Winding down.....

on another awesome month of scrappiness. I can't believe all that I've been getting done this summer! This layout was done for a 'Telephone Scraplift' & I also combined it with one of the Blue Plate Specials.....to create the little folded/pleated flower there in the corner. This layout was done for a challenge to do a food inspired page. I ran across these pics of the kids doing the cake walk at our family reunion a few years back. We also had to include a list/recipe. So, I made a list of all the little cakey treats that the kids won when they played. Notice that bottom photo of Sarah stuffing all her treats! LOL!! They were really Anna & Daniel's treats, but still.........it was funny!

This 4th of July layout was done for MY sketch challenge at CUC. I used a Page Maps sketch & the movie I chose for my inspiration (since all our challenges this month revolve around movies/TV shows)

Memorial Day & Guitar Hero

Just more Blue Plate Special challenges here. The first one was a challenge to create a crumpled/pleated paper border that looks similar to a fabric ruffle. You just dampen the paper, crumple/scrunch & then kind of shape it until it's how you like it.....looking like a ruffly border strip. We were told to use the hot glue gun to stick it down, but I just used my trusty old stapler. I also lifted this LO design from my friend, Wanda. I loved the diagonal strips of paper!! The one below, was done for a sketch challenge with a twist to scrap just some everyday pictures & to 'dirty/grunge' up the layout a bit. I did alot of distressing on this one. First of all, I scuffed up all the edges....paper & photos alike. Added some black paint splatters to the background. Used some torn pages out of an old book. Some old corrugated cardboard & lots of inking! Perfect for a 'Boy' page!

Birthday & Coffee

First of all check out this coffee mug that Ashley found at Cracker Barrel Friday. Wonder if she could drink all that?! Today is Michael's 14th birthday. So we celebrated in our usual fashion at Maw's house. We grilled some burgers & dogs & then had cake & ice cream......with a lot of craziness & nonsense in between!

Take a look at the candles on his cake......get it? 14! I took this especially hoping that Cindy would see it......she just posted a scrap book page on her blog with their own 'candle creations'. Check out her '8-9-0' post.

Ready........set.........

BLOW!

I made all the younguns gather around the Birthday Boy for a group photo. As usual, we had a really fun day! So thankful for all the memories we get to make together! Enjoy the rest of your day, 'Michael-Moo!' (Don't tell him I called him that. LOL)

There Lived a Beautiful Princess.............

More scrappy-ness for your enjoyment. This is Miss Ashley....the day she was born....just a few hours old actually. This was a sketch challenge. Another sketch challenge.....plus we had to use pink. I love this picture of Ashley modeling her Easter dress for us......check out the hiking boots! LOL

This was a challenge to use 4 of something & also to make our own corrugated letters. I chose to do cards.....if we do cards, we have to make 2 in order for it to count toward the challenge. The first one is Michael's BD card.....he'll be 14 tomorrow. I did numbers on his instead of letters & I used 4 buttons.

This bottom card is just kind of a generic one that says '4 U' on the front & I also used 4 little pearls on the flower.

More Blue Plate Specials

I seem to be pulling out the older pictures here lately. Whatever works, huh?! I scrapped these pics of Clay & the kids back in 2009 when they went to Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince premier. The challenge was to scrap some 'Silly' pictures. As long as I've got Jon in there, they're usually always gonna be silly! This layout was done for a sketch challenge & we were to scrap some 'water' pictures & to use blue/turquoise to support the water theme. This was Sarah & Chris playing with the water hose....in 1990. He was 18 months old. Such a little cutie!

What's New Wednesday

Tomorrow I have the 'What's New Wednesday' challenge over at Cookin' Up Creations & I chose to use the TLC show '19 Kids & Counting' for my inspiration:




Anyone who watches, knows that this is a very frugal family....living debt-free & always on the search for a good bargain. They love shopping at Good Will & Thrift Stores....so, imagine my sruprise the other day while browsing scrapping sites for inspiration when I came across this line from October Afternoon.....

