Life is Good!

I just finished this layout today, I used a sketch from 52sketches52weeks. I love using sketches and Julie does a great job! I love the pictures in this layout -not because they're fabulous, but because of what they represent. Just a typical day, nothing special, just taking a walk around the neighborhood. It was a nice day and we went for a walk; we stopped at several parks along the way and at friends house on the way back home. We are very blessed to live in a nice home, in a nice neighborhood and have friends close by.

The pattern paper is form My Minds Eye and the solid is SEI- I distressed it with sandpaper . I put felt flowers underneath the paper and sanded the top. The SEI paper has a white core. I really like doing the flowers, doodling and bling - so fun! The border on the bottom is K&CO- love that! (You have to click on the picture to get a really good look!) Well thanks for looking!

Shoes!

This has become one of my favorite layouts for several reasons, one it absoloutely shows baby girls personality, two her little feet are so stinkin' cute, and three I was able to also incorporate a ton of flowers, which she also loves! Here is what the journaling says,

"What is it about women and shoes? Even little women! When I take you kids to get new shoes you always light up! Even when you were a baby, if we were in the shoe department you would kick your shoes off, hold out your little feet and squeal with joy until one of us put new shoes on your little feet! We all learned very early that you love shoes! You also get very upset when you outgrow a pair; you still try to wear them so I have to take them when you’re not looking! On more than one occasion you tell me how you love your shoes!"
Just look at those feet! I wish those sandals came in my size - but my feet wouldn't be as cute!

That is how my baby girl looks at me when she is totally happy - isn't it great that something so simple like shoes can make someones day? When she gives that smile, she makes my day!

Priceless.

February Slideshow

Just a recap of some of the layouts I've done this month!

Sing

This is the project I came up with for the altered items project for Allyscraps.com. The theme was spring and it had to have a bird on it. I saw these papers and loved the colors, it just so happened there was also a sparrow! Which reminded me of the song "His eye is on the sparrow" the lyrics are so simple but true...


Why should I feel discouraged? And why should the shadows come?
And why should my heart feel so lonely, and long for heaven and home?
When Jesus is my portion, my constant friend is He.

His eyes in on the sparrow
and I know He watches me.

I sing because I'm happy.
I sing because I'm free.
His eye in on the sparrow
and I know He watches me.


by Civilla Martin, 1905.



I sing all the time, and it brings me joy. Even when times are hard, maybe even more when times are hard. Recently we went through yet another trial with one of our blessings. Our oldest was having heart palpitations, we took her to the doctor. They ordered tests and they came back abnormal for her heart and thyroid. You can imagine how scared we were as we waited for the appointment with the cardiologist! We did not want to cause her any fear so we did not tell her right away, we did have many people praying (if you are one of those people, thank you.) Well the cardiologist says her heart is fine, thank God! She had an appointment with the endocrinologist and they took some more blood for labs. We will not get the results for a few weeks but at least we know her heart is ok.
I know that He is in control. I know that He watches over me and my babies. I know that I can sing and have joy, even when times are hard. And you can too. Blessings to you.

Busy! Busy! Busy!

So it’s been a few days! We went out of town and of can you believe in this day and age our hotel did not have internet access! And here I am with my laptop, finished layouts and no way to post them!
I knew we were going out of town so before we left I had been crazy busy making lots of layouts for all the February frenzy on all the boards! If you don’t know, all the scrapbooking message boards have fun challenges for scrapbooking! Here are some of the ones that I did!
This challange was for a quote from a movie. I picked Twilight. The quote is "Trust me just this once, you are the opposite of ordinary."

I love when you're just hangin' out and you get a great shot! I always love red, black and white color combo.

This next one "Got Kids"was especially fun- I really loved the color combo. Nothing I would normally pick but I really liked the pattern paper; everything else came together quickly. The title is from my cricut "graphically speaking".

The next two layouts I used sketches from a cool site I just found called
http://52sketches52weeks.com/. They post a new sketch everyweek - and you post what you did with it. Did I mention the chance for a prize everyweek? I love it!

