{bliss}

a drive by posting...

Forgot to put my layout up this morning!  We were out the door early in the morning to go to the garage and then had a great afternoon checking out the shops at the mall.  The girls got new sunglasses at the Disney store - on special this week, only $3.  I love that it takes so little to make their day!  ;)

Here's my April "Lovin'" page with my favorite layouts and the scrappy stuff that I loved working with this month.  I love looking at these pages I'm making for my "Scrapbooking Scrapbook" and seeing what I was excited and inspired to work with each month.

Tomorrow is Aileen's *real* birthday and we kick off her birthday weekend with a lunch out with Grampa and a special trip to the library to get her first library card!

rainy Tuesday afternoon...

Looks like we are going to be stuck with a chilly, rainy vacation week.  Last week was simply gorgeous, and this week it is more like the beginning of March than the end of April.  Oh well, April showers bring the May flowers and all that.  I'll look on the bright side - at least I didn't have to go out for anything today.  Tomorrow is a "garage" day, though, so I've got my fingers crossed that the rain tapers off overnight.  I don't mind it being cool, I'd just like a little sun this week to perk us all.  The girls are crabby from being stuck inside for two days, so tomorrow we'll take a quick trip over to the mall after my car is done and let them walk around a bit.  They want to go see what is new at Build A Bear and in the Disney store, so it will be a fun way for them to get a little exercise!

Here's my LOAD for today.  I looooove the new Fancy Pants "Celebrate" papers and this was another fun page to put together.  I took a zillion photos of the girls last week when we got home from getting their haircuts and these really illustrate well what kind of friendship the two of them have.  I'm almost out of my favorite K and Co "Mira" butterfly stickers, so I will have to try to find some more.  The colors work so well with so many collections, and I like the whimsical touch they give the pages.  I found some felt ones yesterday, and they are really fun too.  It is hard to see in the scan, but I used my new Martha Stewart "Doily lace" punch on the edges of the yellow patterned paper.  I'm addicted to punches again!  So funny how what goes around comes around again in scrapbooking.  When I started scrapbooking it was paper piecing and punches, and tags - I'm seeing more and more of all of those being used on pages again.  The tags have evolved into journaling cards, but they are similar in a lot of ways, and both are fun to embellish!

Can't believe that it almost NSD!  I'll be playing host for all the festivities at Peek again this year.  The PDT have been hard at work on new challenges which will be starting at 8am central (9am eastern) time.  There will be prizes, games, trivia, RAKs and more.  Sharon has been creating some new digi goodies and will be hosting a digi challenge that will run all day.  Here's a link to the NSD forum at Peek - I hope you'll come and crop with us!

good afternoon!

I meant to post before I left to go to teach my Fiskars CFD class, but didn't get to it before I went out the door.  I have a feeling this whole week is going to go by on fast-forward.  The girls are on school vacation, and it is Aileen's birthday on Thursday, so we've got a full week of prep and play!

Here's my LOAD for today.  I'm still enamored of all the new Sassafrass Lass collections, and find myself reaching for even the teensiest scraps I have left over from previous pages!  I've been a Sass fan since day one, but think they've really hit their stride with the collections in this release.  I've got another one on my tble right now that is a Fancy Pants and Sass fusion.  ;)  This page uses a Crate paper for the background.  I am a big Crate fan too.  ;)

The birdie stamp is from Imaginisce...

Have a great day!

"Felicity"

This collection from Christine Adoloph is soooo gorgeous that photographs or scans just can't do it justice.  The weight of the paper, the color scheme, the elegant foil - it is just incredible!  I had to look at it for about a week before I could even bring myself to cut it.  But I love this portrait page I did with it.  I used some of the coordinating chipboard (the stickers fit perfectly on the shapes!) and the epoxy stickers too.  CI has several different foiled chipboard alphas, and I used the silver set for my monogram.  I had some scraps of a Narrative transparency left from another project, so I cut a piece of the arc and love how it just ties the page together!  The little butterfly that looks like antique jewelry is from CI too - love the Rhinestone Brads!

Don't you just love Aileen's new sassy haircut?  The girls are taking swimming lessons starting next month and we decided that shorter hair would be easier to deal with after they got out of the pool, so both girls got short little bobs.  Too cute!

I'm scrapping up a storm this weekend.  NSD is one week away, and I'm getting ready for my challenge at Peek and looking forward to hanging out on the board and enjoying our virtual crop with my friends.  Next week is vacation week for us, so we'll be pretty busy - the more I can get done this weekend, the better!  ;)   I've got some kits to cut for RAKs and some special projects too, so I had better get it in gear!

Enjoy your weekend!

Bam Pop

  I have been hoarding this Bam Pop paper for ages and ages, and remembered the "ninguins" paper when I got these photos of Brigid playing "ninja" a couple weeks ago.  She read the Magic Treehouse book "Night of the Ninjas" and has been fascinated with them ever since.  There are a couple kids in her class that are intrigued by them too, and they have created their own version of ninja "costumes" - turtlenecks pulled up, and hooded sweatshirts pulled down with just a wee bit of eyes showing in between.  Of course, it is extremely helpful to have really, really long bangs too!  lol!

