Buttons Everywhere

This card was made to meet two challenges:  ScrapStreet's weekly challenge and the first Papertrey Peeps challenge.  For both of them, the challenge was to use buttons. Can you tell from the colors how happy I am that it's spring again?

Materials: Paper: Archiver's/We R Memory Keepers, Miss Elizabeth's, Pink Paislee, Bazzill Basics Paper, Stamps: MSE, Papertrey In, Ink: Ranger, Tsukineko, Clearsnap, Markers: Copic, Ribbon: Wright's, Fancy Pants, American Crafts, Buttons: Papertrey Ink, Tools: punch (Fiskars), Cuttlebug (Provo Craft), Dies: Spellbinders, Adhesive: Scotch, EK Success, Therm O Web.

Some Vacation Pictures

So the last 6 weeks weren't all bad.  We did manage to get a vacation in late February, during the kids' week off school.  We headed to Florida and got on one of Disney's cruise ships, the Wonder.  It sailed to Nassau and to Disney's own island, Castaway Cay, both in the Bahamas.  Ryan's parents were able to join us, and it was great seeing the boys hanging out with them.

Of course, since my boys can make anything fun, they had a ball at the hotel, just riding on the baggage cart.

This is Jeremy at the "sail away" party, wildly waving the streamers around, and barely missing Bob and Kitty.

Both kids quite enjoyed the giant slide into the pool; this is Matthew with an ear-to-ear grin after his first ride.  He pretty much only used the slide for the rest of the cruise.

For good or bad, cruise ships are known for their extravagant and calorie-free meals and desserts.  Jeremy quite enjoyed eating - and wearing - his Mickey ice cream bar.

Castaway Cay is the private island that Disney owns.  One of the ships from the Pirates of the Carribbean movies is sunk in the bay.  The boys thought they were hot stuff getting to go to the beach in February.

I quite enjoyed Castaway Cay.  In fact, I think that if the Wonder had been anchored there for the entire trip I would have been happy.  Plenty of chairs and umbrellas, bright blue sky, sand, sea and palm trees.  What more could a girl ask for?

Papertrey Peeps - Challenge #4

This challenge was to CASE (that's copy and stamp exactly) Nichole, the owner of Papertrey Ink, with a few extra rules:  you had to CASE one of her projects from the February or March release, and you had to use different stamp set(s).

I chose to CASE this adorable card (Capture the Moment blog by Nichole Heady):

Instead of a dog, I used a rabbit, and made an Easter card:

Materials:  Paper: Stampin' Up!, scrap patterned paper, Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Through the Trees), Stampin' Up! (Wildlife Reserve, All Year Cheer I), Markers: Copic, Ink: Fluid Chalk, Ranger, Stampin' Up!, Tool: Copic Airbrush System.

Aren't my daffodils beautiful?  Spring has just exploded here in the last week.  We went from cold, raw weather, bare trees, and shoots barely coming up from spring bulbs, to low 70s, sunshine, and daffodils and phlox in bloom.  The Bradford pear trees have gone from bare to fully bloomed - quite literally - in the last 2 days.

And on the down side, pollen season has begun.  The boys have been sniffling for 3 days now, and have started their annual Zyrtec dosing.  In another day or so, once the pine buds begin to swell, we'll have to keep the doors and windows closed against the green pine pollen explosion.

ScrapStreet Design Team Call!

Read on to learn about a design team call!  Scrapstreet is looking for a couple of new team members who LOVE to create and to write.  We are looking for people who are active in scrapbooking--blogging, gallery uploads, trying new things.  People who tackle scrapping with enthusiasm!  Traditional, hybrid, digital, layout, card, and altered artists are all encouraged to apply.

The Job:
Our team publishes a monthly ezine with thousands of subscribers and a 5-year history. We love finding and showcasing talented scrappers and beautiful products. If you are selected for our team, you will write a monthly article which will include selecting and requesting the work of designers, combining the work into an interesting article, and meeting your deadline.