This layout is one I have been wanting to do for a while. It is personal and raw. I hate the teenage years- so hard! So you'll have to click on it to blow it up if you want to read about my oldest son. I love this picture, he doesn't, but I think he looks very handsome.

Oh ! I almost forgot the SEI layouts I did below? I sent them in to SEI for a contest and I got an email saying I won first place for the one in the middle with baby girl! First place! It came out in their newsletter today! Not too shabby! I'll have more tommorow! TFL!

More snow layouts!

These are more layouts with the pictures I have taken in the snow! I wish Icould say the snow is over but the weather here is crazy! Yesterday the kids were playing outside with no jackets- beautiful weather ! And this morning? Light frost on the ground and my windsheild is covered in ice! UGGH! I can't wait until spring!!

These papers are allfrom SEI, the Alpine collection. I love the richness of the colors. You probably can't tell but the paprs hav a shimmr effect to them. I've always loved color burgandy. Thanks for lookin'!

Going digital? NOT!

Just for fun I participated in some Valentines day challenges at Scrapperrie! I did them digitally to challenge myself! But you still can't convince me to go digital! There are some definate advantages though, like no mess and easy straight lines! However I still prefer "hands on", I love all the cute embellishments!

The pics here weren't great, but I loved baby girls expression- these boys were really making her mad and she did not want to take a picture with them! Typical boys being silly!

This is such a typical face for my little guy! Handsome, sweet and a little mischievous! I caught his personality perfectly!

This is suppossed to be about something you love, but not a person! I guess I could've done a layout about singing but this has been in my mind to do for a while so I did it! Unfortunately for me tommorow is presidents day so the kids are out of school and I will have to wait until Tuesday to have some down time!

I love how this one came out. This was an advertisment and we had to turn it into a layout. This picture is on the landing of our stairs. Baby girl fell asleep playing with her little dollhouse and you know I had to grab my camera before putting her to bed!

This one is for JM! You know who you are! This is suppossed to be an "anti valentine", "he loves you not" card!

I had fun making this one - it's an on going joke in our family and that goat just cracks me up!

I hope you had a Happy Valentines Day! Thanks for looking!

True Beauty

Sandi from Scrapperrie posted how to make a step out card - it was suppossed to be really simple but of course I had to add my own ideas and came up with this mini book instead! I put together to honor the truly beautiful women in my immidiate family. I liked it so much I think that I will expand it to add all of the women who have influenced my life with thier
"True Beauty".

It was really easy to make thanks to my Cricut and my Zutter. The Bo Bunny paper colors are so dark and rich I had to sand them to make them pop off the page, I really liked the effect.
A small reminder and tribute to the beautiful women in my life, inside and out! My grandmother an original true beauty, even her laughter was beautiful! My mother, always stylish, fashionable, always a lady, true beauty. My oldest, true beauty in her own right-doesn't care what others think, has her own style. The baby beauty, given by God!

TFL!

Levis

What is about your first pair of Jeans that sticks with you? My first pair of jeans were Levis
and I still wear Levis today. So here is baby girl wearing her first pair of Levis and I just couldn't help but feel a little nostalgic!

She looks so cute, and I just had to scrap about it!

I made the letters with my cricut.

76!

I am not really a digital kinda gal but I did this digital layout, to blow up poster size, actually as a gag gift for christmas!

This is my hubby- crazy I know but I love him! We direct a youth choir and drama team and every year we take them to a district and national convention for fine arts. Last year we saw KJ52 and I knew my hubby would get a kick out of him - the kids already were fans. Well sure enough he really liked KJ52! So much so (and being the crazy character that he is) he began to create this whole other persona! 76! The kids were cracking up as he thought up all these crazy things 76 could do - mind you he has no musical talent, but the kids thought he was a riot and the ruse continued. (I teach the music- he teaches drama and other things!)

Many plans were made on this trip for publicity, fan sites, ministry oppertunities and tours. All the kids were assigned numbers that added up to 76 - I was 38 because I am half of 76 . The kids decided that any donations to 76 ministries would always have to end with 76. The kids even did interviews on the street to see if people had ever heard about 76 and/or 76 ministries! One guy tried to give them a dontaion towards 76 ministries, they had to give him change from the dollar (they could only collect 76 cents! 76 policy!) It was all in fun and the kids still talk about it!

