All by myself

No sketch, no lift, just me going nuts creatively. It was really easy to do with the new DeLovely line by Cosmo Cricket. The colors are so bright and fun. And the impromptu challenge at Challenge Masters added just the right touch. I needed to use at least 10 flowers, and it was really easy to do with these papers and photos. Caitlyn and Peyton were so excited and silly before prom.



Speaking of Challenge Masters, they are having a contest for designing their new site banner and blinkies. There's a cool prize, so check it out if you have digi capabilities!

Last night was Peyton's recital. She was so nervous and excited but of course, she did wonderful! Watching my kids dance brings me so much joy because they love it so much and it really shows when they perform. Can you guess which one is Peyton? I'll give you a clue, she's 13 years old and 5'10". LOL



No rest for the weary, in two weeks, she starts summer classes.

The new challenge is up at Creative Cookbooking, so I'll be getting scrappy this week! Hope y'all are getting lots of creative time in also! Have a great week!

How my brain works

Oh hush, I heard the snickers and giggling. LOL But I have to admit, this is one of my better 4 a.m. ideas. So here's what happened... I woke up too early and started stalking my fellow bloggers. I was on Kayla's blog and she posted a project for the Creative Cuts and More design team that she's on. Well, THAT reminded me that I wanted to go get some of the apron diecuts from that site because I had a great idea to make something. Well, I got over there and found that each apron was .75, a little too rich for my idea which would require many. (Sorry CC&M!) THEN I thought, huh, I'll bet I can find a template online, so I did. THEN I changed up the template to incorporate my newest idea. Whew, I wear myself out, I tell ya! LOL

Anyhoo, here it is. A graduation card for the neighbor girl.

The outside:



The inside:



I'm pretty amused with it! I see so many applications for this... Summer party invites, any card that requires a gift card (or any card for that matter!) and my original idea, to use them to insert recipe cards into for my girls recipe albums.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week! :-)

Quick share

Busy weekend, with maybe a DASH of scrappy time (shhh, don't tell them) but I finished this layout yesterday using photos that y'all have seen already.



It doesn't take much to amuse me, but I bought some mosaic stickers and used those to mimic the tile on the pool liner border and opaque blue letters for the title. And even THOUGH I have the lovely DeLovely in da house, I used stash. Aren't ya proud of me? LOL



Have a great weekend!

Creative Cookbooking has moved

As most of you are probably aware, Ning is no longer offering free forums. Something to do with the economy or some such thing. For the same reason, Creative Cookbooking, which is a non profit group, cannot afford to pay Nings fees, nor do we feel it is appropriate to pass that cost onto our members by asking for donations. We would much rather you spend your hard earned money on scrappy supplies so that you may preserve your family's cherished recipes. As a result, we are moving to Webs.com and the Ning forum will be deleted as of June 1st.

We hope you will love our new home as much as we do! We look forward to seeing you at http://creativecookbooking.webs.com :-)

Go Green challenge

Karen has posted a new challenge on Creative Cookbooking! Woot! She posted some UBER cool examples, but you'll have to check the Creative Cookbooking blog for her layouts. Here's mine, using Cosmo Cricket pp, a beer cap and the twistie from a bunch of cilantro. YUM! I LOVE cilantro! Anyway, Karen has a RAK up for grabs, so check out the challenge and start recycling! :-D



Here's a layout I did for Alecia's challenge. Same thing, Cosmo Cricket pp. Are y'all getting sick of it yet? Yea, me neither. :-D



Thanks for stopping by and I PROMISE, I'll share all of my Iron Chef layouts soon! Of course, you can see them on the Creative Cookbooking forum if you don't want to wait for me... :-D

Happy Mothers Day, part 2

Not to be outdone, here's the 13 year olds letter. :-D

Dear Suzanne (my mommy)

I can't thank you enough for everything you do for me. I'm so spoiled rotten sometimes I just want to laugh at myself! And I have you to thank for all that. I appreciate all the chances you have given me to still be friends with Shannon and you're probably exhausted by now. You're always saying you give up but you know thats not true. You're not that kind of person. You NEVEWR give up. All you have to think is 5 years and you get to live on your boat. Not EVEN 5 years. :-D I really hope you're enjoying yourself but sometimes I can tell you're totally NOT and it makes me sad. :-( Just let me know if theres, well, anything and everything I can do because I really do get off easy. Next time we go to the store, remind me to get a dish scrubber. LOL :-| Thank you, thank you so very much and I love my prettyful momma. :-)

Love, Peyton (Mothers Day 2010)

Now, keep in mind, this kid KNOWS I'm keep this letter, which is why she dates them. And I am SOOO going to the store tomorrow to buy her a dish scrubber. LOL

Happy Mothers Day!

