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Happy birthday, Scooter and Isa!

It is sooo hard to believe that my darling nephew is turning ONE today!!! He is just the sweetest thing. He scoots around almost like Ansley did (only with the opposite foot tucked under) but is also standing/cruising very well. His smile could light up an entire room, and he knows how to use it! You can't help but be enchanted. He is such an easy-going fellow, although he does show hints of Dada and Momma's tempers.

We are so blessed to have this little fellow in our lives! (We got to keep him and his big brother Saturday, and it was so much fun to just play the day away.) The photo at left was taken about 3 months ago, so he has grown even more and sprouted a few SHARP teeth. We are looking forward to this weekend's party.

Ansley's BFF's birthday is today too. Unfortunately we won't get to see her today (and no I won't give her a hint about her gift). She and her family continually bless our lives, so happy birthday today to one very special young lady.

June Stamp of the Month Swap

As promised from yesterday, here are my awesome stamp of the month swapper's creations. We all used the Animal Cookies paper pack, and I love how different everyone's items are.

The first card (by Katy Donaldson) uses Window Wishes sketch from the new Wishes card book. Don't you love how she decorated the inside of the card and how it peeks through the window in the front?

The next card is Misty Blankeship's standard-size card followed by Latisha Haag's cute 3"x3" card. (Latisha used the Creative Basics paper pack so you get to see more of these awesome Animal Cookie choices.)

Laura Bohall created different stripes by using both sides of the B&T Duos. Debra Van Patten also cute a window into her card. You should give that a try! I can show you how easy it is with the Fiskars paper trimmer.

I really like how Melinda Everitt made this cute bookmark. She used magnets in between the layers so that the "card" will hug your page.

Last but not least, don't you love Kelly Hammond's 12"x12" layout of her son's science fair project? (BTW, didn't he do a great job?!?) She based her layout on the Cherish sketch, A New Perspective. I really like how she used the tags to label her photos.

June Stamp of the Month, Tender Tags, BLOG HOP

Welcome to the June Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! If you've come from Alanna's blog, you're hopping right along. You can go back to Jena's if you'd like to start at the beginning and "hop" all the way through, or continue on from here to loop back around.

Obviously, I used the June stamp of the month, called Tender Tags, to create my 4"x4" side-fold card. I used the Originals sketch, Pieced Panels, which is actually for a 3"x3" card. I just enlarged the measurements to fit this size. I used my Animal Cookies paper pack and color palette: Tulip, Clover Meadow, Sunflower, and Dutch Blue. The Clover Meadow brad fit right through the "hole" in the tag stamp.

If you'd like to see my virtual swapper's "stamples," come back tomorrow! I also have some outstanding work from my unit's swap that I'd love to show you local gals (and guys).

Now hop on over to my friend Jen's blog to see some more creative work. Happy stamping (and hopping)!

Decorated Album Cover & People We Love (layout #24)

You may recall that I have been re-taking an online class over at Bigpicturescrapbooking.com called "Library of Memories." I really love Stacy Julian's sytem of recording her family's memories. She basically has four categories of albums: All About Us, People We Love, Things We Do, and Places We Go. (The albums are color coded, so as her layouts grow, she can just add another album.) I am taking her ideas and making them my own. I will continue to create albums for my girls, especially now that they are getting older and can take over some of that responsibility, but I love the idea of not doubling up on everything that I create!

Here is my title page for our "People We Love" album. I need to figure out a way to journal about the actual pictures on the title page, but at the same time these pictures will probably appear again in layouts about these people we love. FYI (clockwise from top left): My parents in Switzerland on our '93 trip; Ansley w/BJ & JC on her 10th birthday; Logan w/our friends the Maggios on the Tennessee Tornado rollercoaster (it's a photo of a keychain w/a photo from the ride!), and our nephews this past Christmas. I used the Silhouette paper pack w/the addition of Cranberry to match the album. I made the tabs w/my Coluzzle File Folder template to serve as section dividers for family and friends.

To decorate the cover of our People We Love album, I used a strip from the new Fancy Cuts Borders. I hadn't preplanned this cover and was delighted to find that strip in my stash. I just sort of tacked it down to the cover w/a little Bonding Memories glue.

The quote came from my Pure Love stamp set (which I also used on the title page for "Love") and it says "To truly love someone, we must laugh with them." The heart came from my February Word Puzzle stamp set.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our album label holders! I have wanted to decorate the spines of my albums for a long time but never got around to it. These are soooo easy to use- just slip a title into the holder and then slip the holder onto your album's spine. You get 2 for only $4.95, so it's instant inexpensive organization. (And y'all know I need all the help I can get in that department!)

One word of caution though on decorating your album covers: be sure you are working with the FRONT before you actually glue anything down. Our beautiful linen albums look the same front and back, except for that cute little Close To My Heart label ON THE BACK. You know how you said I tacked down that border? It is stuck very well, thank you! So I just improvised on my dedication, upside down logo and all.

Lemonade Award!

What a nice surprise I received recently from my new friend, Paige! She nominated me for this Lemonade award.

Here are the "rules":

- comment on this blog
- cut and paste the award logo and use it on your own blog"
- nominate 5 to 10 blogs you feel show great attitude and gratitude
- link to your nominees within your blog post- comment on their blogs to let them know they received the award
- link back to the person who gave you the award to show your appreciation

Here are my nominees:

1. My Mom over at the Traveling Bells

2. My most frugal friend Chunkygal

3. My cousin over at Life As We Know It

4. My brother at Life of Bell

5. My cousin at House #1...

If you haven't visited their sites, go say hi and tell them I sent you. ;) Thanks again, Paige!