You will also receive products at least 6 times a year from a variety of manufacturers and will scrap several items to showcase their lines. It is an excellent opportunity to increase your visibility in the scrapping community while having fun.

To Apply:
Send the following to designteam@scrapstreet.com
contact information
a short statement of why you are interested in joining us.
3 of your favorite creations showcasing your style.
a link to your blog.
a link to your gallery.

We will accept applications until midnight April 10th.  Announcements will be made on Monday, April 12th.  We are so excited to add some talented new people to our family!  Want to know who you would be joining?  Peek at our current issue here and at the blogs along the side to get to know some of our team.

Apologies All 'Round

To my friends, family and followers who like to catch up with me and the boys...  for not posting in 6 weeks now!  Between Jeremy's cheek wound not healing and nearly needing surgery, to working again and trying to re-balance my life so that work, play and house stuff all get a chance, I just haven't had much time.

To the Peeps... for not commenting on your wonderful and inspiring blogs, and your patience with my absence in the last 6 weeks.

To all of you who have stayed at our house and used the shower in the guest bathroom...  Ryan's used it a bit and said it was fine.  We recently had our sunporch tiled, and re-grouted the master bathroom.  So for a few days I had to use the guest bathroom.  And am embarrassed by how truly horrible that shower was.  The shower head has been replaced and hopefully at your next visit you will have a better experience.

PTI Goodness... and Some Stitching Badness

My PTI prize package arrived yesterday - it was like Christmas came again!  The gals at ScrapStreet have a "swap meet" challenge going.  I was inspired by this image that KT posted:

I love the combination of kraft, cream, dark brown accents and pastels.  And you *know* I had to play with my new PTI goodies, so I created these baby announcement cards using PTI's Pretty Pastels paper and the Baby Button Bits stamp set.  I have a friend who's due in February, so the timing was perfect.

Each bear and button is color-coordinated with the strip of paper at the top of the card.  The materials were:  paper, stamps, buttons: Papertrey Ink; kraft: Stampin' Up!;cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper, The Paper Company; ink: Ranger; tools: Cuttlebug (ProvoCraft); dies: Spellbinders; adhesive: Scotch, Glue Dots.

On Friday night/Saturday we got 5" of snow and sleet.  The kids had a ball playing outside yesterday.  Until they started playing with sticks.  Matthew ended up accidentally hitting Jeremy with one, slicing his cheek open.  The cut was deep and had jagged edges, so I took him to the ER for stitches.  Luckily, the roads were better than they usually are in NC when it snows, and I was able to get there and home just fine.  It was not fun to have to mummify him to keep him still during the stitching.  Three of us were needed to hold him down, in addition to the wrapping.  Once he realized that the anesthetic was working, he finally relaxed and we were able to leave very shortly thereafter.  He won't let me take a picture of it yet, but I will.  The stitches won't come out until Thursday.

Both he and Matthew had already had endless lectures about swinging sticks around.  Hopefully this will finally have taught them a lesson.

Poppy thanks and small changes

Over the weekend I got a little time in my craft room.  I pulled out the scrap paper files and decided to make a bunch of thank you cards using only scraps.  I had this great poppy paper, with 2" squares of poppies (buds, full flowers, leaves only) printed on it.  I cut them all out, inked the edges and adhered them directly to the cream-colored card base.  (I had enough to make 9 cards.) Then I stamped "thank you" on them using a sentiment from PTI's Vintage Picnic set.  It still looked a little plain, and I wanted to make it a bit more elegant but still keep it simple.  So I added two scored lines above and below the row of poppy squares.  I really like the way they came out.

We all know that January is all about resolutions and fresh starts.  I generally don't make resolutions, as I've found that if I decide to make big sweeping changes to my life that I fail.  Usually miserably.  Especially if the resolution had to do with weight loss. But in March of last year, I decided to make small changes, one at a time, and try to incorporate it into my routine, and see what would happen.  When I felt comfortable with it, I'd add a new one.

