some cards

Just stopping in real quick to share a couple of cards I made with the Green Tangerines March Kit. They are very simple and quick--the kind of cards you can make when you're in a pinch!

This one used a cardstock sticker from Cosmo Cricket (My Best Friend) and their fabulous patterned papers.

A little My Mind's Eye and some ribbon. The Making Memories bling letters are from the Marck Kit embellishment add-on.

Have a wonderful day!

strawberry shortcake party

We had a fun party yesterday celebrating Faith's 4th birthday. I promised my parents I would have pictures up for them to see ASAP! I've unfortunately gotten really sick again in the last week, I had been up to 10 foods I was able to eat. I'm back on the shakes again. Ugh. I was sick all morning and then God have me a 3-hour break for the party! So nice. Not all of Faith's buddies were able to come, so it wasn't too chaotic.

The annual birthday shot next to the Happy Birthday sign. I made this sign my first year in MOPS when my first child was 6 months old. Our kids LOVE putting the birthday sign in the ground every year! Isn't this Strawberry Shortcake dress cute? My mom made it so she would have something special to wear for the party. She loved it! Thanks mom!

While waiting for her friends to arrive, she was surveying the goods. Lots of strawberries!

Does this picture make your mouth water? I sent Tim to the store to buy this special chocolate made for dipping strawberries into, but I couldn't remember what it was called. He came home with something entirely different that wasn't going to work. I happened to have butterscotch chips in my pantry and melted these instead. I wish I could have tried one . . . people told me they were good!

This was the "balloon stomp"game. You tie a balloon on your ankle and try and make sure yours doesn't get popped while trying to pop the others. My girls were really excited about it. Three of the kids did not like this game at all and ran off to get away from the loud popping noise. After a few tears and "Here have a jelly bean," all was well. Guess I learned my lesson . . . wait till kids are at least 10 years old to play this game!

I think we've had a treasure hunt of some sort at every party we've thrown. My girls just love a good treasure hunt. This years treasure . . . strawberry candies of course. Here is Faith dashing underneath the trampoline looking for some candy!

I always try and have some little games for the kids to play, but the trampoline ends up being the biggest hit. And when Tim gets on the trampoline with the kids, it's even more fun!

Since we now have bunnies, we got them out of their cage midway through the party and the kids had a blast chasing and playing with them. So cute!

Check out this cake! This is from Wal-mart. When I ordered the cake she didn't have a picture and showed me the few figurines that she would be using. When Tim brought it home this morning it had this HOUSE on top! And it opens to store all the figures. How cool is that?! Totally unexpected and Faith was thrilled!

I think she liked licking the bottom of the house more than eating her piece of cake. It was loaded with frosting.

My attempt at a group shot.

This picture is from the day before her party. Her Great-Grandma sent her a $5 bill. She's never received money before for a gift. I wish I could have captured a picture of her eyes lighting up. "I got a paper dollar!"

And last but not least, a picture of the girls crashing together at the end of party day in the same bed. On occasion we will discover that they have had a "party" after lights out. I don't know how they fall asleep together like this--at the opposite end of the bed no less. At least we know they love each other.

It was a good day!

green tangerines march kit

The Green Tangerines March Kit has shipped and here is a little sneak peak at the month-in-review I put together. (The March Kit is not quite up yet on their site due to technical issues, but should be soon! You can see the contents at the bottom of this post.)

I can't actually show you the entire layout because the kit club owner wants to sell them (and not have people copy them), but I promise you it's cute! You can fit 7 photos on the layout and there is plenty of room for journaling. As an add-on, it's only $11.99.

Here is a quick look at the contents of the kit:

Such a fun and cheerful kit! Spring has sprung! Have a great weekend!

free actions for photoshop elements

Check out what I stumbled across today:

Pioneer Woman has an amazing blog . . . she's got a little bit of everything! And today she has FREE actions for Photoshop Elements users. So excited about this! I am headed over there right now to download them. Can't wait to scrapbook with them!

she's four!

Our little girl turned four today! Faith was so excited about today. We started a tradition last year that Tim will take the day off whenever it is one of the kids birthdays and we will take them out to IHOP for breakfast. IHOP gives you a free sundae on your birthday and my kids just love the idea of having ice cream for breakfast! Here is a recap of our morning:

When she woke up this morning, this is what she was surprised to find. We decorated her door last night and put a bunch of little gifts (attached with packing tape) on her door. She LOVED this!

The smiley face pancake.

She was so excited to eat the cherry from the top of the sundae!

Happy Birthday Faith!

8 months

This little guy turned 8 months old over the weekend. He is such a fun baby! This past month he cut two teeth, started eating Cheerios, went down to two naps, learned how to stand, learned how to climb stairs and is walking with a walker toy. He was a busy boy!

This teddy bear picture is getting harder and harder to take--this is one of very few that were not blurry. He keeps trying to jump off the couch. Only four more months of teddy bear pictures!

happy monday morning!

We all laid low this weekend and got a few things done around the house. This week I will be prepping for Faith's birthday party next weekend . . . Strawberry Shortcake is the theme. She is so excited to turn four! Here is a little birthday card to start your week:

I used my February kit for this fun card. Hope you have a great day!

sunshine

Hope your weekend is filled with sunshine! It is beautiful here in sunny California!

scrapbook and cards today

I discovered this great magazine about six months ago and have fallen in love! They are based in Canada and you can order a hard copy of their magazine OR you can download it for FREE! Whoever heard of a GREAT and FREE magazine??!!! Be sure and check them out. I submitted something to them on a whim last week and they asked to put it up on their blog today . . . total surprise and totally fun! It's a layout I did for Jillibean Soup back in January when I was a guest designer.