Letter to me, from 15 year old:

Mom,

You have been a wonderful mother to Megan for 21 years, Ethan for 19 years, me for 15 years and Peyton for 13 years. You have given us great motherly advice more than a handful of times and whether we listen or not, you always turn out to be right! You do so much for us around here and never get the credit you need for it, so thank you from the bottom of my heart. Whether I admit it or not, you always know exactly the right things to say when I'm in a situation and need help. You're a great mother to Megan, Ethan, me and Peyton, a great wife to dad and an amazing daughter-in-law to grandpa! Thanks again mom, we all love you very much! Happy Mothers Day!

Love, Caitlyn

Now, see? That's all I ask for... once a year to be told that I'm always right! LOL

I hope all my scrappy friends had a FAB day!

Who could say no?

Only the deep end is filled, but the 13 year old was itching to get in! And once she was in, the other girls couldn't resist. :-D

Almost swim time!

Ohmygosh, it was HOT today! Ninty degrees, and we were in the sun for 10 hours. Miserable, but here is a photo tour of our day. :-)

After removing the liner, we were shocked at how much erosion there was! Nothing that a little pool crete couldn't fix...



Mikey had NO PROBLEM jumping into the mucky water to do what needed to be done, including plucking a frog out of the water and fling it at the nearby tanning 15 year old. :-/



Figuring out which end is the shallow end and which was the deep end was no easy task!



Laying it out.



Yes, these guys are quite proud of themselves! And color me surprised! LOL



All that's left is filling the hole with water and cutting the holes around the fittings. I'm so proud of my guy! He said he could do it himself and he did, with a little help from his friends! Way to go, guys! :-) So, you will start seeing pool layouts soon. Yay, my fav to do!

Have a great weekend! :-)

Distressing photos

I saw this technique in Scrapbooking and Beyond and wanted to give it a whirl. I'll admit, I was a little nervous about dropping a perfectly good photo into a water bath for 5 minutes, but it's only .19, right? LOL So that's exactly what I did. I soaked the photo for 5 minutes and then started sanding. I'm not sure I exactly like the way the distressing turned out, but I'll probably try this again with a finer sandpaper.





This was the last little bit of creating for me until next week. The girls have their prom tonight, dance rehearsal tomorrow night and recital Saturday night. But I will be back on Sunday or so to amuse you with some photos that are sure to make you laugh... 3 dudes who have never installed an inground pool liner installing an inground pool liner. Yea, I'm "supervising" meaning taking photos of what's sure to be a fiasco. Hopefully, they will make me eat my words. Please, please, I want to eat them! LOL

Thanks for visiting, have a scrappy weekend! :-)

Altered board

This project was inspired by my friend Kayla, who shared her altered board on Creative Cookbooking.

I found this cute board at Old Time Pottery for $4.99. Not really my style, but I saw possibilities.



I brought it home and went straight to work. :-D I used Graphic 45 paper and some old buttons I had laying around. I liked the crackly frame, so I left it alone, so it made this a really quick project. It now has a new home in my kitchen. Thanks for the inspiration, Kayla!



I can't stop making these flowers! They are so much fun! Just take a strip of paper (I used a 1 1/2 inch x 12 inch strip) and do an accordian fold of about 1/4 of an inch, back and forth and back and forth until you get to the end.



Glue the ends together and let dry.



When it's dry, just gather at the top and push down onto a punched circle coated with glue. (I set something heavy on top while it's drying.)







When it's all dry, decorate the center with whatever you'd like to finish it off like I did on the two flowers at the bottom left of my project.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week! :-)

Happy May!

Happy National Scrapbook Day! I hope all my friends are getting their scrap on today!

The Iron Chef Cropetition is in full swing, and the "secret ingredient" has been posted! I'm so excited to see who our June guest designer will be! :-)

Here is one project that I've been working on for the challenges. I did a tutorial on making bookmarks. They are so much fun to make, I'm pretty sure every single book in our home now owns one. LOL



It's not too late to join in the fun! All projects are due May 3rd, so come on over! :-)