A Chuckle & Some Cards

Hey ya'll! Is everyone busy getting ready for Christmas? I have been trying to decorate the house for days & it is a very slow process! Don't forget to check out my giveaway here.

I have a story I just had to share. Last night at dinner the kids were bickering about eating their dinner (as usual) & Ty said to Leah "I bet your milk is not badder than my carrots", to which Leah replied "Badder is not a word". Ty said, in that determined 5 year old voice, "Yes it is, like 'batter up'!"!! I laughed so hard! To me this is one of the greatest things about being a parent-hearing your kids speak from their heart. And I tried to keep that joy in mind this morning as I discovered  that one of the dogs had had an accident in the house & then the bathroom toilet overflowed!! Ahhh!
   
I also want to share some Christmas cards I made recently. I don't typically make cards but thought this is the perfect season to try to remedy that.

I used Riddersholm paper, a tree stamp from Stampin' Up, K&Co snowflakes, a felt bird from Maya Road & some very old chipboard alphas.

For this one I used MME paper & fussy cut the reindeer, some black & white twine, a K&Co snowflake & some AC Thickers. Pretty simple, but that's how I do cards!!
Enjoy your Thursday!
~Stephanie

LCTS #159 & CSI

Happy Saturday  ya'll!
Today I want to share my latest layout for Let's Capture These Sketches. The sketch was provided by Jocelyne Roy & is another fun one!

Here is my layout using mostly all My Mind's Eye products:

The only product not from MME are the letter stickers from Simple Stories. I have adored MME for as long as I can remember & love how interchangeable all of their lines are!
If you get a chance to play along with the newest sketch from LCTS, be sure to link up here. We'd love to see your creations!!

This week I  had the chance to play along at CSI as a guest detective through the Flying Unicorn. What a fun pallette this was!
  
Here is my layout:

There are floral & stripes on the banner pp & hexagons; I used a flower & leaves; I documented a visit from Santa from Christmas of 2008. My journaling is on a tag behind the nutcracker photo & the tag has flourishes on it.
Thanks for stopping by! We are off to shop at some small businesses here!
~Stephanie

Pink and Brown

Hey ya'll! Happy Black Friday! Did you do lots of shopping today? I did none! I fought the crowds last year & decided it was not my cup of tea! I'll gladly pay a little more to avoid that chaos!!!

Today the new challenge went live at Southern Girls Challenges. It is a color challenge-we want to see pink & brown on your project! Here is my layout:

We hope you get a chance to play along & link up your creations here!
I will be back later with more but for now I am off to clean & decorate the house some for Christmas!!!
Yippee!
~Stephanie

Thanks And Giving

Happy Thanksgiving ya'll!!!
Today Ty is not feeling  the greatest. He started saying yesterday afternoon that his head hurt. Well I just  thought it was a fleeting thing because he had a playdate after school &  they were full force! After we dropped off his friend, I had to run to the store & he was crying in the cart that he didn't feel good & just wanted to go home. So we did, & he fell asleep on the sofa for a couple of hours. When he woke up he vomitted a few times. Then he fell asleep again. Definitely not himself! Poor little guy! He didn't want me to read to him, or watch t.v.-you could tell he was just miserable. He says he feels a little better this morning but that his throat still hurts. We are supposed to go to a neighborhood "Turkey Trot"-a walk/run this morning & then dinner at my brother & sil's house at 3:30. I hope he's up for it!

Yesterday the kids had a half day at school &  they both had celebrations in their classrooms. Ty had a Thanksgiving feast complete w/ turkey, ham, mashed potatoes & gravy, corn, cornbread & cookies!

Leah's class made turkey apples! What a cute idea!!

I love my little turkeys!!

