Weekend Update - May 21-23

Friday my boy left me.

The big one - Blake.He's a Boy Scout now and that means he'll have a camp out once a month. This month they were working on a Pioneer merit badge. They built a tower. (Yes, that's Kevin in the tent photo - checking out the site on Saturday. That was when he stopped in to check on Blake with Tom. And just happened to mention we'd gone to Cracker Barrel for breakfast!)It was weird not having Blake home this weekend.

Kevin was invited to a birthday party on Saturday. It was only the coolest party ever! It was AT the Louisville Bats baseball game! Tom and I bought tickets to go, too.That's Kevin and his friend Cooper, the birthday boy. They played all-stars together last summer and are on a travel team (the Slam) together this year.Part of the birthday package included a ticket to pitch four balls. Kevin's top speed was 37 mph. The foam finger was an extra bonus. Kevin is obsessed with foam fingers and always wants us to buy him one. (We won't.) Going into the park, a man reached over and handed one to him. He was the happiest kid at the game Saturday!

And finally pick up time on Sunday arrived.Welcome home, Boo! Mosquito bites and all.

Ouch!

The last FULL WEEK of school starts today. Then we'll finish up next Tuesday and Wednesday. Come on, Summer Break!

Inspired by Scrapbook Trends Magazine...

I spent my free time this weekend (which came in spurts here and there!) continuing to "lift" layouts from my past two issues of Scrapbook Trends Magazine. While some layouts are near exact lifts, others were simply inspired by something on the original and I ended up with something very different. The end result of ever lift is a page that I was able to scrap quick and document the memory for my boys.

I would like to thank my friend (you know who you are!) who gave me my subscription of ST for my birthday. It is seriously the gift that just keeps giving!

First, "2 mad hatters" was inspired by Lisa Dickinson's layout in the June ST. She used the same Cosmo Cricket "Boyfriend" line on her original. This layout shows my boys acting crazy at Lynn's Paradise Cafe in Louisville over Spring Break.

I was able to use my new Studio Calico "Anthology" papers on "1st Communion Day" for Blake's album. He was really proud of Kevin and gave him a St. Christopher medallion with a baseball player on it. (Kevin loved it!)I was inspired by another layout in the June issue. It was by Ginger Williams - a bright 1-photo LO. I mixed things up a bit to work with my two photos and used a softer color scheme.

Remember the great crop I attended back in March and how I came home with several American Crafts kits? Well, I broke out the Sports themed kit with "Junior" papers for my next two layouts.

"Junior Pro Basketball" for Blake was inspired by an Amy Coos layout in the June ST. It's an almost identical lift although I did use more photos and of different sizes than her original. Ronda Palazzari's layout on page 88 in the June issue inspired Kevin's "biggest fans" layout. Blake's team kept saying they were "BEAST" (????what???) so some of the younger siblings got the idea to hold up signs spelling it out one game. They lost that game. It was the last time you saw those signs!Another near identical lift is my "Walk this Way" which was inspired by Pamela Young's June ST layout on page 84. I just used a different Fancy Pants paper line. LOVE her use of the notebook journaling pages!I was amazed over Easter to see how much Kevin is built like his older cousin Vince.

***WARNING: Cute baby overload coming...***

I'm starting to think I may just need to make a new album series for my neice, Reese!

"She's Our Little Sweetheart" is for Kevin's album though. I pulled out the "Diva" American Crafts kit I picked up at the fundraiser crop I attended in March. I was worried I wouldn't be able to use it. Ha - was I ever wrong!
I took a single photo/single page layout by Tonya Dirk (p. 89, June ST) and stretched it into a 4 photo, 2-page layout.

"R U Sure?" Yeah, Tom hears that a lot! ;) This one was inspired by a 12x12 LO by Holly Hanks (pg. 57, June ST). Even Reese's charms won't work on Tom though!
Although inspired by Nicole Harper's LO (pg. 36 June ST), "love you from your head to your toes" ended up quite different. I was inspired to get my mists out to spray the originally white background. (I mixed Lime and pink.)Doesn't this little girl have the cutest features! Check out those feet!

Oh, and that AC "Diva" kit is ALL. USED. UP. !!!

Finally...last layout!

Mandy Starnes inspired this one (from pg. 63, May ST). I wasn't too original with my title, huh? I guess after all that hand-stitching I was a bit worn out? But, I did use Lime Glimmer Mist to change my white letters to lime. Whew! I feel like scrapping some more now...