So, my challenge for you today is to draw inspiration from this awesome line from OA. However you may choose.....if you actaully have some of these papers, that's awesome. Or maybe you have a terrific little Thrift store find you want to use.....some buttons, lace, game pieces like Bingo cards, etc. I chose to use a piece of an old pattern that my mom gave me....it's actually from my wedding dress. And to tie in with the 'Family' theme, I used a picture of our family. I also pulled a Bible verse that the Duggar's used in their latest book as my journaling.

Puppy Love

Another Blue Plate special at Cookin' Up Creations. This time were to focus on our pets. How appropriate for me. LOL.......considering we have our own small zoo here! I just happened to have these pictures handy of Ashley & Rocky & they worked perfectly with these new papers that I had picked up from AC Moore a few weeks ago. I added the zig-zag stitching, a few cut-out hearts & a name label as my journaling spot. Easy-peasy!

Organizing

Ok, so I've been cleaning/purging/organizing my scrapping stuff today. Clay had bought two storage bin thingies.....you know, like you'd find in a workshop. He got them at a yard sale Sat. for $2....one for me & one for him to have out in his building. Anyway.....you know how you set out to do one thing & it leads to another which leads to yet another & so forth & so on. Well, that's how my day has gone. Here's my table in the middle of this whole cleaning process. Looks like a tornado swooped through!

My new storage unit. Nothing fancy.....but I've got tons in it & still empty little drawers for more. I hope this will help me use stuff.....you know having it more accessable....more right at my fingertips without having to plunder for stuff.

And in the process, I cleaned out several of my drawers. This 'dresser' that I have is actually part of an old bedroom suite that my cousin gave us years ago. The tall chest of drawers is upstairs in the kids' room, but I claimed this one for my scrapping storage. It fits perfectly under the dining room windows.

Paper drawer.....let's see how long it stays this neat. LOL!

And a look at my freshly cleaned off dresser.

This little shelf sits behind me when I scrap. I used to keep this three-drawer storage unit where the new storage unit sits, but I decided to swap them out. I was going to clean this whole thing out, but right now each girl has a drawer & so do I. Alli, who never scraps anymore, was going to have a fit if I cleaned her drawer so I just left this one alone for the time being. Can you see which drawer is hers......the bottom MESSY one! And please don't pass judgement on my stamp basket to the left. I haven't attempted the stamps yet. That will come another day.

And just for good measure......I thought I'd share this picture of Charlie that Alli took. He LOVES sleeping out on top of the dryer. He's even been known to hop inside, if he can catch it empty with the door left open.

July Scraplift

This special challenge is brought to you today by the entire Master Chef Challenge Team over at Cookin' Up Creations. We're really excited to bring you our "Scraplift a Member" Challenge!

For this challenge, the Master Chef Challenge Team chooses one layout from the Cookin' Up Creations Gallery, and then each member used this layout as their inspiration. The layout that we are scraplifting today was created by "Rebecca in MI"!


And here is my take on it. As soon as I saw the photo in her layout, I knew exactly which pictures I was going to use. I loved these silly pics of Ella with her 'Watermelon Boobs'.....straight from our garden. LOL!

This layout was done for the Sunday Inspiration challenge to use the lyrics to a TV theme song on your layout. Immediately the catchy little jingle from 'Two & a Half Men' popped into my head & I had just gotten these pics of the guys up on the roof printed & I thought they would work perfectly for a 'Manly Men' layout.

Pop on over to CUC, when you have some spare time & check things out. The Blue Plate Special challenges have really been so much fun & very inspiring! I'm off to work on some more now.