If anyone has stuck with me for this long, I wanted to do a giveaway here. I have been truly blessed with health, happiness & wonderful friends & family!! I'd like to share some of my scrappy goodies with you! Please leave a comment telling me what you are most grateful for this year & I will draw a winner on November 30 to receive a "gratitude" package from me! Also, please make sure you are a follower of my little blog!
I hope everyone has a wonderful & enjoyable day!!
Gobble, gobble!
~Stephanie   
  

Flying Unicorn Gives Back!!

Hey ya'll! I wanted to let everyone know about a special event at the Flying Unicorn. You may have noticed the image in my sidebar? Well, each year the Flying Unicorn chooses a foundation to donate to. This year the Anne Carlsen Center was chosen. The Anne Carlsen Center offers a rich tradition of educational, residential, therapeutic, evaluation, and community-based services. Our individualized services include care for individuals — and families — of all ages with cerebral palsy; orthopedic, vision and hearing disabilities; autism, pervasive, and other behavior disorders; and other medical acuities.

The Center’s education program provides students with a safe, secure and loving atmosphere in which they can learn and grow. The Center is approved and accredited through the ND Dept of Public Instruction as a K-12 school.

The Student Council consists of a team of Anne Carlsen students dedicated to helping their fellow peers, classmates and friends. Student Council fund raises throughout the year to help students pay for necessities such as clothing, shoes, winter gear, school supplies or other needs they may not have the funds to cover for themselves. Fundraising also provides a yearbook at no cost to each and every student at the Anne Carlsen Center.

To read more and learn more head on over to their website :

THE ANNE CARLSEN CENTER

 

There is a silent auction taking place now in the forums at the Flying Unicorn. It is running through November 24. All proceeds go to the Anne Carlsen Center. You can check out the fabulous items up for bid here. Just think, you can get some wonderful scrappy goodies while helping out a great cause!! And what a fabulous time of year to give to others & be grateful for all we have.

Thanks for the support!

~Stephanie

Christmas Bliss

Hey ya'll! So Christmas is in 38 days!!! Holy @#*^$%%#!! Where has this year gone?
In honor of the big holiday coming up, I wanted to share a layout I did using the Scrap Friends sketch (#7). Here is the great sketch!

And here is my layout:

I used Riddersholm's "The Day Before Christmas" line. The papers are so exquisite and have a vintage feel to them. I started by splattering black ink on my background paper. I then added several pieces of papers from this line that I cut into banners & distressed them.
I layered some burlap & brown tissue paper under my photo, added punched circles of cardstock (which I added some glitter to), applied some rub-ons from 7 Gypsies, and tucked in some twine bows.

My alphas are from Prima and I inked aroung them with a black marker then added some white paint at the edges with a cotton swab. I also added white paint randomly around the edge of the layout. I love how this effect looks like snow!  The bird and the bell were fussy cut from another sheet of the Riddersholm papers.

The Flying Unicorn is having a sale that runs through the end of the month-20% off all holiday products!!! I am really getting into the Christmas spirit! Hope you all are too and that you remember to take advantage of this wonderful sale!!

Here is another layout that I made recently & haven't had the opportunity to share. I used the November kit from the Flying Unicorn!

I am having the best time scrapping old Christmas photos! These are all from Christmas day of 2008. The kids were so little!! It's fun to look back on them. My days have been spent recently scrapping while listening to Christmas music! I am in heaven!! This is my favorite time of the year!
Happy Saturday ya'll! Hope you have a fantastic weekend!
~Stephanie

Slipping By

Hey ya''ll!
So here it is the middle of November, Thanksgiving is in one week & yet I still feel like Halloween was yesterday! (I actually have some Halloween decorations still out. And our Christmas placemats are on the kitchen table! What?!)
I never did a Halloween recap, so better late than never, here it is!
Leah was a vampiress this year & Ty was a black & red ninja.

Our wonderful & artisitic neighbor did Leah's make-up!

Here is a shot of all the kids who trick-or-treated together:

Trey was a cowbboy & the only cousin to come over this year! We were a bit saddened by that, but Sarah (my 13 yo niece) went out w/ her friends. And the others are too old & we hardly see them as they're so busy w/ their friends!

