My 5yo's card for her friend

So, my little girl loves to craft with me. She is constantly asking to make a card or color with me. We have a great craft room "Dad" made so it is rare for me to say no :).  She is only 5 and we were very sad to learn one of her sweet friends was going to be moving far away.  This is the 2nd little friend who has moved away in a year.  I was not surprised at all when she said she wanted to make a card for her. :)

I pulled out all the "good" stamping stuff, plus a bunch of pretty paper (this is from Echo Park a couple of years ago??) and the GOOD card stock.  Emma also has her "own" stash that she went through.

And, I present... a card TOTALLY made by my daughter!!! The ONLY thing I did was teach her masking for the princess face and help her tie the knot!!! WOW.  She stamped, we used the cricut, and she knew how to push the buttons, she added the bling, she WATERCOLORED the princess!!! And, then she wrote the SWEETEST note to her little friend inside.  Enough to make me AND the mom of the little girl a little teary-eyed, "Bye Bye ....(insert name), You will always be my friend. Emma"

Love that girl!

Enjoy!

Kristin

"Rosie" Easter

So I'm not sure if this layout (i.e. my daughter's Easter dress from last year) is why I *love* Rosie Posie so very much or not, but when I finally pulled out the pics and started the layout I couldn't have been happier to have this stamp set!  I also was very happy with my decision to buy Button Boutique (after what, 14 months??) because it was one of Leigh's layouts with the Handmade stamp in Raspberry Fizz that I have remembered forever (!!) knowing it would go on one of E's layouts. (I couldn't find the original layout)

Lots of Hibiscus Burst (PLEASE release that ink soon... I'm dying here... my ink pad is soooo dry), Raspberry Fizz, and little touches of green.

(as a side note I downloaded My Pix from iTunes store to add a watermark to my pictures before uploading them to myself and I like it SO much better than the other free watermarking program I had! I use my iPhone as my only camera now so this is a much better solution!)

Enjoy!

Kristin

Dance the night away

Last year at this time our group of friends had a "Daddy/Daughter" dance.  Emma got all dressed up and she had such a ball.  I never could find the *right* combination of things to make a layout that worked like I wanted in my mind.  And then... along came Rosie Posie stamp set and dies and this layout was born! :)  Anyway, the heart border die, Embellishments, Floral Fusion #3 (and 6?) and flourishy cricut letters completed the look.

Enjoy!

Kristin

Project Life: what I've been up too

Have you heard about Project Life by Becky Higgins?  I've been seeing & hearing about it for a couple of years.  Previously I thought "not for me... it's one more thing and I like to *scrapbook*".  Mainly, I have looked "over the shoulder" of Mish's PL pages as she shared them on her blog.  Now, I've been scrapping for decades!  I have scrapbooks going back to junior high.  You know the ones: pictures, ticket stubs, notes passed in class, etc.  Books stuffed full of my life as a teenage girl.  I only stopped that scrapping shortly after getting married because I had a real job and husband and life and was busy!

I started it up again a couple years later, but this time I was introduced to scrapbooking as we know it today.  The traditional layouts (1 or 2 pages), a title, some journalling, embellishments (i.e. stickers!), etc.  I did this back and forth over the last 13 years.  I have multiple albums full for my kids and a couple of family albums.  But, they are just one event after another: birthday, easter, 4th of july, vacation, school, fall/halloween, thanksgiving, christmas, vacation, (and then start over)... what happened to our daily life?? I didn't really think about it.

Then, a little over a year ago I lost my mom.  She had lived with us for the previous 5 1/2 years.  My children only knew life with her in our home.  And she was gone.  I had lost my chance to document those days with her and them.

Most of my friends and even close family would never know that we are the family that might play music at dinner and the kids will get up to sing and my dh and I have even been known to dance to "Kiss the Girl" from Little Mermaid around the kitchen.  My husband  turned my mom's room into a craft room for my kids and I to craft together and spend time together in her room making good memories.  We can work on their Smash books, make cards, or watch the NYE ball drop drinking cocoa.  We have pajama day at schools, babydolls eat dinner with us, and watching a Star Wars movie for the first time is a BIG deal in our house!  That is our life.  And I want our kids to know that *this* time is a great time- we didn't just get up and go to school and wait for big events to happen.  We didn't just let life happen to us, but we captured the joy life has to offer.