I didn't know that Bam Pop had a blog either - you can find it here.

And check out this little guy - I can't help but think that I *might* have to get one of these for Brigid for her birthday - entirely too cute!

Mother Earth

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Sharing some projects that I did with Teri Martin's new "Mother Earth" collection from CI.  This project was featured on the blog earlier in the month and uses true recycled materials - product packaging and a plastic candy box with Teri's patterned papers and embellishments.  I found the photo of the earth taken from space online, and thought it would be the perfect photo for the album case.

My layout uses more elements from the collection, and my Martha Stewart butterfly punch.  I used pop dots on some of the butterflies which gives them the appearance of flying right off the page!  The photos were all taken on Earth Day this year.  The children in the elementary school had several "recycled art" projects that were highlighted during the week before Earth Day.  The bottle tree is so pretty in real life - the kids decoupaged tissue paper to empty plastic bottles and decorated a tree in front of the school with them.  Other children created musical instruments with recycled materials - the kids got a big kick out of those!  When we got home from our morning at the park, we decided to paint a wooden birdhouse which we'll hang up in the yard.  I love that the school is really getting the kids involved and educated about little things they can do that can help our environment.  When I was growing up in the late 60's & 70's, I remember all sorts of ecological initiatives and their slogans:  "Give a hoot, don't pollute", Iron Eyes Cody and with the slogan "People start pollution; people can stop it", water conservation, energy conservation - we have come full circle, and the ecological message is being renewed for our children.  Suddenly Mom's insistence on recycling everything, obsessively turning off lights and turning down the heat no longer seem "quirky" but part of the big picture!

Creative Imagination's Earth Day / NSD contest is still on and you can find the full details on the CI blog.  For our Green National Scrapbooking Day Contest, we want to see your scrapbook layouts or other dimensional memory art using CI papers* and other items they might normally recycle or throw away. Whether it is a flattened tin can covered in scrapbook paper, or a layout embellished with bottle caps… want to see your Green scrapbook projects!

Have a great day!

good morning!

What a gorgeous day!  We're going to hit the 80's today temperature-wise.  It seems like just yesterday I was still whining about snow!  :)

Here's my March page for my scrapbook about scrapbooking.  :)  I was just a wee bit late doing this one this month, because I'm working on April's page now.  As you can see from the pages I did last month, shaped edges were definitely my "thing" and my April stuff is more of the same! 

I'd like to congratulate the new Lead Fiskateers: Stephenie and Cheryl are returning and will be joined by Kelly Jo, Wendy Jo and Angela Daniels.  Congrats to all!  :)  Sending best wishes to our first two "Legends" as well: May and Holly will be stepping down in June.  Thank you for all you have done for us!

I would like to thank Lisa Burton - she had the winning bid on my birdhouse that I was auctioning for Kier's Kidz, and has asked that I re-list it and sell it again to earn more money for the foundation.  I'll post a link when I re-list it.  THANK YOU, Lisa, that was incredibly generous of you!   Please continue to pray for Kiersten and her family.

Well, I've got lots to do today, and won't get any of it done unless I get a move-on!  Have a good one!

21 Happy Birthdays!

It's my son Jonathan's 21st birthday today!  Hope you have a wonderful day, Jon!!

Here's my take on Ali Edwards' Butterfly Collage that she posted on her blog a couple months ago.  I couldn't resist adding the borders from Pink Paislee!  I thought about doing a contest to see who could name the most papers represented in the collage, but there are two really tricky ones in there that I know no one would get (well, maybe one person, the one that the papers came from, or someone else who has the kit!)  If you were able to name 34 out of the 36 paper collections, I'd be pretty doggone impressed! 

Not only are we celebrating Jon's Day, but it is Earth Day as well!  I'm working on an Earth Day page today with Teri Martin's "Mother Earth" collection as my own way of celebrating the earth today.  Don't forget about CI's Earth Day / NSD contest.  :) 

photographic weekend wrap up...

There was some of this:

There was a lot of this:

(the weather was awesome!)

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Some birthday silliness:

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and finally some of this:

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Also, Aileen lost another tooth!  (photo to follow!)

How was your weekend?

Earth Day festivities!

Our town is celebrating Earth Day today with all sorts of activities at the town's newest park.  The girls really enjoyed going and seeing all the exhibits people had up, but their favorite part was climbing on rocks and chucking smaller rocks into the pond.  Go figure.  We also played frisbee and blew bubbles - all in all, a wonderful way to spend the morning!  You've got to love their tee shirts.  Aileen's says "Save the Planet, It is the only one with kittens."  Brigid's has a cute monkey hugging the globe, and Daddy's has "Save the Planet: It's the only one that has beer."  lol!  Mine said "Earth Day 24/7/365" 

Jon's on his way up - yay!  Looking forward to seeing our "birthday boy" for a bit this weekend.  I'll be pretty scarce from now 'til Monday.

Have a great weekend!