Harry Potter & LU Orientation

Wow....our computer has been wonky again. This is the first time I've gotten on here since earlier in the day Thursday. Let's see....the kids had a blast Thurs. night at the Harry Potter Premier...except they kinda had stinky seats. They had to sit too close down front & they didn't like it!!! But other than that they had a ball & said the movie was awesome! Ashley got in the bed about 4am & slept til 7! I guess it could've been worse. Then we were up & at 'em for LU Orientation. We met Logan at 8:30 & went over to get them signed in. Thank goodness their last names were close so they were in the same group. Everyone was divided into Red & Blue groups & after the opening session Logan & Ashley stayed in the Town's Auditorium for their student stuff while Clay & I headed over to DeMoss for the parent stuff. After that, we met up with the girls & went & ate lunch in the ROT (The Reber Thomas Dining Hall). That was the first time we had eaten in there in YEARS!! Then, after lunch the Red/Blue groups switched.......so the Blue group went & did the student/parent sessions that we had done that morning & we went to get their student ID pictures made, checked about Ashley's book money & then walked them through finding their classes. Poor Logan looked SO overwhelmed!! Was so glad we could be there with her to show her where stuff is. I'm sure we'll all remember where DeMoss room 2227 is! LOL!! That was a HOOT trying to find that one! Then it was on up to North campus for a bit. They wanted to see the gym/pool/weight room in the Tilley Center & we also showed them the Tower Theater. Clay had never seen that & because they were doing summer theater camp, it was open we got to go in & look around. We hadn't planned on staying all day at all, but by this point, we decided we would at least stay for the reception part which was up in the 'Box' area at the football stadium....up on the third floor. All in all, it was a really good day. We had fun & I think the girls had fun too & hopefully they both feel a little more comfortable & confident about starting school this fall. I didn't get too many pictures....but I did manage to sneak a few for scrapping purposes! ;-)




Logan & Ashley with Sparky

Ashley & Logan enjoying a little rest & some refreshments at the end of the day.

Like Dandelion Dust

Any of you out there Karen Kingsbury fans? If so, you'll know where I got the title to this layout. I happened upon these pics of Clay & Chris the other week while digging through my photo files & when I realized they were blowing dandelions in the pics, I just knew what the title for my layout would be. Kind of a simple layout, really. The paper was from a pad that I got at Walmart & basically I just grouped the photos....did some fussy-sutting around the flowers/leaves. The main photo is pop dotted to give it some depth. (I used my red-neck version of 'pop-dots'.......some corrugated card board I had on hand. Hey it does the trick, right?!) More of those lovely alphas from Cindy. ;-) A few punched butterflies....punched from paint samples & journaling on a shipping tag. Oh yeah....& some crystal glitter glue on the butterflies & flowers.

Another OLD one of Chris. Same year here....1991....he was 2. This was for one of the Blue Plate challenges at CUC. We had to stitch on our layout & add 4 little 'critters'. I ran across this amazing net stitch technique here on Tracey's blog & just knew that I HAD to give it a try. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. Thanks, Tracey for the wonderful inspiration!! I always loved this pic of Chris.....he loved playing with his legos & he also loved that Sparks shirt that was handed down to him from Tim Birdwell.

Buckbeak

Remember Buckbeak from the Harry Potter series? Well, meet our Buckbeak.....Buck for short. Ashley got this awesome shot of him in mid-crow....I just love it! He's such a cool rooster....not mean like almost all the others we've had over the years. He totally enjoyed hanging out with all the cats & LOVED eating all their food. LOL! He's since been thrown in the pen with the others......after they got big enough. I'm sure he's happy now. These 'Farm' papers are OLD.....from when I was on the design team at A Scrappin' Friendsy. All the other embellies were just dug out from my stash & they came together perfectly, I think....especially the green colors. The little tab was stuff from Patti & also the flower transparency. The chipboard letters were from Cindy. The felt flower....I don't even remember where I got it from....I just know there were other colors layered in these felt flowers & I've been taking them apart & putting them back together so they match my LOs. LOL! And lastly....that little piece of a Bingo card came from Good Will. I picked a little dollar Bingo game just so I could have the cards & pieces for scrapping. ;-)

Just another......

layout of the kids playing poker when Chris was home on a break.....or maybe this was before he left for school since it said August 2009 on the back. Oh well.....I did this for the 'Sanford & Son' challenge at CUC. We were to use scraps on our LO & all these patterned papers (except for the background piece) were scraps/leftovers from the other poker LO I did on Saturday. More clearance bin embellishments from AC Moore used here too!