I've kept up with PL weekly (I'm currently caught up on wk 4 bc all my pics went into the sleeves last night and all my journalling was done after going over my Awesome Notes app from the daily notes I keep).  It takes me 30 min a session after I email and print the photos at home. I have decided to keep it to the absolute basic.  I make cards, I still scrap for the kids, I can papercraft to my heart's content in other areas.  I won't allow PL to get overwhelming to me bc I won't set any expectations except to document our life.

I have loved this journey and am so glad I decided to do it.  It has been so worth it.  And the kids and husband love it so far.  The album sits out even now.  And they already look through it. :)

Enjoy!

Kristin

Pink Paislee Snow Day

I *love* Pink Paislee's Snow Day line and I couldn't have been happier when they offered so many of their papers and embellishments for free online during December.  I downloaded every single one!!  I used a sketch from online (?? source- page maps- I don't know!).

Enjoy!

Kristin

3 1/2 years in the making...

This layout is 3 1/2 years in the making...

Great American Scrapbook Convention here in Arlington, TX ... papers & sketch from a class from 2008!!!!

Pictures from a photo shoot from 2009!!!

But, it turned out great and I love it!

Holidays are getting closer!

Are you ready??

Enjoy!

Kristin

Princess 5th birthday

Lots of cricut, CTMH, and PTI makes the perfect birthday LO, the perfect birthday "event" for the perfect birthday princess.

Enjoy!

Kristin

MIM: Pleated Ribbon & PTI: Pages 30 min LO

The top page (left side of the layout) is for Leigh's Pages w/ Papertrey for a 30 minute LO. I used a sketch from this site and had completed my son's so I was sure I could do my daughter's in the time limit. I wanted to use the Make it Monday: Pleated Ribbon challenge so I used a bit of Terracotta Tile grosgrain ribbon as an accent to her page.

Now, for an apology of sorts.  I have neglected my blog for the first time in a long time and neglected the ladies I follow as well.  However, I have used my time to craft (a lot!) instead of surf (or even pin!).  So, I've decided to post the pictures of the things I've made without any (or much) detail.  If you want to know, please email me or leave a comment.

My goal by Christmas is to get back in the groove of visiting all of my blog friends too!

Enjoy!

Kristin

Double (Indepence) Trouble

So, I was trying to be clever with my title... did it work? :)

I like using the same sketch for the kids' "event" layouts that go into their albums.  Then, just use the same family photo and then pics that feature them.  The paper is We R Memory Keepers and I used the cricut for everything else.  PTI's Pure Poppy is my only other addition (buttons, cardstock).

Enjoy!

Kristin

PTI Scrapbook Sketch (November)

Just a quick post.  Leigh hosts 2 scrapbook challenges each month.  I finally participated.  Here is my layout for her sketch challenge for November.

Enjoy!

Kristin

Amber Ink Project 1: Birthday Banner & Princess Wands

Hello! Welcome to my first project for Amber Ink.  I am so very excited to showcase what their products can bring to your crafting projects.  I have lots of different types of projects lined up for you this month, starting with today's post: Birthday Banner and Princess Wands using Amber Ink iPaper.  I used Tiny Picnic Gingham Whisper and for the first time ever using digital paper I am thrilled to death at how easy it was and how wonderful it was to coordinate my projects!

As most of you know I am a working mom of two kiddos.  October is a crazy busy month around my house.  Throw in a birthday for my youngest and that just escalates the chaos.  This year my dd chose "Princess Theme" and I went all-in (don't I every year??  We won't revisit the hours I stayed up creating Gotham City for my son in 2010).

Anyway, banners are HUGE and I had just bought the Cricut Princess Party Event cartridge so of course I needed patterned paper for the banner.  I ended up printing 2 sheets since the first sheet wasn't enough... that's right... I made the cardstock banner a bit too big (and we ALL know I had enough cardstock to make my banner 4 times larger!) but I just went to my printer and out pops another perfectly coordinating gingham patterned paper.  The cricut did all the work after that, of course.  I just assembled and bam, the banner was done!

Well, then a few days passed and I was putting together the "goodie tins" for the girls (the boys will be knights and they get silver tins... I know, cute) and realized that the cartridge had wands in it.  Well, it's a princess party and I wanted wands.  I showed my dd and so I started cutting out the wands.  The "coordinating layer" *had* to match my banner since it will all be on display on the same table.  Out came a couple more sheets of pattern paper!  SO EASY!!!

I am completely sold on digital paper now.  I'm telling you it's the best thing that has happened to me since clear stamps... and that should scare my poor husband's wallet! :)

I'll be back next week for another project. Check out the Amber Ink Blog for more eye candy!