The poster was personally autographed (a collectors item you know- only one of two) for our youth pastor who collects different memorabilia from different bands. We felt is was appropriate that he add this to his collection, after all he was there where it all began! (Yes he thinks my hubby is crazy but thats's why everybody loves him.)

I had fun making this layout, digital is ok, I still prefer traditional scrapbooking.
Thanks for stopping by!

Links
more on KJ52 http://www.myspace.com/kj52
our youth choir/drama team www.freewebs.com/anactofpraise

Miracles

Back to snowy weather! The past two days have been beautiful, the 5o's! The kids have enjoyed playing outside.
However the weather is changing, today we had a little rain and the snow is on it's way! :(

So I figure I'd post some snow layouts! This is our middle guy, cute huh? He is so fun to photograph. When I see his pic's I'm reminded of how far he's come! This boy is a walking miracle! When he was three months old they said he could not come home with us because he was to weak. His PKU was abnormal and they thought there was something with his heart. We waited and visited everyday, after a month we got to take him home.

Then they told us he was completely deaf and that he would never speak. So we got a therapist to teach him (and us)sign language - but I was very clear that she was also to speak to him as well. We wanted him to read lips. They did all this testing and therapy. We did alot of praying, so did our church, family and friends. Each test mystified the doctors - each test was a little better than the last. Then the thought was that he had partial hearing loss, then fluctuating hearing loss, then his hearing was completly normal but he still didn't speak. So we continued with therapy not knowing what else to do. There were other things... signs, behaviors. When he turned three he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. He fit every description and some things finally made sense. At three and a half, still in therapy he started talking! Just like that! It was amazing!

More therapies, preschool and many issues continued - we tried so many things. We finally saw improvement, so much that we were told if evaluated now he would not be diagnosed with autism. Things still weren't right with him, but the things we were seeing were not typical of autism. After two years, he was then diagnosed with early onset bipolar. He was so out of control I went from "anti meds for kids" to "we'll try anything"! And I'm so glad we did because he is doing great now! He has had to work so hard at what other kids do naturally, his resiliance is amazing!

So with the help of doctors, therapists, medicines, and alot of research he is getting better every day! Do we still have issues? Yes, but look at him - we have our boy, sweet, loving, affectionate- yeah thats right! Affectionate, passionate, spirited and fun loving. Hmm and you would ask if I believe in God and miracles? Absoloutely. God has plans for this boy to give us all hope and a future! Amen to that!

P.S. Got an email from Becky at pagemaps.com asking me to do a card sample for next month!
Pretty cool - I love that website! If you're looking for some cool sketches go check it out!

"House" design team project

This is the first project I had to complete for the alterables design team at Allyscraps.com. They posted it on their blog so I figure I can post it here! This is an altered tin (provo craft). I used my cricut to cut the borders, windows, grass, door and for the tags. Inside are cards that could be used for recipes (which is very funny if you know me at all!) or for pictures of a new home. I made it easier on myself by using self adhesive paper (autumn leaves). The doorknob is a little rhinestone! The little writing says
"It takes hands to build a house, but only hearts can build a home!" (unknown) I may have to use that in my home somewhere!

I will post whatever I make for this team here, I prefer layouts but this makes for a nice change every couple of weeks! Hope you come back to check it out!

Tag!

February 06, 2009
I've had a blog for one whole month and I just got tagged!
(thanks Michelle!)

Here's how you play...Go to your Picture Folder on your computer or wherever you store your pictures.1. Pick the 7th Folder, then select the the 7th picture in that folder.2. Post that picture on your blog and the story that goes along with the picture.3. Tag 7 other people that you know or don’t know to do the same thing and leave a comment on their blog or an e-mail letting them know you chose them. (If you've seen this before I had to change it to 7 - it was 6 but I couldn't get past the number!)

This is my baby girl, fast asleep on my kitchen floor! This girl is busy, busy, busy! When she get's tired she crashes no matter where she is! Underneath her is scooby doo - who has been in this family longer than she has been alive! Technically it belongs to her 14 year old big brother but he'll never admit it!