Today's Scrapiness

Finally getting around to scrapping Easter pictures. I've had these set aside for ages....& I found the perfect LO to 'lift' in Scrapbooks Etc. June 2011 issue.

I also snagged Wanda's journaling idea from her Easter pics.....it's a song by Matt Maher-->

'Christ is risen from the dead/We are one with Him again./ Come awake!/Come awake!'

These pics were from October 2009....I'm guessing it was while Chris was home on fall break....Ashley was playing poker with her brothers. I found the cute little chipboard sticker embellies from AC Moore the other day in their clearance bin.

Ashley's Art

I saw that Ashley had finished this today & scanned it, so I decided I'd share some of her artwork this time. She copied the scene off a mug that Clay brought her from his trip to NY. And my artwork of the day was a page 'just because'.....no particular challenge or anything. I had the picture laying out for one of the Blue Plate Specials at CUC this week.....to scrap a special occassion & use Black & White. I kept piddling with it the other day, but it just wasnt' working for me. I know there is definitely some predominant black in the photo....but I kept picking up on the yellow in Sarah's top along with the pink flower petals. I'm really happy with the way this turned out....I think the yellow & pink with just a touch of black really worked with this photo.

The paper is some old Basic Grey. I used some old sheet music....spritzed it with walnut ink & crumpled it some. The little yellow beaded border element under the photo & also at the top were down the side of the music....I just colored it with colored pencils & used it for trim. I also layered some circles cut from the music to make my flower. The leaves, butterfly & other flowers were fussy-cut from the rest of that same BG piece of paper. And I punched a few more smaller butterflies out of a scrap of the pink scallop-y paper. This was Maw's surprise 70th birthday party last February.

Chores

Clay & Jon got up on the HIGH part of the roof yesterday to patch some places around the chimney. I really didn't care to watch.....told them I'd just sit inside & PRAY....LOL! But don't you know Clay had to call me to 'come see! And bring your camera!' Now this is the same man who HATES having his picture taken any other time.....but perch him up on the edge of a two-story roof & he wants me to come take his picture!

Michael was the official ladder-holder. He's on the lower part of the roof...over the kitchen here.

Jon was trying to haul off this HUGE limb that fell from our front tree the other day during a storm. He worked & worked at it & was finally able to get it loose & drag it off to the brush pile. Now, the yard is all clear for Clay to mow!

Amazing

I did this for a challenge over at Scrapping the Everyday Miracles. We were to scrap what 'A New Day' meant to us. I immediately thought about the beginning of each New Day & how I love spending the morning out on my front porch with cup of coffee & book in hand before anyone else gets up. I took these pics one evening as the sun was going down.....I love sitting out there in the late evening too, but mornings are my favorite. I also doubled this layout/challenge with the 'What's New Wednesday' challenge over at Cookin' Up Creations......where we were to use layers. I love layering elements & the cool effect it gives, so this was an easy challenge for me. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. And I snitched the lyrics from 'Everyday Miracles' which plays on their blog & incorporated it using part of it as my title.

Pics from our 4th

First of all....here's the last of the Birthday Bash challenges from CUC. It was an awesome month of challenges & I got them all done, but one. I was sad that I didn't get that last one finished, but I just wasn't feelin' it yesterday & didn't want to push & do something that I didn't like. This challenge was to scrap a funny story & use all four of the primary colors on our layouts. Jon was out target practicing one day when he shot one arrow straight into the other. I told him I bet he couldn't do that again if he tried! LOL!

Look at this cucumber that Michael brough in from the garden! Yikes! He said it wasn't ready the other day when he checked & now it's almost TOO big! The kids peeled it & ate it right then & said it was still pretty tasty to be so big.

This is how we spent our 4th of July! Just hangin' out here at home. Clay worked......he got home about supper time. We grilled some pork chops for supper & then later we did smores for dessert. Clay had also brought home some fireworks, but the kids decided to wait til Tuesday night to do them, since they had already planned to watch a movie that night. It was all good....we had a fun day & the fireworks last night were fun too!