I got the Stuff...Scrappin' {Sports} Stuff

I love coming home to find a package on my porch! Today I had my design team order from Scrappin' {Sports} Stuff waiting for me. Although I'm not usually a fan of Bo Bunny products, I did fall in love with their new "Roughin' It" line.

With Blake moving up to Boy Scouts this spring, he's going to be camping once a month now. This line will be PERFECT for camping layouts. I'll also use it for some random outdoor photos, too.

Blake actually has a weekend camp out starting tomorrow night. He'll be gone until Sunday. I think it will be good for us though. He'll be gone a whole week in late June. I figure it will be harder on me than anyone!

Now I just need to trust him with my old camera so I can get some camping shots to scrap!

Scraplifting + Noel Mignon = FUN!

I mentioned yesterday that my scrap time is limited right now. (We are staying busy!) I'm finding that scraplifting is a way to make the most of my scrap time. I'm also finding that my Noel Mignon "Playdate" kit is a never-ending supply of scrappy goodness!

I scraplifted a good friend, Melanie, for this layout about Mother's Day. I'm such a fan of her work. I loved the round Queen playing card that was in the Playdate kit. It inspired my title. I also have a "companion" page to go along with this layout, but I can't post it just yet.

"Love Handmade by Kevin" started out as a lift of a layout in the June Scrapbook Trends, but I ended up going in a different direction. In addition to items in the Playdate kit, I also pulled out some other Jillibean Soup embellishments (and bird house cut from paper) and black rick rack.

Aren't these the cutest handmade gifts? I love my bee (with fork handle wings and fork feet - but the "stinger" on the back is the best!) and especially my blue "mohawk" bug. The teeth on that thing crack me up. Kevin made these at Cub Scouts. The grandmother of one of the boys is the art teacher at a local middle school. She fired the creations before they were delivered to me at work. They were quite the surprise for Mother's Day!

Cheryl Nelson had a layout in the June Scrapbook Trends that I lifted for this layout, "fun & games." Instead of using several individual shots like Cheryl did in her original, I used two 4x6 collage prints with 16 photos each. The shots are of my guys in the driveway playing basketball with Uncle Terry and his three kids. It was a fun afternoon!

I just had to add some alphas and the red rick rack to the Playdate kit.

Finally, there was a single page, one photo layout in Scrapbook Trends that I really liked, but I rarely do one photo layouts. Instead, I took Gretchen McElveen's idea of handstitching down a border and addition of three hearts and stretched it into a 2-pager with 4 photos.

The patterned papers with red and the red alphabet was in the Playdate kit. Everything else was pulled from my stash. On Mother's Day, my gifts really did keep coming!Kevin gave me a whole envelope full of goodies!

You'll see more scraplifting from me soon. I have a couple magazines out on my table with photos matched up to layouts and tucked inside. I have ideas to stretch more single page layouts into 2-pagers. ;)

Happy Scrappin'!

Life moves pretty fast...

Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

- Ferris Bueller

This quote really sums of my life right now. Everything is going by really fast. Our week consists of an event nearly every night. I'm not complaining though. I'm enjoying it. My boys will only be young once and with Blake starting middle school in the fall, I'm reminded of how fast times does go by.

With that being said, I'm snatching moments to scrap late at night when the boys are in bed. I have a lot of moments I want to capture for their albums and stories that need to be documented before I forget them.

My new Personal Scrapper kit arrived earlier this month. The May kit contains My Mind's Eye "So Sophie" papers. It a really pretty kit, but there was one sheet of striped paper that I didn't like matched up with the others. I really liked the pattern alone, so instead of using it sparingly, I opted to go with it as a background paper for this LO for Kevin of Kaitlin's graduation over Mother's Day weekend. Everything on the layout is from the kit.

Using my latest order from Scrappin' {Sports} Stuff, I completed another page for Kevin documenting the first year all four boy cousins on my side played ball in the league. My title is sort of the like the "before & after" puzzles on "Wheel of Fortune." You can read it Everyone Plays or Play Ball.I am loving the mix of Pink Paislee "Starlight" papers with Little Yellow Bicycle "Generation Z" embellishments.

Check back tomorrow for more scrapbook layouts.

Wrapping up the crop...

