You Are My Sunshine

So I was super excited when I saw that the challenge this week on the American Crafts blog was to use the Junior line. Because with twin 2 year old boys you can imagine how many adorable pictures I have of them to use with this amazing set. But then I began to panic when I realized that I had only bought 5 sheets of the paper and two spools of the dollar ribbon! So I really had to think outside the box since I didn't have a single sticker, or flair, or rub-on! Which means that I really want to win this challenge because I have to have more of this line!

This is what I came up with! I used these amazing pictures of Zachary that I got right after he had taken a bath and then I added strips of the different patterned papers that I had bought. The blue is the backside of the Shazam! paper (I love that every sheet of patterned paper has a coordinating solid on the back!). I stitched around where the photo was going to go including on top of the patterned paper strips. I added the thickers and hand cut some shapes from the Blastoff! paper to be part of my title and some cute embellishments and adhered them with 3D foam adhesive to make them pop off the page. Oh, and I used one of those dollar spools of ribbon as photo corners and accents for the smaller photos!
Supplies used:
AC white cardstock
Junior paper: Shazam!
Blastoff!
Ta-Da!
Defense!
Boom!
AC Dollar spool of Junior ribbon
AC thickers in chit chat puffy chesnut and legwarmers felt
Thread
3D foam adhesive squares

Hope you like it!

Mini Album

This is one of my favorite mini albums! I used my favorite pictures of the kids from the year and put it together with lots of American Crafts products!
The pages are made from the chipboard that sandwiches Creative Memories page protectors. I then covered them in American Crafts Backyard and Everyday collection papers.
I added the pictures and then punched and connected it with the bind it all (which I love) and then added some embellishments and ribbons! So easy!
I added some punched shapes and some that I hand cut from AC patterned paper (such a cheap and easy way to make the most of your paper scraps)
The rubons and journaling spots are also from American Crafts and are so versatile! I covered the edges with glossy accents to protect and seal them. Hope you enjoyed!

Friendship Page

supplies: AC cardstock, backyard collection patterned papers (cloud, flower, pink scallop, green) Zing! embossing powder apricot, stamp: AC sentiments set (scallop border), precision pen, Grapefruit Umbrella Thickers, AC pink arrow photo turn, AC: flair, punch: Fiskars.
I cut out some clouds from the cloud paper and put them behind my title and then added a bit of flair to finish it off. I love these umbrella puffy thickers! They might be my favorite ever! Instead of using a brad to attach the photo turn I adhered it with a glue dot and then put a period from the thickers set on top to match the title (because I love them that much!)
I used the American Crafts scallop border stamp with versamark ink on white cardstock and then used Zing! embossing powder in Apricot to emboss. Then I took a regular hole punch and punched out the open circles. Just a little lift at the edges give it nice dimension.

First Day of School

today was the first day of 1st grade for Madison, and the first day of Kindergarten for Kaley. They were both so excited that they were up at 7am dressed and ready to go. However, Neil and I were still in bed trying to fight off the continuous question of "Is it time to go yet?"
I took the girls out front and took some pictures of them before we left for the school. Kaley feels so much better knowing that Madison will be there too. They even share the lunch recess!
Kaley couldn't wait to get inside and see Mrs. Pace. This has been the reason that she has been so excited about going to Kindergarten, because she knew she would have Mrs. Pace!
We took Madison in to her classroom and boy was it a different atmosphere from Kaley's Kindergarten room! Instead of parents everywhere trying to help their child with a sheet of things to write and showing them where all of their stuff was to go, it was a quiet classroom, no parents in there at the time, and all of the kids were sitting and working on stuff! Madison found her desk right away and we got to meet her teacher Miss Gonzales.
It was a great morning! Now I can't wait to go and pick them up and find out how their day was!

Pictures from the 4th (actually the 3rd!)

These are pictures that I took during the fireworks here in Silver Lakes. It started late but ended up being a great show.
I know that the bottom of this picture is blurry but I love how the firework is crystal clear and almost seems to jump out at you!
I love this picture and the glowing red onto the bank of the lake where they were setting them off.
Overall, it turned out to be a great weekend!

Tattered Angels Rocks!

Glimmer Mist is the same great product with a Fabulous NEW Look!
If you haven't tried this stuff yet, run out and get it! It is so much fun to play with and they just made the labels on their bottles even better. Everyone scrapper should have some (or a lot!) Check it out at
www.mytatteredangels.com

Happy 9th Anniversary!

Last night we celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary! We went down to Victoria Gardens and had dinner at Flemming's which was absolutely incredible. Luckily we still had a gift card from Pastor Appreciation last October which meant that we could splurge a little. Then we went and saw Transformers 2 which just opened yesterday. It was packed and we barely found seats together, but it was a very good movie and it even had an "Animal Cracker" moment which was a nice romantic break from all of the robots trying to kill each other!
And Neil took me to New York & Company and I got a couple pairs of plaid shorts and tops. He's so sweet!