He's Here!!!

Well we weren't expecting him so early, but Kyler Alan Yeager was born on Tuesday, July 19th at 4:18 pm.  He is a tiny guy weighing in at 5 pounds 12 ounces and 18.5 inches long.   He was 23 days early.  My water broke at about 5 am, I went into my Dr.'s at about 10 am, started Petocin at 1:45, had an epidural at 3:30 and he was born at 4:18.  Yes, it was super quick...3 pushes!  The same thing happened with Charlotte, too.

We are all doing great.  He is so small but is eating GREAT!  Nursing is going very well.  My mom is here to help out and hubby has 2 weeks off. 

Charlotte loves him, but is a bit indifferent about him right now, which is good. She is very attentive when the baby cries and she loves to give him kisses!  It has been so great having my mom here because Charlotte just loves her and they have been spending a lot of quality time together!

We are gonna be in adjustment mode for a while, but we are just so happy and our little family feels just perfect!

Single Layer Cards....

Yup, this proves why I am NOT a card maker!  :)  Today's feature at Practical Scrappers is one layer cards.   Basically, anything you do you have to do on the card itself...you can't add another "layer" (like paper or cardstock or ribbon).

Sounds easy, right, but it was hard for me because I LOVE adding layers to things!  So I brainstormed and tried a few ideas out...

FYI, with baby #2 coming, my Mom's Group does a meal program after I have the baby, and someone bring meals on M, W, and F for 6 weeks!  So I knew I was going to need a lot of Thank You cards!

My first idea was to use a background pattern stamp and then heat emboss an image on top.  But I didn't want the background image to show through my embossing. So here is what I did:

1. I stamped the butterfly onto a piece of cardstock and cut it out.  I did the same with the sentiment.
2. I place the cut outs on my card base (and used them as masks) and then stamped with my background woodgrain stamp.
3.  I removed my "masks" and then stamped the images directly onto the card with versamark.
4.  I then added embosing powder and heat embossed.

Here are some things I learned:

1.  When you are stamping your masks to cut out, stamp on a thin piece of paper because I couldn't get a good "press" on my stamp, and the edges around the butterfly and sentiment aren't that crisp.

2. Use a good ink...my black is getting to it's last leg, and it shows.

So then I tried the same idea again, this time cutting my masks from thin computer paper, and it worked better.  But again, my black is not as crisp as I wanted it to be, and I wish I chose different colors for the embossing, but over these are OK.  Also, I just HAVE to add something to the center of each doily, so I am gonna add a gem!

My last cards are the most simple, but my most favorite.  I stamped the feet with the black stamp, the heart with pink, added some stickles and a thin black pen line and VOILA!!!!!  These little cards are so cute, and it just goes to show that sometimes less is more!  I have to make a bunch more of these now to send out to the Mom's!

Go check out some of the AMAZING One Layer Cards on the Practical Scrappers blog today!

It's a Fair Day.....

that's one of the recent releases from SEI!  I love this fun collection! It is perfect for fairs and parks and has some great embellies to go along with it.

 My favorite is a perforated sheet of different tickets, some of which I used on this page about the park:

I painted the background with some white paint, and then drew a square with a thin back pen to ground my photos. 

Some of the other die cuts are from the Sunny Days and Corrinne collections.    I also outlined the titles on the phrases to make them stand out more.

Of course I wanted to challenge myself to use these papers for a NON fair or park layout, and the colors went just perfectly with some photos I had of Charlotte for her 2nd birthday.

It's hard to tell in this photo, but the background paper is actually a like pink gingham print...LOVE it!  I did a bunch of hand stitching and machine stitching as well.

This scallopped patterned paper I cut to create different "tiers" and layered them across the page.  I outlined the edges with a black pen.

These balloon die cuts actually had "tails" on the, but I cut them off and tied some white twine around them to make real strings!  :)

These last two pages I want to share were actually posted in June on the SEI blog, but I totally forgot to post them here!  So here they are, without much description!



This page uses a whole bunch of different lines....I really like the design of this layout with the photos going off the edge.

And here is a quick one I whipped up using "I'm an Athlete".  Since we don't really have any athletes in our family yet, I did a page about my hubby and his dad and brother and their trip to watch the Final Four tournament this year in Houston.

I have been doing a LOT of scrapping the past week, but nothing I can share, yet!  Tons of stuff for DT and GDT spots that I can't wait to share!

7/7 Sketchy Thursday REVEAL!

I really still like the banner craze and this week's sketch at Sketchy Thursdays is just perfect!  Be sure to link up your creation to be entered for the prize!

 This layout is actually kind of simple for me, but I did a lot of techniques including misting, distressing, and stitching.

This page is about my "Kit Cat" clock that is actually a plastic replica of an antique clock that my great grandpa used to have in his house.  I used to LOVE this clock when I was a little girl, and I can still remember sitting at the kitchen table of his house and watching the tail and eyes go back and forth.

I sized down my photos a bit, and hand stitched a frame around them in light blue thread to tie them together. 

I have pretty much used up my October Afternoon 5&Dime collection....good thing cause I need to make some room for all the great CHA releases coming out!!!

So I am off to CKC Houston this weekend with my good friend Heather.  It is only about 20 mins from my house, but we rented a hotel room so we could get a little "scrappy retreat" in for a couple of days!!!  Daddy is gonna be home with Charlotte for about 48 hours by himself....yeah....I'll let you know how that goes!!  :)

Happy Birthday to....(and a chance to win!)