"It's the great pumpkin Charlie Brown"!!

Here are some pics of our decorations:

I hope you all had a fun Halloween & are enjoying November!!

~Stephanie  

 

LCTS Reveal #157

Hey ya'll & happy Sunday!
Why do the weekends have  to fly by so quickly? After last week with the Book Fair  at school, I could use about 5 days to decompress & just relax! We had a nice weekend though. We went to dinner Friday night w/ my sister, bil & nephew. Then yesterday we went to lunch with friends that we hadn't seen in awhile. It was nice to catch up & hang with them! We ran a few errands and checked out a new fish for Ty. Sadly, he had 2 fish die within a few days of each other so he's now just got one, Jimmy. His heart was broken when the first fish died & he cried for hours. We'll see about adding a new one sometime. Last night we went to  my sister's & had pizza & hung out w/ the family. The kids always enjoy being w/ their cousins & the adults have a good time too!

Friday was the newest sketch reveal at Let's Capture These Sketches. Here is the sketch created by the fabulous Jocelyne Roy:

     
Don't you just love all the vertical strips? And the stars? This sketch is so much fun!!
Here is my layout:

I used the fantastic Novemebr kit again from Flying Unicorn. This kit just keeps on giving! I have made 6 layouts so far & still have product left! I am going to try to make another one today. See the paint splats? They were so fun to add (though a tad messy)! Tammy has a challenge up at FUL to add splats, drips & mists. So that is what I did here.

We'd love for you to play along with this sketch & link up over at LCTS!!
See ya'll later!
~Stephanie

CSI #45

Hey friends! The Flying Unicorn is the main sponsor this month at CSI. We are all thrilled to be able to play along with as many cases as we'd like!! I chose to start with this week's case file.

Here are the details:

And here is my layout:

I used the evidence: trees, book paper (the punched butterflies), wood (the wooden bead in the center of he green flower), metal (the bird on a branch-which can be found in the Flying Unicorn store). For the testimony I went with "add a button to your journal spot (which is under my photo), & inspirational words-home & family. My journaling talks about how "there's no place like home" takes on a new meaning when relating to the closeness of our family ties. I used the November KOM from Flying Unicorn, which contained all of the beautiful papers & elements seen here. You can check it out here.

Thanks for peeking ya'll! I hope to be back soon with Halloween pics & some updates. Things have been crazy busy around my way!

'Night!

~Stephanie    

Nov Layouts

Hey y'all!
I hope you all are doing well. We survived Sandy unscathed-didn't even lose power. I was shocked but oh so grateful! Now my heart breaks daily as I see the teriible destruction in NJ & NY! Gonna do a major clean-out around here & donate to the Red Cross. We need to realize how fortunate we are!

I have been a busy, busy mama this week! Book Fair is in full swing at the kids' school & I am co-chairing it this year for the first time! It's a lot of work but so very worth it. I love seeing all the kids get excited about new books! 

Today was kit reveal at Flying Unicorn. This kit is totally amazing & is my favorite so far! It is chock-full of fabulous papers from Teresa Collins, Authentique & Cosmo Cricket, as well as divine die cuts & delicious chipboard pieces! You will not want to miss out! And I've heard that almost all of the add-ons are sold out. So act quickly!!!
Here are my layouts so far. I have a few more planned in my head-just have to get them down on paper!LOL!!

Here is the OTP this month. It is a 10x10 stretched burlap canvas.

 

 I painted mine black first then added the sentiment, which is a line from a favorite Cristina Perry song. I added a metal bird from Prima; kraft diecut flowers from Maya Road & a Flying Unicorn flower, all of which are available in the Flying Unicorn store.
You certainly will love working with this kit! It has so much to offer!!!
Happy Saturday! I hope to be back tomorrow w/ a Halloween update!
~Stephanie