Enjoy!

Kristin

NSBD Tag into project (post 3)

This is the 3rd post of the day... you can scroll down if you want to see a Masculine birthday card or a MIMonday anniversary card.

Nat'l Scrapbook Day was yesterday and I played along with My Pink Stamper. The challenge for this layout can be found at her website.

I got the paper on clearance at JoAnn's but it is awesome!  Shimmer pink with snowflakes and a coordinating printed paper too.  I used some old bling/shimmer cardstock (have had it since she was born) both pink and white.  Then used PTI Sweet Blush, Hibiscus Burst, and Shimmer White cardstock.  The only way I was able to do this so quickly is the sketch came from the Bug Junkie and was pretty easy to layout and I've known I was going to do this layout all week.  Adding the tag at the end was easy.  (I personally still think it needs something... maybe in the middle; plus the 2nd page to the 2 page layout, but I didn't have time).

Enjoy!

Kristin

Beach Babe

Here's a fun 2page beach layout for my daughter's scrapbook. The paper & most of the coordinating embellies are from the StoryTellers kit. When I attended GASC years ago here in Arlington, TX I went to a class hosted by them and got a ton of stuff (long story) for free. I'm eventually getting through it all. What I finally figured out was to use *real* accents (stickles, brads, my own stamping and cricut cuts) and fun stuff from my stash to bring it up to a level I was happy with so I could use their beautiful paper. They include great sketches which I usually use. This has some PTI and cricut stuff thrown in... see if you can spot it :-)

Enjoy!

Kristin

Stamps: PTI MSS: JT
Cricut: LAB, Doodlecharms

Tiny Treats: Valentine

This was a fun Saturday morning with the kids. I pulled out TT:Valentine from PTI and cut out tags on my cricut. The kids picked a few images each, stamped them, colored them (Emma with crayons and Jake with colored pencils), then the sentiments to match. They each signed their name on the back. We then cut out a TON of little red hearts from the cricut and then Jake punched holes in his while I punched holes in Em's. They threaded the lollipops through the holes. Finally, I tied all the ribbons. Valentine gifts, done! :-)

Enjoy!

Kristin

Halloween Treats

This is my OWN version of PTI's TT: Halloween. I used the TT:Valentine large frame with SU Orange ink on white cs. Matted it on PTI Orange Zest cs. Then, with a CTMH Holiday stamp set (with only 3 Halloween images) and an old SU stamp set that was given to me with some sayings on it (the CTMH stamp set had a couple too), I stamped all this out in black ink. I used bags from HL and stuffed with candy for kids in my daughter's class. She and I had a GREAT time doing this.

Enjoy!

Kristin

p.s. all the circles and mats were cut on the cricut of course!!

Do we know how to party???

My daughter turned 4 in early October. She LOVES Tink (hence the card made with Tink cricut cart & PTI supplies), but she fell in love with Jessie from Toy Story. So, I obliged and made an ALL OUT Jessie party for her and her friends. Yes, everything you will see was done by me and my cricut (no border dies available yet... plus, cricut has a cart if I ever am crazy enough to do that again!!). All supplies were PTI cardstock, CTMH cardstock, or scraps I've had forever.

Enjoy!

Kristin

Love me some Emma!

At a crop about 2 months ago I worked (and finished several layouts). This was one. I have searched for the sketch I used and can't find it. If you recognize it, let me know. I used Pink Paislee pp (that includes the tag at the bottom), PTI ribbon and cs, and CTMH ink for distressing. Cricut cuts for her name and it was done. This was the "final" page for her 1-3 yr book, but it is the "introduction" page. It's how I complete a book. Always leave the first page empty, then go back when I decide a book is "done" and take a photo from around the beginning of that book and one from around the end (usually faves that didn't get used elsewhere) and create the intro page. I am TOTALLY in love with this page!!

enjoy!

Kristin

Emma's Cards

Yes, as the title says... ALL of these cards were made completely by my daughter (3 at the time)!! She picks the paper, stamps, colors, and does ALL the work (including the stamping!!). Isn't she a great little card-maker?? Love it!

Enjoy!

Kristin

Bright & Beautiful... fish?

This was to represent Emma's first fishing experience. Hard to balance "girly" with, well, "scaly fish"... but hopefully it looks okay. Lots of pinks with a denim colored light blue and white as the focal color. The flowers and title are from the Tink cartridge. I put stickles on the paper doll girl trying to make her look girly enough!

Enjoy!

Kristin