Valentine's Projects, Cards & a Layout

I had a lot of fun playing with Color Me Daisy's February kit making some simple cards and a couple of gift wrapping projects for Valentine's day. I usually send out Valentine's cards to family with some updated pictures of the boys. I have been busy since going back to work so I had to try to knock out some cards pretty quickly. I made a few different versions of cards and then made a few of each to make them. I love my new scallop punch (if you can't tell from how much I used it for these cards. I also love the Basic Grey Bittersweet papers in the kit. Yum!

Here is the card I made for Mike. Again from the CMD February kit. I used my 3" & 2" scallop punches to layer the flower and bent the edges up and inked them.

After looking at the kids cards for Nicholas and Jackson I could not bring myself to pay $3 a card for their cards. So I whipped a couple of these with some scrap's. I think they are cuter than a Hallmark card. LOL!

I had seen a lot of these wrapped candy bars on other blogs. I thought they were so cute I made these for Mike for his gifts from me and the boys. I used a bunch of BG Bitterwseet scrap's to wrap these up and then made some cones with AC Romance paper. To wrap the I Tunes cards I wrapped up one attached to a Sweetheart's box with some of the scraps from the CMD Feb kit. and I hand cut a little envelope and scalloped the edges for the other card. Mike was pretty impressed with how his gifts were wrapped. It is nice to have a DH that is apprecative of what I make.

Last weekend I scrapped this page from the January Color Me Daisy kit. The journaling is about how just a couple of months after this picture was taken, Nicholas no longer wanted to drink from a bottle anymore. This is the last picture I have of me or Mike giving him a bottle. I am just glad he gave it up on his own and we didn't have to battle over it.

Jackson is 3 Month's Old

I can't believe 3 month's has gone by so fast. I am back at work now and Jackson is home with Mike and Nicholas during the day. Jackson is so fun now. Smiling and cooing a lot. He can be quite talkative at times. He still is a bit fussy in the evenings but we hope that will not last much longer. Here is our big boy at 3 month's old:

365 2009 - Week 6

Monday, February 2After 12 short weeks home with all the boys I had to go back to work today. After looking in on Nicholas still sleeping as I left, I cried. I walked into a fire drill at work, no easing back into it. Mike sent pictures of the boys to me to cheer me up.

Tuesday, February 3 The boys are all sick and I am starting to feel bad. It is so sad for Jackson especially. He is still too little to be sick. Watched American Idol tonight. Start of Hollywood Week.

Wednesday, February 4 I am sick now too. Nicholas's therapy has been cancelled the past two days because the boys are all sick. Work is crazy for my first week back. Have to finish the March kit orders and I just wanted to go to bed early.

Thursday, February 5 Nicholas is starting to feel better. He played all day, toys everywhere, everything upturned.

Friday, February 6 Today is my worst day and I had to work late. Jackson has slept through the night for over a week and decided tonight was the night to revert back to waking up in the middle of the night.

Saturday, February 7 Nicholas colored while we planned meals and the grocery list. Mike and Nicholas went grocery shopping while I spent a good chunk of the day finalizing March kits. Jackson won't go to sleep tonight and Nicholas woke up and we had to sit with him to for a while before he would go back to bed. So much for a hobby night for us.

Sunday, February 8 Nicholas won't take a nap and Jackson won't take a bottle. So much for quiet time today. It's cold and rainy out. The dog's are snuggled under a blanket snoozing until Nicholas disrupts them.

365 2009 - Week 5

Monday, January 26I had my hair cut and colored today, it hadn't been done since a month before Jackson was born. I also got to do a little scrap supply shopping with my store credit. I bought some supplies to get my overdue Thank You cards done. The boys hung out at home. After the boys were put to bed I made cards and Mike played his train game.

Tuesday, January 27 Jackson is taking to the pacifier a little better, it helps him think he doesn't have to eat constantly. He likes to lay on the Boppy now and watch Baby TV with his brother. After the boys went to bed I worked some more on my cards and Mike played his train game.

Wednesday, January 28 Nicholas loves puzzles and has been sitting at his new table a lot to work on them. He is good at puzzles. Mike started physical therapy. I went clothes shopping to find some clothes that fit for going back to work next week. Nana watched the boys while we were gone. No hobby night tonight, Jackson wasn't having it.

Thursday, January 29 I updated the store for February kits. In the afternoon Nana C. watched the boys while Mike had PT and I went to Costco. Nicholas has another cold, where do these things come from? I spent the evening after the kids went to bed organizing, editing and uploading photos to Costco to print.

Friday, January 30 Didn't do a whole lot today, just chores and some business details. Nicholas's cold is bad and he is miserable. Mike and I stayed up late, me working on digital 2009 calendars and him playing with his train game.

Saturday, January 31 Spent some time looking at new products for kits. I went to have a pedicure, when I got home I started dinner and sliced my thumb open while cutting a bell pepper. It bled for a few hours and I hoped I didn't need stitches. No scrapping tonight, my thumb was on fire. We caught up on American Idol.

