Sew Suite rub-on with Christmas page

Ugh.....blogger land is not being very nice right now. It is rejecting every single picture I try to upload. Anyway, I found that I can return to the old blogger way of doing things to get around it for now.
So, anyway, here is a nice and simple page that I made of my daughter playing Poppy's little helper....yes, I know the title says Poppa....she has changed Poppy to Poppa for now.....we'll see if that sticks or not. I just think it's funny!


Here is a little closeup of those little buttons from Crate Paper - I just love those buttons - so much character.  In fact, I bought another pack just the other day of new buttons....I can't resist!  There is a little Pebbles toothpick flag, too.  I used the new SU Baker's twine to tie the buttons, also.

Here is the title area - I used Doodlebug stickers for poppa and echo park stickers for the rest.  The paper is Echo Park and is leftover from the CKC in Louisville I went to this spring.  The little girl is one of the rub-ons from the Sew Suite items that were in the spring mini catalogue for SU.  I colored her using my Copic markers, although I was having a few pieces of rub-on try to slip away.  I really liked the way she added some character to the page. 

Punch pal and paper pieced graduate card

I saw this cute and adorable little wise paper punch owl on Papercrafter's Library recently and decided it was the perfect little piece for a card front!  It was pretty big, though, so I didn't want to add much more to the card and take away from the punch pal, so I used my same sketch from Sassy Lil' Sketches to create this card.  I just flipped mine counterclockwise and made it a vertical card. 

On my card I used the retired Night and Day DSP paper I got on the clearance rack, Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Whisper White, and So Saffron.....and a whole slew of punches!

In addition to the sketch, I decided to take on the Paper Trailmakers Challenge Blog had a paper piecing challenge.   I thought that pretty much went perfectly with my card, so I decided to use some paper piecing on the inside of the card.  I used the retired Congrats, Grad stamp set on the inside.  I cut some copy paper and stamped another little owl image in the bottom.  I colored the body with my Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake and So Saffron Stampin' Write markers.

  For the paper piecing portion, I decided to stamp the little cap on the opposing side of the DSP scraps from the card front.  I cut out the owl's hat as well as a few others - it added just enough oomph to the card to make it perfect for our grads on Senior Day this Sunday!  Now....one card down.....10 to go!

Sweet Details photobook - youth group version

I recently purchased the Sweet Details photobook template for My Digital Studio.  While I am all about creating my own pages in MDS, I adore the ability to just plop pictures in a gorgeous photobook and add the journaling and be done with it.  I love that I was able to make this entire book in only a few hours and now I can allow the students in our youth group to purchase the book, too, as a fundraiser for our summer camp fund!  How awesome is that?!?!?  Enjoy!

Strength and Hope - Christmas style

 I am almost finished with all of my Christmas pictures (insert happy dance here!)  Not that I mind making Christmas album pages....I just never end up making them around Christmas time.....It's a little hard to get in the Christmas spirit when school's almost out for summer! 

Anyway, I used the Real Red and Old Olive Designer Series paper from the Brights Collection as well as some patterned paper from the PlayDate Designer Series Paper for this layout.   

Here is the first page in my layout.  I made a card the other day for the May challenge at The (paper) Trail Makers challenge blog and got featured, so it inspired me to use another doily on my layout.  This time it was a heart doily (the kind you find on the Target $1 spot at Valentine's Day). 

Here's a closeup of the bottom part.  I used a leftover piece of sticker sheet to create the circle frame for the picture.  The paper daisy is colored red with a Copic marker and has a ribbon tied onto a pretty red ribbon slide from Making Memories.  The pleated ribbon is also from Making Memories.  Finally, I used the Strength and Hope stamp set to create the butterfly in real red with soft suede around the edges.  The bottom piece is a scrap of Whisper White paper that I stamped in Versamark and sponged Real Red chalk pastels onto (the Poppin' Pastel technique).  It is embossed with a polka dot embossing folder and die cut with the larger scallop square on the Scallop Square Duo die.