...Simply Renee Clip It Up!!!   I got to work with a CIU Base Unit and some papers and embellies from Little Yellow Bicycle to create an AWESOME cupcake display stand that I used for Charlotte's 2nd birthday!!! 

You have have FOUR chances to win by visiting both the CIU and LYB blogs and leaving comments, AND by posting on their FB pages!  Here are some photos of the "masterpiece" and details are on the Clip It Up blog!

Memorable Seasons "Last Scrapper Standing" contest..

We are in week 3 of the LSS (Last Scrapper Standing) at Memorable Seasons.  Week 1 we had 30 participants that were narrowed down to 20 for week 2.  Week 3 started 7/4 and is now down to 15.  And this is MY week for the challenge, and also my very first challenge at Memorable Seasons since becoming a DT member!

So here it is:

Your challenge this week is to use the sketch below to create a layout that has 7 stars and 4 photos. (For 7/4, get it?) (NOTE: I know the sketch does not show 7 stars, but you must have 7 stars somewhere on your page). These stars can NOT be tiny stars in a patterned paper...they must be used as embellies in some way.

Your page must also have either red, white, or blue as it's main color. This does not necessarily mean that the background of your page has to be that color, just that that color must be the most prevalent.

The theme of this page is open to you. If you want to do July 4th photos, that's fine, but you don't have to. You could use "red" as your color, and do Christmas for that matter!

When using the sketch, feel free to rotate it, flip it, mirror it, whatever. But the overall design of the sketch must be recognizible in your layout.

Here is my sample.  I used 7 stars: one large, blue misted chipboard one behind my photo, and then a stamped transparent star and a star cut out of grid paper at each "circle" on the page.  While the background color is yellowish, the main color of my papers is blue and red.

Even though we are already into week 3 of the contest, there is still a weekly prize AND you can use your weekly layouts towards the regular monthly challenges prize as well! Hope to see some new faces on the MS boards!

SUPER HUGE EXCITING NEWS!!!

I really don't know how this happened...well I DO know, but it is so strange.

One day a few weeks ago I got a message on my 2 Peas email, which I never use.  It was from Lea Lawson, the DT coordinator from Glitz Designs, basically asking me if I would like to be on their design team.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME??????   Ummm....lemme think about it..........YES YES YES!!!!

Holy Cow I still can't belileve it.  I was over the moon jumping up and down. I am in awe of some of the "names" I will be amongst on this new team!

THEN, a few days later, Glitz debued their CHA summer release....oh.my.gosh.  It is all so beautiful!  I can't WAIT to work with it all!

Which one is your favorite?  I love the Vintage Blue, but I have a feeling I will be using a lot of Beautiful Dreamer since a little one is soon on it's way!

SOMEONE PLEASE PINCH ME.....no wait....don't.....

My first Memorable Seasons reveal! Echo Park SPLASH!

I am so excited to be working for Memorable Seasons online store!!!!   Jill always has THE BEST sales, and the community has always been one of my favorites!

She sent me these wonderful things to play with this month:

Of course with the SPLASH theme I had to do a page about our recent trip to the community pool.  We have lived here for 4 years, and have NEVER BEEN!  It's partially because we have our own pool, and we didn't have kids before Charlotte.  The community pool is like a water splash park and Charlotte had a BLAST!  I had so many photos, I had to do a two pager...

I cut up a bunch of the journaling cards paper and used them on my page.  I also cut the wave pattern paper to move across the layout.  These colors were perfect for these photos!  There are little dots of blue Stickles here and there, too...

Next I did this page of one of the fun things we do during the summer in NY!  Take boat rides on this little fishing boat, which we all love so much! 

Th navy of the water in the photos went so well with the teals and greens of the Dots & Stripes papers! 

I colored in the center of some of my alphas to make them stand out a bit more.

I fussy cut a whole bunch of fish and hand cut the seaweed out of the green paper.  The red elements are in a visual triangle which moves your eye across the page

I added a lot of white stitching up and down the page to make it look like water, and I also scattered a whole bunch of buttons and little bits of blue Stickles here and there.

Next up I made this little card that I just LOVE, even though we aren't having a pool party anytime soon (that I know of anyways!).

The colors on the banner strips were so bright and such a great combo, I really wanted to use it.  And it matched the colors in the crab, too!

The crab is on a journaling card which is mounted inside the card, and then I punched a circle in the front so you can see him.  He holds a little umbrella that I cut from the patterned paper and folded to make 3D.

Lastly, I always try to challenge myself to use themed paper for a page that is totally unrelated to the theme.  I was able to do so with these papers!  I love that Charlotte calls herself "Sha Sha"...everyone has started calling her that, now!

I cut some strips of the green Dots & Strips paper and punched them with different punches for the grass.  The orange card is from the Journaling cards in the Splash collection.

The sunshine I made by sprialing some pom pom trim and then I added some of the "umbrellas" paper in the center with a bit of bling.  The clouds in the background I painted with my paint daubbers (my new favorite product!) and then machine stitched over them.  The cloud in front is cut from one of the journaling card.

Lastly, I used some of the striped papers and the pink paper to make some accordian flowers.  A few punched pieces and buttons are in the centers, and I pleated some ribbons for the stems and leaves.

Wasn't this kit so fun????  I really loved it!  OK, well that is EIGHT projects posted in 2 days....I'm tired....more coming up on SUNDAY!!