Here are a few fun pages I just did - my favorite is the one of dd dressed up like someone else. lol.



Here are the girls at the store during closed hours. i think the sterile gloves are a nice touch, they're such a big help for their dad. lol.


My grandmother - she brings us her bingo winnings whenever we have a family dinner together. It's really a big deal for her, and we think its a hoot. We get stuff like dishwashing liquid, tissues, soap, sometimes ceramic figurines too!


the fall festival for our school was held at a local pumpkin farm this year. that was very fun and a nice break from the usual PTO games and activities in the gym. I had to try out my new green Glimmer mist by spraying it over some silk leaves. fun!

Christmas Gifts

Remember back before Thanksgiving and I aluded to some classes held at my house, where we made some Christmas gifts? Can you believe I finally am going to post some pictures! ah! I'm getting caught up.

This mug is bagged and ready for giving, but you can see the general idea. I used StazOn to stamp the image, then painted with ceramic paint. You want to be sure and use clear over the stazon because it will eventually wash off. Porcelain 150 by Pebeo is a good product to use for ceramic.



And here is a Santa Cookie Kit, when i gave them they also had some homemade cookies and almond bark inside. I covered the rolling pin with some patterned paper and then shellacked to seal it. Stamped the side of the tin with White StazOn. They came out pretty cute after I got the hang of stamping the white on the curved edge. The stamps were from a really cute mini set from American Crafts.



Thanks for taking a look! I'll try to come back with something more. I still have coasters to show you. So easy, and the kids were driving me crazy wanting to do them all the time.

Wow. I hope you all are doing a better job of enjoying the hoiday than I am. We have been party central here for the last two weeks and I just haven't had time to talk to you all.

Did I mention we had a couple parties? DeAnne turned 6. We did a Hello Kitty party. I'll have to edit photos before posting them here. It was very cute and really fun. Such nice little girls.

And Steve turned 50. And we got him good! We did a surprise "The Life of Steve" movie party. Including popcorn machine, red carpet, spot light (that said Happy 50th) and Oscar awards for movie trivia buffs.

I didn't have my camera at the party so I will get some pictures from my friends' cameras soon. But for your viewing pleasure - here are the photos that were displayed all over the house, with stories provided by Steve's family and college friends. My favorite classic comment, from 9 yr old Paige... "Why isn't Mr. Price wearing his wig in this picture?" check out the slide show below and you'll laugh along with the rest of us.

I'm slow but steady

So I'm a year behind in both scrapbooking and movie watching.
We just rented Twilight and watched it for the first time tonight. And I admit that I did not have high expectations for it. I rented it because my 10 year old wants to watch it. But i underestimated - I thought they did a really great job with the writing. I love the humor they put into the movie. thumbs up. (not for dd though - i think she would not sleep for a month) but i liked it. i see why all the girls are in love with Edward. My niece can play the whole theme song on the piano. throb.

And I'm a year late on scrapbooking Christmas too.
I am doing some of the challenges at Websters Pages 12 Days of Christmas crop, and i just scrapped the page below. I love the shot, its from last year of course. Did you see Dad has bows in his hair? It was a rare moment of him really getting to enjoy the little ones.



I picked up the snowflake garland at the little antique mall where we sell scrapbook pages and altered things. they just spoke to me and i'm so glad i listened. you may see them on every post for a month.

framed vintage goodness

I just made this over the last two days - the photo acutally took wayyy longer than the actual glass frame. This is a very close reproduction of the inspiration piece done by Iris Babao at Websters Pages. I had limited supplies, and i loved the Christms look, so i just went with her instructions and enjoyed the process. thanks for taking a look!

Being Intentional about Christmas

I just finished up the craft classes I was leading at my house. And what a great feeling to have several hand-made gifts finished, on the shelf, ready to be given at my whim.