I finished it off with this second page.   Pretty similar overall - those borders are cut with the Tasteful Trim XL diecut.  The title is from Making Memories and there are also some leftover stickers from a Simply Scrappin' kit - I tied those ornaments on with Baker's Twine.

Christmas cookies

Here is my daughter in her ultimate haven - making Christmas cookies on Christmas day to take to our family reunion.  Mind you, the icing was lacking in consistency - not enough powdered sugar, if I remember correctly....but it still tasted great!  She had a wonderful time making cookies, even if they didn't look beautiful!  I love having a little helper in the kitchen!  I can't wait to see what kinds of things she will eventually cook up!

This is from a CTMH kit that I got from a friend, Carla Lowe - one of my club members.  I took the sketch given in the directions and flipped it on it's side so that it would work with my pictures.  I moved around my embellishments and masked off the title and spritzed with Glimmer Mist.  It was a good quick and easy page.  Plus, it had your basic Christmas colors without being overwhelmingly Christmasy.  I have been doing a lot of non-traditional Christmas pages this year....that's okay with me!  Break out of the shell!

Ear Mouskas and my crazy husband!

Do you live somewhere cold where you have to wear Ear Mouskas in the winter?  We had a terribly cold winter this year, so Halleigh was so glad that Santa brought her some ear mouskas (yes, I know the rest of the world calls these ear muffs, but I just can't stop myself - I think it is so adorable when she puts her ear mouskas on!)

I already think about how many little daily things I thought were so cute that I have forgotten on my own.   Thanks to scrapbooking, I can remember these precious little details forever - and that's why I scrap - doesn't matter what brand, what color, what size.....it's the memories that I want to keep forever.  I know I can't keep her small forever, so at least I can preserve these precious memories for days like today when I get all sentimental about just how fast my sweet little girl is growing up. 

Who knows if God will bless us with another child in the future.  Since the rapture didn't happen yesterday, at least we have the rest of our lives to find out exactly what God has in store for us.  It may just be taking care of all the little hearts in our youth group - so fragile and tender, so many hearts hurting this weekend.  It just breaks my heart this weekend to see so many of them hurting and know that there is nothing we can do for them except pray.  Thank goodness we have a Father who is in control and knows best what to do and how to use all of these little hurts, habits, and hangups for his glory. 

My goodness, I never thought keeping a blog could bring tears to my eyes or be so therapeutic!  Egads!  I promise I was just going to tell you that the Sweet Shoppe stamps look much better on the title in person! (They're 30% off this month!) Now I have tears streaming down my face!  Ah, well, nothing that a little prayer won't take care of!   

Or, then again, reminding myself how silly this husband of mine is - here he is at a double surprise birthday party we had Friday night for some of the kids in the youth group (now you see why I haven't posted in a few days?  Look what I have to put up with??!?!)  Just kidding.  I love my silly husband and our thankfully the kids in the youth group don't mind putting up with him, either!

Now to get a picture of Halleigh's most recent discovery - she has BAMpire teeth!   Ha!  Look out Twilight!

Sassy Lil Sketch - May 7th

I found another Sassy Lil Sketch that I liked, so I used some of my new papers to make a page using the sketch. 

I got these papers in my Studio Calico kit from May.   The October Afternoon 5 & Dime paper was a 12X12 sheet, but I cut out the little toy elements to make the bottom border.  You can see it here:

I added a little Pebbles pennant and some red rhinestones along with a few vintage Christmas images from Pretty Little Studio that I won recently.  I used my SU distressing kit to add tea stain and charcoal ink to add to their vintage look.  I used my SU scallop edge punch to create some Basic Black border under the main image.

Here is the journaling spot.  I made some little pennants with scraps of the star side of the Oct. Afternoon page and clustered it together with a journaling spot from Pretty Little Studio.