The first of many Christmas gifts

I made a resolution to make everyone's Christmas gifts this year. Some people are much easier than others to make stuff for. The Grandmas???? No problem. But, what do you make for a 6 year old boy???? I wound up making my nephew Cain (and since my sister doesn't look at my blog, I'm safe posting a picture) a wall hanging with his name and some spots for him to put pictures on. He's way into dirtbikes and I'm sure would love to put some photos of him and his dirtbike on it. I really hope he likes it.

Close to my Heart

Close to my Heart just announced that we can talk about our business on our blogs. Yeah! As you can see, I use a lot of Close to my Heart product, love love love them, and I was a bit bad, as I did mention club layouts in my posts (totally against the rules), but now, I can talk all I want about my business on my blog. How great is that? So, if you're in the Tehachapi area and want to learn a bit more about scrapbooking or card making, just drop me a line.

Ouch!

Here's my little guy being cute, or at least thinking he's cute. This is an Inspired Blueprints sketch (Oct bonus). Inspired Blueprints is a great new site for sketch challenges. Everything is Scenic Route except I did spray some glimmer mist on the chipboard stars.

Whoops, one more

This one is another A Page 4 All Seasons layout. I have subscribed to their monthly Tiny Treasures club (thanks Yvonne for posting your pictures and enabling me!) I love the kits, everything is predesigned and precut for you, just like I do for my club members. How I love being the one spoiled! Anyway, like any club, you get what you get and while I may think, what pictures am I going to use??? Eventually, I find the perfect ones. This layout I've had since May, just sitting there waiting and waiting. See what I mean???? The perfect pictures! This is the last leg of our vacation. My ever lovely youngest child does not like to ride in the car so we got smart and stopped several times on our way home. What should be a 3 hour trip turned into a 9 hour drive home because of the several places we stopped. This is Carpenteria State Beach and daddy and Leo had such a great time playing ball in the surf. At the risk of sounding sappy, it was one of those perfect moments between a father and son.

A few more layouts

Here is my Fall Favorites layout with pictures on it, just for you Yvonne! And for Kim, the layout of Leo when he dressed himself. I know how much you love this picture!



This one is a sketch by Becky Higgins and since CTMH didn't have any fall paper, I made my own with cardstock strips. Cocoa, Barn Red, Autumn Terracotta and Sunflower. I stamped the leaves with Nature's Vein in a variety of inks, rolling them for the two toned effect. Some I stamped the veins with cocoa and clear embossed and some I just embossed with gold powder. The title is the new Chocolate Alphabet stamp, both the big and the small.

This is a Page Maps sketch, by Becky Fleck. I have no idea what paper this is. The base is Heavenly Blue Cardstock and I know I used Basic Grey buttons, CTMH Precious Alpha and the small ribbon from the CTMH chocolate ribbon rounds collection.

Whooeee! What a great husband!

My lovely husband decided that I needed a cabinet to keep all my scrap- crap in. So he went out to Home Depot and got me this cabinet. AND, he actually came home and put it together in the same day! Amazing, I know! Thankfully, it had rained all day and was still a bit nasty outside. That's probably a bigger reason my cabinet got put together, but at the end of the day, all that matters is he did. It's 48" across and still doesn't hold all my stuff. But it's a start! Like the Aaron proofing ribbon on the doors? I actually put the wall around my little niche so he can't get in at all. And of course, it's not that neat anymore. :) Well, the inside is, not the table though

Memory Keeper Boxes

I just love these Memory Keeper boxes from CTMH. At first I wasn't all that thrilled, but then started to see all the possibilities. WOW! The ever talented Lisa Stenz made a bunch to hold the tons and tons of cards she has. My plan is to make one for each of my kids for their momentos. I keep buying them and then keep making other things with them. I made the "Love Box" as my coworker Danette calls it, based on the CTMH webisode. I'm actually going to be doing this as a class at the end of Jan. I think it'll be a great Valentine's Day gift. I also made one to hold Thank You cards, but thinking more, I should have made the box for some other type card as I don't have that many Thank You cards. I guess I should make some, huh?








Normally, I'm all about dimension. Rarely is anything I make flat. I decided to make the Thank You card box flat so a bunch of them could go on the shelf. It's hard not to add something, just a button or two! But, I'm holding strong and am going to do my best not to add anything else.

I've decided

I've decided to start posting things that aren't specifically for club members. I'm going to start posting a lot of my artwork. And, *gasp* it's not all CTMH. While I love our products, there is a lack of great stuff for my little men. I can only scrap my very rowdy, very active boys with flowers and swirlies for so long before I have to branch out to other products. Here are just a few of the finished layouts from our recent vacation to Yosemite National Park and Pismo Beach. Yes, the family spent 5 whole days away from it all. No internet, no cell phones, no communication with anyone we knew. It was fantastic! We hadn't been to Yosemite since we got married, so needless to say, it holds a special place in my heart. I've got tons more, but these are my favorite. I hope you enjoy them and I hope they tell you a little of our story.

Us at the Tunnel View as you enter Yosemite National Park through Hwy 41 from Fresno. This is a very simple layout, just some Bamboo Cardstock, Blooming Flourishes stamp and some dimensional alphabets. I sponged the YNP with New England Ivy ink, then Bamboo and added a little Barn Red at the bottom. That's it. I even journalled in my own handwriting, which I hate. A simple layout for a special place.

All the times we have been to Yosemite, we've never ventured up to Tuolumne Meadows and Tenaya Lake, so I decided that I wanted to this trip. Tenaya Lake was beautiful! The boys had so much fun and waded right in, shoes, pants and all. It was a bit chilly so I didn't think they'd get in the water and didn't bring them a change of clothes. We left Tenaya Lake for a bit, had some lunch, but the boys' clothes and shoes were so wet that we really couldn't do the short hike I had planned. Leo wanted to go back to "Crocodile Lake" so we wound up going back and spending most of the afternoon there before we headed back to Yosemite Valley.

Products used: Good Times, Dimensional Elements Fresh Shapes, Edge Anchors, hemp, Friendship Word Puzzle, Clear tags. This is actually a layout we did at CTMH Regional Celebration in Feb and it's been sitting around waiting for the perfect pictures.

This are just some pictures of Aaron playing at Tenaya Lake. This is actually an A Page 4 All Seasons layout. I loved it so much, I bought it and after I did I thought to myself, "aren't I always complaining about scrapping my boys with flowers and 'girly' paper?" I still loved it and I think these pictures are perfect for it.

Aaron took a header into Tenaya Lake and got a lovely cut on his face. He's such a trooper though because it didn't stop him for more than 3 seconds. Here he is a few days later in Pismo Beach. He had such a great time, and I loved this picture of him.

Products used: Scenic Route Paper, Co'ordinations Cardstock, misc ribbon, CTMH charms, Basic Grey Sugar Chipboard Alpha, Giggle Alpha stamp, Tiny Typewriter Alpha stamp, some sparkly orange embossing powder on the chipboard and pretty green ep on the brads.