Bucket list?

Ok so have you seen the movie "the bucket list". General plot is two older guys go the hospital, both close to death and decide to do everything they had on their "things to do before I kick the bucket" list. Can't tell you if it was good - wasn't really paying attention at the time but I got the general idea.

So it got me to thinking...and today I did a huge one on my "bucket list"! Some things are ongoing like; Letting the people in our lives know how we feel about them. Apreciating the everyday moments in our kids lives. I am accomplishing this by scrapbooking.

And today... I recorded a song!! Actually two songs, one is acapella (no music) ((someone asked for this)) and the other is contemporary gospel.

I will put them on here later when I figure out how to do it! LOL!

And because this blog is about the pictures here is another one for the "bucket list" - adpotion, did this one three times! What's on your "bucket list"?

Acrylic Albums...

I love acrylic albums! They are so pretty and fun to work with! (I love a challange!)This forces me to break out my acrylic stamps! I mixed three different albums (from scrapworks) because I liked the way it looked layered.
The only bummer is that they are so hard to photograph!

The first little tag was stamped and heat embossed. (Autmn leaves stamp)

The pages here are not in order -this actually the fouth page of the book. Another stamped image and below you can see my handsome & oldest son. He's not thrilled about the flower but hey, it's my book! ;)

I love using these black cardstock frames. I painted the leaves green and stamped the circle to match the rest of the book.

These are my middle boys (I did mention we have 5 FIVE kids!) aren't they so cute!

This is the last page in the book. The chipboard is actually black, painted green. All the flowers in this book are Prima. The stamp is Fancy pants.

This is the hubby - don't tell him I post this online if you see him! ;0!

And our two oldest!

This is the second page in the book - it has the nice peek-a -boo thing going on as you can see from the cover. More black chipboard, partially painted green,a little stickles glitter glue, and layered Prima flowers.

See this baby girl and how short her hair is? This girl HAD hair down to her waist three days before I took this picture! We had to give the hairdresser a really good tip to salvage what she did (note the missing bangs as well?)! This girl is standing with scissors in hand, surrounded by piles of hair, I stopped nothing short of shock and asked "Why did you do that?!?"

To which she answers " I didn't do it!"

The Love page: large letters are making memories foam stamps. The small white stamp is autumn leaves.

The love page is just two of my loves

Am I blessed or what?

Thanks for looking!

Good news comes in threes!

Well today I found out that I was chosen to be a guest designer for Scrapperie.com! Pretty exciting stuff! I have been scrapbooking for years but I never submitted any of my stuff! I didn't even know how to do it! This year I learned how to post (upload) my pictures online and that many companies will accept layouts electronically! I figured what did I have to lose? So I applied and sent my layouts, first Cricut now this! For all you scrapbookers, go check it out! Scrapperrie.com -they also have really fun contests for the month of February!

Oh! I did say threes, right! I was also chosen for an altered design team member at allyscraps.com! We will be given a topic every two weeks and have to come up with an altered project! I will post it here after they post it there!It's starting out to be a good year! Happy scrappin'

Isn't she lovely

Isn't she lovely? Our oldest daughter at prom last year. She really is an amazing young lady. She is silly, smart, fun and cute. And thats not just me being a mom! This girl has everything going for her! And we are very proud of her.

Her date is special too - we comsider him as one of the family. They have been friends since about the third grade and he is such a young man. He is very grounded, responsible and sweet. We felt very good about them going together to prom- first date, for both of them.

Here she is with lil' brother. This cracks me up because they can be arguing one minute and the next be best buds. There is always lots of teasing going on. Siblings! Sheesh!

The dress - I have to say we searched everywhere for a dress that she would feel comfortable and beautiful in! We found this dress at the last store (after weeks of looking!) right when we were about to give up! I am so proud of her, she values modesty and look at her! Beautiful! Why do we allow the media to tell our young people that they have to show everything to be noticed? She said many girls complimented her dress. I think the dress was almost as lovely as the girl inside the dress!

Isn't she lovely?

(acrylic album-scrapworks, rubons-making memories, glitter cuts- fancy pants, stickers & bling- Heidi Swapp.)