I love love love fall! Here are my boys at our yearly trip to the pumpkin Patch and a list of my fall favorites.

Supplies Used: Patterned Papers (BoBunny, Bella Blvd, Basic Grey, Jillibean Soup), Tim Holts tickets, Jillibean Soup twine, Sassafras Lass letters, Bella Blvd stickers.

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LOL

Here are my sisters, my mom, and I LOLing about who knows what. I'm sure my sisters won't appreciate this layout/ picture, but I figure that I can post it since my mouth is open the widest. ;)

This color palette is not my norm -- I kind of like it!

Supplies Used: Patterned Papers (Basic Grey, Bella Blvd), Jillibean Soup journaling sprouts and twine, American Crafts letters, misc. buttons.

I'm Back...

It's been a long while, but I do have a very good reason why:

At the end of August, I found out that we are expecting our third child. We could not be happier, but just as I received an awesome box of scrapbooking goodies from twopeas that I could not wait to use, the morning sickness hit. ICK! Barf! GAG! I had an exhausting few weeks, but now I am officially entering my 2nd trimester and am feeling so much better. I am itching to dig into my new supplies and start scrapping all of the pictures that have accumulated these past few months.

My sweet boy turned three.  His Car's themed cake was my 2nd time at making a cake with marshmallow fondant. So Fun!

  

 My big boy, Sam, started pre-k. *sniff* I have dreaded this day for so long, as it was his first time to start "real" school, but he has done remarkably well - didn't even shed a tear on the first day. I, on the other hand, was a complete mess. In my defense, pregnancy hormones were in full swing. I found out the next day that I was pregnant!

 To make room for our new little joy, Jack has been evicted from the nursery, and he is now a roomie with his big brother. Any extra time and energy that I have had has been spent on fixing their new room up. More pictures to come.

And believe it or not, when I found out that I was going to be the mother of boys, I made a decision that we would be a gun-free family. Why yes, I sure did!

Lots of summer fun pictures, back to school pictures, and now pumpkin patch pictures are calling my name. I'm so glad to be back into the swing of things!

Happy scrapping!

2 Boys

I'm a sucker for layouts with an 8X10 print! I just love the look of them, and so I jump at the opportunity when Walgreen's offers a free 8X10 print. This picture was taken of my 2 boys during a recent family vacation. I adore the innocence of this photo. My boys are growing up so quickly and are becoming the sweetest little friends.

Supplies Used: Patterened Papers (Basic Grey, Bo Bunny Press, Jillibean Soup), Reminisce flowers, Prima Marketing leaves, Tim Holtz tags

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What I love most about my home...

Pinterest is my newest love. I cannot stop pinning - help! I found this quote on Pinterest and thought that it would be perfect for these photos of my boys. 

Supplies Used: Patterned Papers (Bo Bunny, Echo Park, My Little Shoebox, Fancy Pants, Sassafras Lass, Bella Blvd), Tattered Angels mist, American Crafts vinyl stickers

PageMaps Challenge -Beach Bros

 

These pictures are of my boys at the beach this past June. There is just something so fun and childlike about beach pictures - my favorite to scrap!  

I created this layout for a PageMaps "Freehand Scraps" challenge. Here is the sketch provided by Becky Fleck. There's still time to play: http://pagemaps.blogspot.com/2011/07/freehand-scraps-sketch-contest.html

 

Supplies Used: Patterned Papers (October Afternoon, Basic Grey, Fancy Pants, October Afternoon), American Crafts chipboard,  Jillibean Soup butterfly stickers and BINGO cards

It's the Little things that make life wonderful

Isn't that the truth? I love the little moments that make life so rich and lovely! This was my son and me enjoying an evening at the beach.

I also love this line of Sassafras paper.

Supplies Used: Sassafras Lass papers, Prima Marketing flowers, Jenni Bowlin butterfly stickers, American Crafts Thickers and stickers

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Stuck On You.

 This picture cracks me up! Jack was hysterical about who knows what. I left the boys alone together for a couple of minutes and came back into the room to find a very happy Jack, a proud big brother, and a couple of dozen smiley face stickers stuck to Jack's face. Go figure!

Supplies Used: Papers (Sassafras Lass, Basic Grey, October Afternoon, Scenic Route), Tim Holtz tickets, American Crafts vinyl letters, Spare Parts brads

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Papa and His Boys

 I love these pictures of my dad and all of his grandsons on Thanksgiving Day. I have been sitting on these Basic Grey "Granola" papers for so long, and I thought that they complemented the photos well.