So last March, I changed my breakfast to a protein-fruit smoothie (usually 2 fruits [whatever was on hand], milk and protein powder).  And felt fuller in the mornings and found that the hungry horrors that hit me in the late morning largely disappeared.

In October I gave up diet Coke.  May not seem like a big deal to most of you, but I was drinking a solid 2L (or more) a day.  It went way better than I had expected, with very few headaches.  And haven't had any diet Coke in the house since then.

By mid-year, I decided that I really need to incorporate some form of exercise into my life.  Yup, there it is - the dreaded "e" word.  Going to the gym was out - I know I'd never go.  I waffled for months over whether to get a treadmill or not.  (You know - would I actually use it or would it just become a glorified place to hang clothes.)  By the end of the year, I'd lost 15 pounds - despite not having begun to exercise.

After Christmas I decided to get that treadmill.  Ryan and I looked online for a used one and found it on Craig's list.  He and a neighbor picked it up last night and wrestled it up the stairs to the guest room. I did a 25-minute walk on it today.  A friend pointed me to a site that gave me some info on working into running.  We'll see how it works into my routine.  But it's a start.

Apparently I'm Ancient

Matthew is 7 and in first grade. Part of his English homework is to write a specified number of sentences using the spelling words of the week.  He came running into my office a few minutes ago, delighted to read his sentences out loud to me.  And I nearly spit my drink all over the keyboard when he read:

"I hope my brother lives to be 20 years old."

Oh, to be young enough to think that 20 is old!  He must think Ryan and I are ancient.  Who knows what he thinks of the grandpeeps!

Congratulations and Thanks!

My friend, Stacey Michaud, found out recently that she made the Pink Paislee design team.  If you follow Stacey's work, or take a look at her blog (linked above), you'll see that she does amazing, intricately layered layouts with an emphasis on journaling.  She also does a lot of intricate hand cutting.  Her work is always inspiring to me.  And a little bit discouraging as well, because I often have the exact same papers and goodies that she has and yet my pages with it, while not horrible, just don't have that flair that I've come to expect from Stacey.

To celebrate, the gals at ScrapStreet issued the "Stacey Challenge", with the idea to go make something with Pink Paislee products to help Stacey celebrate her new DT role.

So I pulled out my Pink Paislee, and my Everyday Button Bits stamp set from Papertrey Ink, and made this cute, spring-like card.  It's being mailed tomorrow to thank my mother-in-law and father-in-law not only for all the gifts they gave this Christmas, but also for the time they spent here, sharing themselves with us and the boys.  Since we live so far from our families, it is wonderful to have them visit often enough that they and the boys know each other well enough to tease and play and giggle together. 

Winner, Winner...

...but not a chicken dinner! 

I discovered Papertrey Ink (PTI) late last summer, and fell in love with their products, particularly their acrylic stamp sets and templates.  You've seen the gift house that I made from the Home Made template.  And though I haven't posted a picture of them yet, for the holidays I made over 20 notepads for various teachers, friends and family members using the "Take Note" stamp set and their ingenious 2.5x8 inch notepads.

PTI releases new stamp sets and other goodies every month.  And has a big party on the release night.  All you have to do is comment on the blog post about the giveaway and you are eligible to win.  Last night, by some miracle, my name was the one pulled from the electronic hat.

So, what did I win?  The whole collection of new stamps and paper!  I won the "I Want It All" prize from PTI.  For this release, it was 8 stamp sets and a paper pad.  The sets are just super, and I've been drooling over two of them in particular:  Through the Trees and Baby Button Bits. There are several sentiment sets, and journaling set, and a through-the-year sentiment and images set.

Now to find some time to do a bit of cardmaking and scrapping again...  I have a thank you card to prepare.