Aunt Amy's Girl? (Layout #23)

This layout has been in the works for a LONG time! I knew that I wanted to record how much my youngest is like my baby sister. We laugh sometimes that I carried her daughter. Of course, she is also a lot like her daddy, which I will showcase at another point in time. It must have something to do with all three of them being the babies of their families!

The photo op presented itself at the baby shower for my nephew, held when he was about a month old. (I don't think I included that info on the layout so I will go back and add that journaling.) Aunt Amy had kicked off her shoes and Macey soon followed suit, even though she wasn't copying Aunt Amy. Macey NEVER keeps her shoes on- JUST LIKE Aunt Amy! I couldn't resist snapping a photo of their shoes side-by-side. ;) The funniest part was that when I got my photos back, NONE of us were wearing our shoes by the time the shower was over. Not Grammie, Aunt Amy, her boys, my girls, nor me.

If you're still with me, then you might be interested to know that this layout sketch (called Easy Inspiration) came from my Close To My Heart Cherish how-to book. I used my favorite Emporium paper pack and a sheet from the Emporium Creative Basics paper pack. Don't they compliment the photos nicely? Blue is Macey's favorite color, and neither she nor Aunt Amy are frilly girly girls. The colors are Twilight, Crystal Blue, and Sweet Leaf. I used The Works alphabet stamp set for my title, and I couldn't resist the shoes from my retired Let's Shop set. The only things non-CTMH are my computer journaling and the blue flowers. Thanks for looking!

Some Gave All

Take time today to remember the true reason for this holiday!

Wishes & Teacher Appreciation

The new Wishes Card Confidence Program (how-to) book has arrived, and it is absolutely amazing!!! You will not believe all the cool new cards and the attention to detail you will find in this book. Plus, the instructions are wonderful! You'll create phenomenal cards in no time flat.

When I saw the Five Square Challenge over at 365 Cards (It's Hip to Be Square, Day 81), I knew that this sketch was perfect! In fact, I created a half dozen of these teacher thank-yous last night in about an hour. I think that they turned out so cute. I used the "Collage" sketch and the Animal Cookies paper pack for these fun cards. I also used the Doodle Art, For Every Occasion, and September Word Puzzle stamps. Since these were school themed, I used staples and paper clips as my embellishments. The color scheme is Clover Meadow, Tulip, Dutch Blue, and Sunflower. I hope the girls' teachers like them and that they can help express our gratitude for a fantastic school year. (They have both had terrific teachers this year. Macey asked me the other night if she could be held back so that she could have her teacher again! I told her in no uncertain terms that we could not do that.)

Let me show you my copy of Wishes today. You will love creating cards faster, simpler, easier!

School's Out

for the summer! Or at least it is for the girls. (I have 6 days of post-planning including 2 snow make-up days, plus I have started my reading endorsement and the final class meets 6/30.)

This day is always so bittersweet for me. Not that I'm not excited about summer, but I'm sad to send this bunch of kids on. They're ready, so I've done my job, but it's still a wee bit sad. (And yes, I feel this way every year!) The girls are spending the night at G&G's so I'm sure DH can cheer me up.

Happy summer!

Emporium Cards

Here are a pair of cards I made with the Emporium Creative Basics paper pack. I LOVE this paper! (Did you know that in addition to the My Reflections Level 2 paper packs, CTMH offers a creative basic choice for one pack each catalog? You get 16 sheets of B&T Duos- 8 each of 2 patterns- and a spool of matching ribbon!)

The first card is the Originals "A Heartfelt Classic" sketch. Believe it or not, I used my Cupcake Sprinkles stamp set, with nary a cupcake in sight. Instead, I curved the dashed line stamp to create my stems. The flowers are the plain Just Blooms that I sponged with Twilight & Vineyard Berry inks. The leaves are a few Just Blooms petals sponged with Sweet Leaf. How cool is that? Now before you think that I am oh-so-clever, I have to confess: this same card was featured in the Daydream Workshop on the Go guide. I just used different papers and inks. ;) The Vineyard Berry ribbon came in the Creative Basics pack.

My next card is also from Originals (the "Uppler Level Focus" sketch that I LOVE to recreate). I used the April Word Puzzle for the bird and the flower background, and the Thanks sentiment came from my For Every Occasion stamp set. I used another Just Blooms and a brad for embellishments.

The girls only have two days of school left, so we are holding on to our hats as we wind down the year. A & I have field day tomorrow. Tonight we're going to work on our teacher thank-you cards since we don't have dance, Girl Scouts, etc.

Spring

Spring is probably my favorite season, especially here in the mountains! Here are some of the wildflowers growing around our house:

Pink Trillium

Trillium & Lady Slippers

Lady Slipper bud (no, it's not a yellow lady slipper like I had hoped, but it's beautiful anyway)

An iris (or two) from my garden

A fox kit! A vixen had four kits in a clever den that she has built. It is in the curve of our road, at the top of the bank but under the pine tree. There is a little strip of woods there that then open into a clearing where the deer love to graze.

The kits are adorable, and we usually see them in the evening. As of today, all four are still at home. They have been there for a few weeks, and I do not know how long they will stay. Apparently, the vixen will run them off when they're old enough, but for now they're all content together. Our beagle goes crazy on our walks when we get to the curve in the road!

Hope you've enjoyed a little slice of my personal heaven on Earth!