Supplies Used: Basic Grey Papers, Prima Marketing flower, Jillibean Soup journaling sprout, Paper Studio chipboard

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Family is just a little word...

This is a super simple layout that I did in a jiffy. This picture was taken this past Easter. 

I love the quote about family!

Supplies Used: patterned papers (Glitz Designs, Graphic 45, My Minds Eye), American Crafts Thickers, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist

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Super Mario Cake

Here Wii go!

My Super Mario fanatic son was turning five, and all that he wanted was a Super Mario cake. Super Mario cakes are hard to come by these days, and I wasn't about to disappoint that sweet boy of mine. I have never decorated a cake in my life but decided to give it an old college try. 

I found this fantastic tutorial on how to make and work with marshmallow fondant.

I made a practice cake, and with the help of the above tutorial and my good friend Google images, I created this Super Mario Cake. 

My son's only complaint was that the "fire flowers" are not supposed to be coming out of the pipes. Silly me. And did you know that the ? is not supposed to be the color white in the dungeon? How dare I!
Each cake tier has five layers of white confetti cake and yummy buttercream frosting.
This cake weighed a ton, and I am thankful to report that we got it to its destination in one piece without incident....well, I did slice my finger trying to cut the plastic dowels to hold the whole thing together, but that is another story.

 I did purchase the Mario and Luigi cake toppers. Sculpting those little gems was a little out of my league.

 

I sculpted this 5 Up mushroom out of Rice Krispy treats. I covered the mushroom in buttercream, and then in fondant.

I made rolled sugar cookies as party favors. Each cookie has a fondant "helping star."
The tag says:
Here's the Helping Star to say
Thanks for celebrating Sam's special day!

Sam was one happy birthday boy! Ignore my tired eyes...making his birthday cake didn't leave much time for sleep!

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The Big Book of Scrapbook Pages

Yay! I've been impatiently waiting for The Big Book of Scrapbook Pages to be released. This is my first print publication, and so I am ecstatic to have some of my layouts featured in the book. The cherry on top for me was to see that one of my layouts was selected to be on the cover of the book. Here they are:

Whee!

Here is Sam trying out his new slide.

Lots of circles, stitching, and love went into this layout. Each circle is inked, and some are mounted on foam discs for added dimension. 

This layout can be seen on the cover of The Big Book of Scrapbook Ideas. Even though I have my own copy, I drag my boys to find "mommy's special book" every time we go to Hobby Lobby. I'm just slightly excited about it. ;)

Supplies Used: Bazzill cardstock, patterned paper (Basic Grey, BoBunny, October Afternoon, Sassafras Lass), American Crafts letters  

A Day Without Laughter...

  I wanted to make it seem that all of these self-portraits were taken in a photo booth, and so I scaled each photo down to about 2 1/2" X 1 3/4" and mounted them on long strips of paper. I love this quote and thought that it would make the perfect title for a fun and happy layout that reflects everyday life.
 

 I created each rose with a 6 petal flower punch. 

Instead of making stems and leaves, I curled tiny strips of patterned paper. 

Supplies Used: Bazzill cardstock, patterned paper (Basic Grey, BoBunny, October Afternoon, Sassafras Lass), American Crafts letters

{Hay} There

These are pictures of my son and niece playing with hay at the pumpkin patch. It's hard to believe that they were taken over 1 1/2 years ago. Where does the time go?!? 

This was such a simple layout to make.

I machine stitched around my design to finish out the look.

Supplies Used: Basic Grey patterned paper, Making Memories alpha stickers, Sassafras Lass stickers, Tim Holtz grungeboard

Tractors!

Journaling reads: "I'm not sure if y'all were even supposed to be on it, but this tractor was the biggest hit for you both at the Rodeo this year!" 

I love working with a simple grid. After using a 2X4 grid (or would it be a 4X2...hmmm?), I embroidered a large circle around my design and mounted some of the stars on foam discs for added dimension. 

What a fun memory! 

Supplies used: Paper Studio cardstock, patterned papers (October Afternoon, Sassafras Lass), American Crafts stickers

That's it for now. Thanks for stopping by!

Look Who's 2!

This is Jack at his 2nd birthday party. I used a sketch by Becky Fleck. Lots of different manufacturers going on here including the Basic Grey "Cupcake" line. This has always been a favorite line of papers for me, and so when I found a pad on clearance I couldn't resist adding it to my stash.

Supplies Used:  Patterned Papers (Basic Grey, October Afternoon, Fancy Pants, K&Co, Sassafras Lass), Cosmo Cricket alpha stickers, Jillibean Soup journaling sprout, The Robin's Nest dew drops, American Crafts foil letters

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