If you didn't catch this last time, be sure you check out my good friend Kristen's blog. She is the one who came up with this great sketch! I just flipped it upside down. She even included a Photoshop Elements tutorial on how to do photostrips--which I used for the above layout. AND she has the original sketch on her blog for you to use. Happy Thursday!

preschool

As I sat with my almost 6-year-old this morning going over her reading/writing lesson, I was reminded of this layout I recently had returned to me from the stack. I just love how she was so focused in the picture below. Some days are like this, other days she is very much like a little squirrel . . .

All of the products on this layout are from the January 2009 kit. You can see more layouts with these fun primary colors here. Just click on doubles or singles and you will see a ton of eye candy put together by various designers. Happy Wednesday!

p.s. This was a Becky Fleck sketch. If you haven't checked out her website, be sure and check her out! She comes up with monthly sketches and posts them for free! So fun!

carrot top & purse

My middle child turns four in eight days. Faith is my child who will eat just about anything, including all her veggies. Two summers ago we planted carrots and she was very eager to eat them when we pulled them out of the ground. Here she is at age two chomping away. This is one of the layouts I recently got back from the store.

The large picture is an 8x12, which I then trimmed down a bit. I love making enlargements of favorite photos. Gotta love Costco at $1.49 each!

Check this purse out!!

Becky Higgins had these on her blog yesterday as a giveaway. I of course commented, but the chances of winning are . . . well, let's just say I'll have to buy it if I really want one! It's a purse and a camera bag in one! And it's cute to boot! How cool is that? You can check out the other colors it comes in here. I did sell some of my scrapbooking stuff over the weekend and made almost enough money to justify purchasing this. I think I'll think on it a few days . . . Happy Tuesday!

family fun

One of the hardest things for me to deal with when I am sick for a long period of time is that I feel like I miss out on a lot of the fun. Tim is so great about providing time for me to take naps, rest, scrapbook, etc. so that my body can get out of the flare. While I am in resting, he is Disneyland dad; he takes them on all kinds of creative adventures. Today I was feeling well enough that I wanted to go have some fun! Our city had a small fair that came to town for the weekend just down the road from us. This is what we did yesterday for a couple of hours . . . and then I came home and took a nap!

The spin ride . . . this is the only shot I got where it looks like they are having fun. The rest of the pictures on this ride they look bored!

10 balls for $2.00. Wow, what a rip-off. The girls both got one ball in the white cups, which just gets you another free ball . . . no prize here today.

The race car season starts up again in two weeks at the local Speedway. My husband loves to go watch on Saturday nights after the kids are in bed. They had a car here advertising opening night. Here he is teaching the kids a thing or two.

Faith really wanted to go on the Ferris Wheel. And then Paige decided if her little sister was going to do it, she'd better go too. I planned on taking both girls at the same time . . . plenty of room. But of course the operator said, "Only two." So, I had to ride this thing twice and pay for it twice. It cost me $15 to take the girls on this ride. Ouch!

I'll have to admit, I was a little scared when we stopped at the top while other people were getting on. We could see everything . . . but it was so high! I was worried my girls might be scared, but of course they loved being able to see EVERYTHING for miles around us!

I just love the expression on Paige's face. I love being a mommy!

We had 3 tickets left and Faith really wanted to ride the rollercoaster. Paige had no desire to ride it (saved us $3) and Faith happily boarded by herself. As you can see, the girl in front of her was having a really good time. Faith said it was really fun, but didn't express that feeling while on the ride. Maybe next time.

This little guy got a FREE ride the entire time at the fair.

Best buddies.

We had a fun outing as a family and perfect weather. They are already talking about when they can go to a fair again. We came home for a break and then Tim took all three kids to a birthday party while I stayed home and rested. It was a good day.

beach trip

This is another layout from the February kit. Right before I got pregnant with Seth, we took a family vacation to Windsor, CA. Tim's parents own a timeshare and are never able to use all of the points . . . so we occasionally help them out. : ) We wanted to go somewhere within driving distance, but all the spots we thought of going were already booked up. But Windsor had a last minute cancellation and we grabbed it. Windsor is a small town in Northern CA. We brought bikes and beach gear and had a great week of relaxation! I made all my Christmas cards for 2008 on this trip during the evenings (it was October, so that was a huge accomplishment!) It was freezing the day we went to the beach, but the kids didn't mind a bit . . . just mommy. But I had to be there to take the pictures!

Hope you have a great weekend!

a heritage layout

I just loved the February kit from Green Tangerines! So much so that I HAD to make another layout! I am slowing trying to compile my grandmother's stories. Here is one of how she and my late grandfather met.

I had lots of scraps leftover and I lightly glued them down across the top. I then got out my trusty sewing machine and stitched through them. I just love sewing on paper! I then pulled up the paper on either side of the thread to add a little dimension. You can see another variation of this technique with circles here.

These flowers are really fun and easy to make. Cut out your base flower in a random, non-symetrical shape. I think they kind of look like an ameoba--you know, those blobs you saw under the microscope years ago? Cut two more in smaller sizes. Next, crinkle them up completely. Open them back up and stack them. Put a brad or eyelet or whatever you fancy in the center and you have a handmade flower! You can see another variation of this flower here. On these three flowers I inked the edges after I crinkled them up. As you can see the flowers are a completely different shape--I don't have a pattern, I just turn my scissors and roll with it. Happy creating!

look grandma & grandpa!

I lost my first tooth! Seth pulled it out when I was making funny faces at him and making him laugh. He swung his little arm up at my face and my tooth fell to the floor. The tooth fairy put $1.00 under my pillow last night. I have another one that is loose too!

Mommy will be back tomorrow with another layout!