family photos

My parents have been here visiting and I wanted to share some photos I've been taking. I've been making a mental note of the photographs I want to take with me when I go on my scrapbooking retreat with my friends in April, and something I'm really lacking in is photos of my kids with grandma and grandpa. And photos of my daughter too...I have to admit, I have a lot more photos of my son than I do of my daughter because he was the first child and I had more time back then! Sammy has reached such a cute age that I made sure to get some good shots of her too.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the week...






My mom loves to play with her grandkids...she becomes "one of them" the minute she walks in the door. It makes me feel a little guilty because I know she plays with them a lot more than I do, lol! But I guess that is what Grandma's are for, eh?



Sammy and my Mom



My Dad likes to sit around with the kids on his lap. One of his favorite things to do is to watch t.v. snuggled up with my daughter. He was kind enough to babysit my kids while we went to dinner the other night (my Mom was at my sisters house at the time) and I had to laugh because when I came home Sammy was wearing a diaper that was about 2 sizes to small for her...I don't even know how he got it on her. And it wasn't holding much in either ;) He gets an A for Effort though!






The two shots above will be for a page about my daughter and I...isn't that shot of Sammy's eyes gorgeous? My kids were lucky enough to inherit my husbands gorgeous eyes. I'm not even sure what part of me they inherited to be honest, whenever people see my kids all they see is my husband, ha ha! I do think my daughter may have my artistic inclinations though...she's only 20 months old and she can out-color my son any day. Maybe she'll be a stamper and scrapbooker like me. I would love that! As long as she has her own craft stuff. ha ha.

good apple :: sketch challenge!

Hi everyone,
Lauren is hosting the Lizzie Anne Sketch Challenge this week and I've been dying to pair this apple paper with our Tutti Fruity stamp set. I would love to tell you where I got the apple paper but I really have no idea...I've just had it around for awhile and knew it would go great with the apple image in our stamp set. Ha! So without further ado here is my card...






Now I did bend the sketch a little bit and put my sentiment on the diagonal with the button overhead. I had planned on putting it on the card straight so that fit the rectangular area on the sketch (I noticed that Lauren has used ribbon for that part.) But this was a small card... 4.25 x 4.25 and that sentiment just wanted to be on the diagonal! I'm hoping Lauren doesn't mind! :) I hope that our sketches leave you feeling inspired!

friends and tea

This sentiment from our Tea Time stamp set (two chairs, two teacups, two friends) always tugs at my heart a little. I have a lot of fond memories of sipping tea with good friends. In college, my dear friend Ulrika - who was from Sweden and attending the University of Utah on a ski scholarship - would put a pot of tea on for us whenever we were doing homework together...which was often. She is the one who introduced me to adding milk to my tea, I never did this before! And she'd always serve it with a Swedish cheese called Sturost (there should be two little dots over the "o" in that word" on toast or crackers.

I have another dear friend, Zena, who is from England and offers me a cup of tea every time I visit her. In fact, our entire group of friends are regular tea-drinkers because of Zena...we often all have a cuppa tea when we get together. When Zena goes to CHA with me she always brings her teapot with her so we can have "a cuppa" in our hotel room after the show! I love it! :) Zena actually helped me come up with many of the sentiments in this set.

Fancy a cuppa?



Supplies used:
“Tea Time” stamp set by Lizzie Anne Desings
“Grateful Wheat” patterned paper by KI Memories
Martha Stewart lace border punch
Marvy Corner Rounder punch
Various colors of ink
Green and cream cardstock
Orange stitch ribbon

Sketch Challenge Time!

It's Lizzie Anne Sketch Challenge time! This week was my turn to host and my extra challenge is to add something soft to the card. Really I had this adorable brown felt flower and I was just LOOKING for an excuse to use it. This is the beauty of being the host of the Sketch Challenge for the week, ha ha!

This card has all kinds of texture. There is the felt flower, the twine and and the button, the corrugated cardstock, and then I put Crystal Effects on the leaves (see the second photo.) I love texture and I love this card.

Supplies:
Happy Harvest (leaves) and Sketched Sentiments (Thanks a Million sentiment)
Felt flower by October Afternoon
SU Crystal Effects
Brown ink
Orange Copic marker
1.5 inch brown grosgrain ribbon

i love you little cupcake

Guess what we are doing tomorrow? That's right...we are picking up the Valentine's Day cupcakes we ordered! Yippee! I can hardly wait. Seriously. So I had to make a little Valentine's Day cupcake card to celebrate the occasion. Isn't it sweet?? By the way, our Cupcake single is the Product of the Week and will be on sale 20% off through Saturday!

I have recently discovered several other cupcake stores in my area lately (due in a large part by you, my readers!) and had to share my favorites...if you are in the Seattle area, check them out! (And if you aren't still look at the websites because they are fab.)