Are you intentional about how you do Christmas? Each year I have such grand ideas of how we will celebrate, and each year, the busy-ness of the season somehow gets the better of me. By the time school is out for the holiday, I am ready to crash.

So I just signed up for Jessica Sprague's Holidays In Hand class, and the first thing she wants us to do is identify our values and goals for Christmas. Oh, like I don't have enough stress making a simple shopping list! Seriously though, I do have values I would like to emphasize over Christmas with the kids, and so taking some time to jot down those values has got to do some good.

Her thought starters include
•peace
•family
•tradition
•togetherness
•friends
•warmth
•welcome
•magic
•glow
•spirit
•rest
•laughter
•friendship
•food
•sweets

and many more... I'm going to think about these and be back. Join me - what are the things you want to be doing more of this Christmas. Or less of...

Fun Ones

Here are a couple more pages I've done lately. The first I did because i have been hanging on to this picture since summer and i really wanted to get it scrapped and move on. I thought the new Basic Grey Nook and Pantry papers were perfect for a kitchen themed page.



This second page was done using up my Scenic Route papers. I've got some old lines still laying around and thought they were perfect for the photos of #3 up in the apple tree. She used to say this poem from preschool and its one i didn't want to forget.

way up high in the apple tree, three little apples smiled at me
I shook that tree as hard as I could
down came the apples... mmm they were good

thanks for stopping in. :-)

My Blessings

These days we are trying to focus more on what we need and less on what we want. And if you have a goofy sense of humor, its far easier to get along with less "stuff".
Here are my girls, on our fall photo shoot... we had some pretty funny moments. The oldest of course, quickly loosing her patience with the younger more goofy girls.

Tile Coasters

As I promised, I'll be posting some of the fun projects we've been making here at my craft classes. Most of these are easy and if you've got the supplies you really can't go wrong.

Here are the marble tile coasters we did a couple weeks ago. We used Ranger alcohol inks and just played around, making cool abstract designs. I am hoping to actually stamp some of these puppies and color them in, but these are great fun too.

(click on the image for a closer view)



Give them a try! Just remember you should either heat-set them or probably you could spray seal them, for longer wear.

Old Town tour

I just got back from a trip to Chicago with some of my BFF's - we did a Food Planet Tour, and had such a great time trecking through The Gold Coast, Old Town and a little view of Lincoln Park.

Here are some fun shots i've thrown together tonight, reminiscing...

This is Old Town Oil. I tried some Blood Orange oil combined with Lemon vinegar, some Jalapeno White Pepper vinegar and others, but I ended up bringing home Tangerine balsamic vinegar. Its like a flavor bomb goes off in your mouth. yum. can't wait to make some salad now, add some pomegranite and walnuts... hungry? come on over!



The Spice House - wow i wish i could have bottled the smell in here. Just full of aroma, and taster bottles, sprinkle some in your hand and sample. just wonderful.




One of the fun things I picked up here was some Saigon Cassia Cinnamon. You know those red cinnamon candies that make your tongue tingle? now i've got it in a shaker. I am such a happy girl. :-)




I have some class projects to show off - i hope to post some photos of our beautiful creations in the next day or so. Can't wait to show you!

Fall Bliss

You might recall I had been playing around with some editing techniques.
Here's the end result. this was done for a color challenge. I always love 7Gypsies papers - and I had fun adding some random things that looked fallish to me.



I used 7Gypsies Market paper, a 7G's tag, Scenic Route Laurel letters, a quote from October Afternoon Weather Vane stickers, some metal leaves I've had forever, and some prima flowers, with leaves cut from my stash.
thanks for looking!

Scary but not Halloween

Do you remember how much fun flashlights were as a kid? Here's a page I did for a challenge to use halloween papers on a non-halloween topic. I decided it would be perfect for the camping pictures I had of the girls, when they were scaring each other with flashlights and telling scary stories. Good times. :-)

I used Little Yellow Bicycle paper from last year's line on this. Still had some left over, so why not! The pull-out pictures show them in non-scary poses, and tells the story on the back.

