them now now for several months so I thought I'd snap a few photos of this stage before it disappears and I forget all about it!

I just adore this beautiful baby line (and even though my boys are no longer babies the It's A Boy line is really wonderful for them as well--definitely check it out)! I also used lots of other fun Creative Memories Supplies to make this layout! Here is my supply list:

It’s A Girl Stack Pack

It's a Girl Title Stickers

It's a Girl Stickers

It's a Girl 12x12 Embossed Cardstock

Platinum Shimmer Cardstock

Raspberry Cardstock

White Cardstock

Double Heart Chain Border Maker Cartridge

Scalloped Stitch Border Maker Cardstock

Cheerful Seasons Cricut Cartridge

Foam Squares

I normally wouldn't have pulled in the Raspberry Cardstock with this line, but it perfectly matched the color of my daughter's high chair, and since that was such a prominent color in my photos I felt that it did work well here. I used it in my title (cut with my Cricut and the font on the Cheerful Season's Cartridge), my border, and in the flowers (again cut with the Cheerful Seasons Cartridge) and heart accents on my layout. I think it really helps to tie in the photos with the page.

The journaling reads: 

"Ever since you were able to gum some solid food you have loved puffs! They have been a favorite food for a couple of months now. Your favorite flavor seems to be vanilla, but banana is also high on your list! It is fun to see how excited you get each time you see the bottle of puffs! -April 3, 2013

So for those of you collecting letters to enter the prize drawing my letters are R and A

 To continue on with the hop, head on over to Cindy Liebel's blog here.

Thank you for stopping by today! Enjoy the hop!

If you love baby ideas, you won't want to miss this!

I'm very excited to be participating in another Creative Memories blog hop! They are always fun and have great prizes to win!

This one will be starting in just a couple of days and will feature lots of wonderful ideas using their newest baby lines--It's A Girl and It's A Boy. I adore these lines--some of my favorite lines from any company ever!  They are full of wonderful little details beyond the fabulous papers, like matching embossed cardstock, perfect cardstock stickers and elements, and a matching Cricut cartridge--Tiny Treasures (sadly currently back ordered, but hopefully back in stock soon). I had a lot of fun making my layout for this hop and I can't wait to show it here on my blog!

But since I have to wait until Wednesday here are a couple of my past projects with these lines:

So, I hope you will join me and the other Creative Memories Design team members this Wednesday and Thursday for lots of fun and inspiration!

Have a wonderful day!

3 Months

So I guess I'm adding these to my blog out of order, but here is Claire's 3 month layout. It uses the same wonderful My Girl collection from My Mind's Eye as her 4 month layout I showed last week. 

For the title I covered white cardstock with some Queen and Company yellow and pink washi tape and then ran it through my Cricut using the font on the Birthday Bash Cartridge to cut the letters. 

There is also lots of  Queen and Company pearls, buttons, and twine on this layout

The journaling reads: "You have been growing and now weigh nearly 10 lbs. We can now wear some 0-3 month sized clothes! We have been able to switch back to nursing full time as you are now a much better eater. You smile at everyone all the time and sometimes laugh. You laugh at your brothers most of all. One time Ty zoomed past us in the kitchen and you thought it was the funniest thing! You gave one great big laugh when he did it but refused to repeat it when he tried to zoom by again. You still sleep pretty well at night and frequently sleep for 6-7 hours at a time. You have started hating driving in the car at night. You still love the swing and take lots of naps in it. You have a little bald spot on the back of your head where the hair has all rubbed off. You recently started to love to look at your mobile above your swing. It can entertain you for quite awhile! You really don’t care for the pacifier and we have pretty much given up on using it with you."

Thanks for stopping by today!

4 Months Old

I love doing monthly baby layouts! It gives me a chance to capture a snapshot of time and remember all the fun of each baby stage. Today's layout is about Claire at 4 months old. It's hard to believe she already about twice that age! Time really does fly!

I used the fabulous My Girl collection from My Mind's Eye for this layout. It has become a new favorite collection of mine (it's so fun to play with girl colors and patterns now).

The "4" cut was done with my Cricut and the Graphically Speaking cartridge. The buttons and pink Washi Tape are by Queen and Company.

The journaling reads: "Claire, you now weigh 11 ½ lbs. You recently moved up to size 2 diapers and wear 3 month sized clothes. You love to smile and smile all the time! You started pawing at toys and other objects. You also started sitting in your Bumbo and play saucer where you bat toys around. Your neck is getting very strong and you can hold it up well while you are on your tummy. You frequently demand to be held upright so you can better see everything! At Ty’s arrow of light ceremony you demanded that grandma hold you up where you could look at and see everything that happened. You are very interested in everything happening around you. You will no longer take a bottle at all. You were the cutest little Witch for Halloween! You still spit up all over the place and we are fairly certain that you spit up even more than Blake did as a baby! Thankfully you seemed to have gown out of the phase where the spit up would also come out your nose and make you cry. You love it when your “fan club” (a.k.a your big brothers) arrive home from school each day and you start smiling at them the moment they pile into the van after school!

Thanks for stopping by!