Cupcake Royale (where I am getting my cupcakes tomorrow)
Trophy Cupcakes
Look Cupcake
New York Cupcakes

Happy Valentine's Day!

Card recipe:
Cupcake stamp and the sentiment is from Tutti Fruity
Nestabilities scallop rectangle die
K & Co. Sweet Talk Treats patterned paper
3-D Epoxy heart from Making Memories
Brilliance blue inkpad
White grommet
Blue and white polka-dot ribbon
White embossing powder
Pink Copic markers

house / home building...

I've been playing with our Welcome Home stamp set and I thought it was perfectly paired with this cloud paper from October Afternoon. I like the dimension on this card with the chipboard heart and buttons too.

We recently moved into a new house and I've been thinking about how true it is that a house is just a house until you make it a "home." When we first moved in it felt a little weird, definitely just a house. Now that we have been living there for a few months and are already making memories and my kids are getting used to the neighborhood and excited about their new bedrooms it's starting to feel like a HOME. It's also starting to feel more like a home as I paint the walls...that's a big thing for me. I HAVE to have color on my walls to feel at home.

Now all we need is a dog. :) We have been talking about getting a bulldog for a long time, I just haven't been able to commit yet. I'm going to wait until my youngest daughter is out of diapers and I don't have to deal with people poop alongside doggy poop. Just one kind of poop at a time for me, thanks. ha ha ha!

love robot

This is the valentine that we are going to mass-produce for my son to give to his Kindergarten classmates at school next week! His teacher challenged them to make their own valentines instead of buying them and he's pretty excited about it. Ethan adores our Gizmos and Gears set so that's the one I went with. It's pretty darn simple. I will stamp the robots and Ethan can help me punch them out with the Nestabilities label die (he just LOVES cranking that Spellbinders Wizard machine.) Then we will glue a small strip of Doodlebug patterned paper on a red card and layer the robot panel on top...he can help me glue. I will probably stamp the "You rock" sentiment on the side (from our Sketched Sentiments set)...but he can help outline the robot with the sparkly glitter pen and glue the heart on the Robot. He can help tie on the ribbon too. This heart came from a package of Making Memories 3-D hearts I had but the rest of the valentines won't be that fancy...I'm going to the craft store today to buy some simple Mrs. Grossman's heart stickers.

I saw another really cute idea here that Katie Ellsworth recently did for us...the boat from our new Things that Go stamp set. That's a perfect kid sentiment and image for a valentine. It would be cute to have the kids decorate the boat with a row of little heart stickers.

We are having a Giveaway on our company blog this weekend...leave a comment there by Monday morning (feb 9th) for a chance to win some Valentine's themed stamps!

bling bling bling!

This is my take on our LAD Sketch Challenge #64 ...hosted by the lovely Joslyn. The extra challenge was to incorporate a heart somewhere in the layout. Do you think my card qualifies?? HA HA! This card reminds me of walking down the Valentine's Day candy aisle in the grocery store...everything is red, pink, and white, covered in hearts, and there is lots of BLING. I love Valentine's Day candy. Even the so-so chocolates in the little heart shaped boxes (though I prefer See's chocolates.) Even conversation hearts! And those heart-shaped lollipops...those remind me of being a kid.

Supplies used:
So Much Love stamp set (kissing birdies)
Doodlebug patterned paper
Scenic Route chipboard saying and glitter heart transparency
Bazzill chipboard flower shape
Pink Shimmerz paint
Bo Bunny Wild Berry Red Dot patterned paper
Buttons
Red and white polka-dot ribbon

i {heart} you

Did you watch the Super Bowl yesterday? Or did you make cards, like me? :) I have to say, the only thing that makes me sad about the football season being over is that my son has really been getting into football this year (Seahawks fan naturally) and he and his dad would watch the games together on Sundays, leaving me with some alone time. Now if only my daughter could get into football. ha ha!

This card features the heart I love from our So Much Love stamp set and also these super cool metal hangy-tags. I bought this one at my LSS...I've been trying to get them into our online store but alas they appear to be sold out everywhere. The "I heart you" chipboard sentiment is from Scenic Route. I like all the dimension and texture on this card with the metal tag, chipboard, and buttons. It's my style.

So guess what is cool that I just discovered this morning? Valentine's Day is on a Saturday night! Whooo hooo!!! You know what that means? That means my husband and I actually get to go out for dinner that night because my mother-in-law can babysit and there is no school the next morning. I don't think I've ever been out on Valentine's Day...I'm not kidding. I'm trying to remember a time and I really can't think of one...if it's on a weekday (which it usually is) we usually light some candles and eat take-out food. Still romantic, but I'm looking forward to eating at a restaurant this year. I guess I better make my reservation soon!

We have our new Sketch Challenge up for the week so come and play! I already have my card ready and will be posting a bit later.