Sunday, February 1 Spent a lazy day at home for Superbowl Sunday. Watched and rooted for our Arizona Cardinals, but sadly they lost to the Steelers. It was a good game and we can be proud of our home team for giving it their all.

Color Me Daisy February Layouts

I have finished 4 layouts with my Color Me Daisy February kit. I had never scrapped last year's Valentines pictures, so this kit was perfect for those pictures. The kit would also be great for some girly pages. I love the Basic Grey papers they make me crave chocolate (which is not good since I am on Weight Watchers). The American Crafts papers are fun and bold. Working with so much pink with boy pictures was interesting. I used the cardstock add-on to get some more brown and red's in the mix.

I used the Fancy Pants Designs overlay for this one and added the Making Memories blossoms and buttons add-on for the flower arrangement. There is also a rub-on used for photo corner's from the Basic Grey Add-On. Other photo corners were BG button's from kit and AC flair. I love the AC Jewlry Box Thickers.

 

All of the supplies for this one are from the kit, except the rub-on journaling spot which is from the BG Add-On kit. I mixed 4 of the BG papers for this page. I love the AC ribbon. This page is from CKC-Phx in 9/07. I attended the Backstage Party with Lisa Bearnson. It was a fun class, we made a cool canvas and Lisa spoke. It was interesting to hear her story. I also won a set of Pebbles Inc chalks.

Here is my little Love Bug. Cardstock from the CS Add-On all other supplies from the Feb CMD Kit. I love the AC Details!

Some more pictures of last valentines day. The stickers are Making Memories Glitter. I used a Fiskars large scallop border punch for the edges. CS from the Add-On all other from the Feb kit.

Some New Cards

I needed to get several Thank You cards done for Christmas (I know I am really late), Nicholas's Birthday and some gifts we received for Jackson. So I spent a couple of nights this week doing a large batch. It helped that I went shopping for some new stuff to get some inspiration. I used Making Memories Paperie Greenhouse. The bird stamp is by Imaginisce. The Thank You stamps are all Studio G. I made 20+ cards in just a few hours.

Sneak Peeks & Some Layouts

I got to play with the Color Me Daisy February Kit a couple of nights ago. Here are a couple of sneak peeks from my layouts:

I had some time to work on some other layouts as well. This one is from the Color Me Daisy December kit.

Here is a close up of the trees, I staggered them using pop dots with varying thickness to give it some dimension.

I finally got a page done of Jackson's birth. Took me long enough, LOL! Used Making Memories Animal Crackers line, plus My Minds Eye and Heidi Swapp tags.

I also have finished up several layouts from classes I took at the CK conventions in 2008. Most of them were mostly finished or just needed pictures. It was good to get some pictures on the pages and call them done, even if some of them weren't my favorites.

These are from the September CKC in Phoenix Latest & Greatest class. We used Imaginisce and Basic Grey papers for one page layouts. The store Embellish sells a matching page, which I bought even though I usually don't like to do 2 page layouts. And when I was finishing these I rememberd why. I usually don't like to have to work with so many pictures of the same event.

Journaling on the left says: Nicholas, Clark Kent has nothing on you!"

These were using the Basic Grey lines from last year.

This Layout "Why I Scrapbook" was done at the Backstage with Cathy Zielske class. She's one cool ladyand this was the second time I took a class from her. While I don't think my style is quite as "clean and simple" it is definitely more on the "simple" side so I appreciate a lot of what she has to say and she has a funny blog too.

These were from a Quick Quotes class I took in April at the CKC Mesa Convention. I like their classes but they are not relaxing at all. Very fast paced.

The next ones are probably my least favorite layouts. I took two classes from CK. Usually you get really nice products in the class for your projects, but instead this year they gave you the CK scrapbook in a kit's like they sell at JoAnn's. The cardstock and patterned papers in it were thin and the embellishments not all that exciting. But the pages were done, so I may as well use them for some pictures and not worry about it!

These were from a class called Flocked and Fabulous. I didn't really learn anything new. Here we flocked some foam squares.

On this one we flocked some glue pop dots and Doodlebug flocking stickers. The leaves and green border was flocked paper.

This was another CK class - What Matters Most. The papers and embellishments were a bit girly, so for the first one so I made some changes to minimize it since the page was for Nicholas.

365 2009 - Week 4

Monday, January 19Every night while we are eating dinner, this is what errupts at some point. Jackson must be able to smell the food.

Tuesday, January 20 A typical day after a nap, Nicholas gets his cookies, water and Baby First TV to chill out to while he gets the cobwebs out. Then it's back to playing.

Wednesday, January 21 Often when I am feeding Jackson, Nicholas crawls up in the chair with us to snuggle and watch TV.

Thursday, January 22 Nicholas helped Daddy sort the never ending laundry.