Thanks for looking, and have a great Halloween!

Stepping Into Fall

While I might have been home for almost two weeks between sick kids and sick me, I was at least somewhat productive. I had crochet therapy - I saw a crocheted scarf at Claire's (the store) and thought i liked it but wanted it in different colors. I love how this came out! I wore it today even though it was warm out. It makes me feel comfy.

Here's one you can buy, it's made by Mudd. It's at Kohls. I think i like mine just as well. thanks for looking!

Gold

Here's a page using the most current PageMap blog sketch. Just looking at these apples reminds me how good they were.



I used Cosmo Cricket paper for this with Fancy Pants kraft paper. The branches are from My Cute Stamps, the chip title is Basic Grey, and the trim was a swap. oh I'm wishing for some of those fresh apples.

thanks for looking!

Jars, Bags, and Tags!

Just did another class tonight, and we made some really pretty jars and bags. We were talking about things to fill the jars with. Really they're kind of big for candy, but would be fun for trail mix or carmel corn. But certainly something you don't have to bake! I'm going to run and buy some smaller jars and try to duplicate the style of these.

This first bag uses the new Christmas line from Graphic45. I love the vintage look they come out with every year. They're one of my favorites. Thats some K&Co paper on the bag too. They have a lovely paper pack out for Christmas.


This next pair use the Fancy Pants line of paper. We used the printed tag paper as well, which made this one really quick and easy.



And our third bag uses the Making Memories Mistletoe paper. I love every single design in that line. But my favorite is the cardinal paper (it reverses to the polka dot, love it). And, don't you love how the Jenni Bowlin bingo tag goes with it so well? On the jar we used a tag cut from the Christmas Cheer Cricut cartridge.



Next week we are making coasters. I've got a really a couple really cute designs planned. Can't wait to show them off!

Fall Photo Fun

Yesterday was gorgeous, so after school i ran the girls over to the park and we did a photo shoot. Each fall we do this, because i love the colors of fall. And each year we get some good shots i just love. This year, i decided I wanted to do some Photoshopping on my favorite shots. I am into adding textures, and its amazing how much depth you can digitally add to a photo.
Here is the original,



Here is the edited version, I used the blending mode to add a colored texture, and then framed it with a black grunge frame.




And another shot... I love the golden color here -

but look what happens when you give it a little bump with a brown paper bag texture -

I learned all this from Jessica Sprague's free class this summer. If you've got Photoshop and haven't learned how to use blending modes, put it on your list of things to do. So much fun!!!

It's Beginning to Look a Little Like Christmas

frost on the ground, snow up North... time to start thinking about Christmas.
I know, its not even Halloween. We still have Thanksgiving. But thats the point. I'm gonna get really busy soon. So why not get some things done now and not kill myself in December! I mean, we have two birthdays in December, before Jesus' big party.

I am offering classes on Sundays right now. Today was card making day, and here are some of the samples from the cards we made!

First is a tri-fold HO Ho HO card. When it is opened, the inner flap (which also says HO) stays closed and the tag part pulls out. It could hold a gift card or personal greeting.



Next is a snowflake embossed card. These are really pretty and easy to make, if you've got a Cuttlebug embossing folder, of course. We highlighted the snowflakes with a little Colorbox chalk ink.





I don't know which is my favorite, but i love this next card. I found some pretty scalloped and glittered card bases. We added pretty tree paper and a tag. This came out so pretty in real life. Wish the photo could pick up the softness of the ink and the sparkle of the glitter a little better. The tag is actually a bit more purple too.




And finally, here is a tall card, and we made it a pop-up! How fun to open this very pretty card (paper is Bo-Bunny) and have a 3-D Christmas tree greet you! Love it!





Hope you're enjoying this gorgeous fall, cold weather and all. Email me if you live in the area and would like to inquire about other classes.