Friday, January 23 Went to IKEA in the morning to get a small table and chairs for Nicholas. Then we headed to the Santan Mall to have lunch at Kona Grill, sushi, MMMM! Then we walked around a bit before heading home. We brought out the old high chair for Jackson, he loved being part of the group at dinner. Nicholas was making goofy faces as soon as I brought out the camera. Mike and I got some hobby time in the evening. I was able to make a layout from the Color Me Daisy February kit. I need to clean my scrap room.

Saturday, January 24 I spent some time looking at the Design Team applications for CMD. We walked to the park for a community party celebrating the park opening. Nicholas had lots of fun playing on the slide and swinging. He used to be afraid of the swing, but he loves it now. Another hobby night for Mike and me after the boys go to bed.

Sunday, January 25 Just a day to hang out at home. I took Nicholas outside to play in the backyard, while Mike ran out to Costco. Jackson snoozed in the Baby Bjorn so I could chase Nicholas all over. Opening and closing the screen drawer was completely fascinating for Nicholas today. Nana (R.) came over in the afternoon to see the boys. Jackson slept most of the time, so Nicholas got lots of attention.

Nicholas Turns 2!

So I am a bit late in sharing pictures of Nicholas's birthday party. He turned 2 on January 9th. His Uncle Jon and Aunt Krista and his 4 cousins came for the weekend to help us celebrate.

We had a Winnie the Pooh themed party. I used my Cricut machine to make Nicholas a birthday sign. Mike had got me the Winnie the Pooh cartridge for Christmas so I could make this for Nicholas.

Party decorations including Pooh themed ballons.

I made Nicholas's cake. It was my first effort at baking a themed cake. It wasn't too bad except for mixing all the frosting colors. It wasn't as perfect as a bakery cake, but completely made with love!

I also made cucakes, which was really so I could practice applying the frosting before I did the cake.

Me and my big boy! I cannot believe that he is 2 years old. The time has gone so fast. He is as sweet as he was the day he was born!

Nicholas and his Grandpa Carr. Love his little Pooh ears!

We had hot dogs, so Nicholas could have one of his favorite meals. Of course he had to have potato chips too!

Opening presents was still a little overwhelming. Fortunately cousin Bella was here to help. She would open his presents and while Nicholas would play with the new toy. Bella was ready to open the next one! They made a great team.

Getting ready to blow out the candles on the cake.

The hit toy was picked out by Uncle Jon. It was a Winnie the Pooh treehouse complete with characters from the Winnie the Pooh Sleuthing series (not sure what it is, but I guess it is a newer Pooh cartoon theme). Whatever it is, Nicholas loves it. All the kids played with this most of the night and into the next day. Even 2 weeks later it is one of the first toys Nicholas starts playing with each day. He loves opening the doors and figuring out how it all works.

365 2009 - Week 3

Monday, January 12Had a pediatrician appointment for Nicholas and Jackson today. Our doctor wants us to get an evaluation for autism for Nicholas. There were some red flags in a screening they did, but I know in my heart he is not autistic. Starting to work on the accounting for the business. Our TV shows started back up this week. So lot's of TV time for two nights of 24 and two nights of American Idol at 2 hours a night. I love our shows, but don't like how much time they take up.

Tuesday, January 13 It's a two therapy day for Nicholas, speech in the morning and then physical back to back. The therapists were proud of Nicholas's accomplishments this past week. I re-joined Weight Watchers in the morning. I still have 14 of the 42 pounds of baby weight to lose, plus some more. I did a little grocery shopping in the afternoon, just picking up a few things to get us through the week. Scott, Lori and the girls are visiting this weekend so I'll do a bigger trip before they come.

Wednesday, January 14 More working on the business books. Jackson and I were hanging out in the office and I put him in the Bumbo seat. He sat up pretty good for a 9 week old.

Thursday, January 15 We were lucky and got into Phoenix Children's Hospital to see Dr. Ellis, a developmental pediatrician for Nicholas's autism evaluation. She does not think he has autism, just that he is still behind developmentally from the prematurity. He is about where an 18-month old would be. It was good to have the appointment, to put our minds at ease. Although I was certain there was nothing wrong. We do have to go back in 6 months for a follow up. Dr. Ellis did want us to stop spoon feeding Nicholas, so for lunch that day we gave him a spoon and some fruit and he started using it right away. Just over the weekend he didn't want anything to do with it. Funny how that works.

Friday, January 16 A long push today to get the books done for the business. Almost done at the end of the day. Just a few more hours.

Saturday, January 17 Running around to Costco, Sam's and Fry's to get the grocery's done and get ready for Scott, Lori and the girls coming tonight.

Sunday, January 18 We all went to Mike's mom & dad's to visit in the early part of the day. We came back and hung out in the basement watching the Cardinal's win their final playoff game to go to the Superbowl! Who would of thought?