I was able to finish ALL 15 challenges for the PersonalScrapper.com online crop. Go me!

Using punches, I made my own flower for the "flower frenzy" challenge. I used Lily Bee papers to scrap Reese's Baptism. For the "Old McDonald"/animal challenge, I had animals in both the paper and photos for this layout. The photos are from the summer of '08 and I'm glad they are finally scrapped. I used a sketch on the tear out sheet from the June '10 issue of Scrapbooks, Etc.

Once I saw the Home Front paper line by Studio Calico, I knew that one sheet of paper would be great to cut up and make a banner across a page. Needless to say, I was thrilled to see a "flag/banner challenge" for the crop! I scrapped photos of us dressed up to attend a wedding last May. (Sorry for the crooked photo!)With the crop over, I still have a ton of ideas for layouts. I have so many stories yet to tell! Now, I just need to find the time to scrap!

A Happy Mother's Day...

I had a wonderful Mother's Day!Dressed for Kevin's baseball tournament, the boys presented me with my gifts. I had handmade cards from both of them and an whole envelope full of goodies Kevin made for me at school.

Tom helped them shop, too. They gave me a gift certificate for a massage, a bookmark, and the new Charlaine Harris book, Dead in the Family.

My favorite gifts were the handmade ones though. I almost cried earlier in the week when Blake gave me his windsock he'd made at school with an oatmeal container. With him starting middle school in the fall, I figure this will likely be my last handmade school project/gift. It's says I {heart} Mom and has hands with both boys' names on it. I'm taking it to work to hang over my desk.
Kevin's gift just makes me smile. It really shows how creative this kid is! At Cub Scouts, they made clay insects and decorated them with nails, washers, screws and even forks. My favorite is the blue "mohawk" bug with a mohawk of nails running down the center of its head and back. The "teeth" in its smiling mouth are hilarious. The bee is precious with it's fork legs and fork handle wings. It even has a "stinger" sticking out of the butt!

Kevin also added to making my Mother's Day special by getting a win for me this morning! His team lost the second game though, and we were out of the tournament.

Tomorrow night we'll be cheering Blake on in a league game. Go Tigers!

The Graduate and other happenings...

I am so proud of my sister, Kaitlin. Today she graduated with her Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from the University of Louisville. Monday she starts classes for her Masters.I was also happy that we were all able to make it to her ceremony on time!This morning, Kevin had a baseball tournament in Ft. Knox. After back-to-back games, we stopped at a Burger King for lunch and changed from our ballpark clothes/uniform into commencement-appropriate wear. Well, except for the boys, but they looked nicer than they did at the ballpark. Since I suspected we might be changing in a less than ideal place, I just packed jeans for the boys. (I'm glad I did!)

Afterwards, we went ahead with our Mother's Day dinner since we were already in Louisville. My guys treated me to Olive Garden. YUM! I even got to run in Archiver's for a bit before we headed home.

I'm hoping for Mother's Day, Kevin will win a trophy for me in their tournament tomorrow!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

May Procession

It really makes me proud to hear Blake comment that this was his best week ever since he not only hit a walk-off single, but also got to lead the May Procession and crown Mary at church tonight. When church is "right up there" with baseball as far as an 11 year-old is concerned, I know I must be doing something right as a parent.


I knew the 5th grade was going to lead the Rosary tonight and Blake was taking his part of leading "Hail Holy Queen" very seriously.
The surprise came when we got there and found out that he was to lead the procession out of the church and crown the Virgin Mary. Luckily, tonight I had my camera with me. I just wish that I'd pushed him more to change out of his school clothes before going!

I am very proud of my boy!

Oh what a night!

After all the rain we had this past weekend, I wasn't counting on the boys having their scheduled baseball games tonight. However, thanks to a warm sunny day and a group of determined workers down at the ballpark, the two fields the boys were scheduled to play on tonight were ready for games.

Luckily the games were scheduled back-to-back so I could see them both. Kevin's game at 6:30 was a struggle to watch. 3-up, 3-down for the first two innings! Ugh. We were down 4-0, but FINALLY came back to win it 6-4.

Then it was off to Blake's game at 7:30 on the next field. They started about 10 minutes late. We he walked off the field right at 10 p.m.!!!

I think I held my breath the last HOUR of the game!

Blake's team was 0-2 going into tonight's game. They took a good lead right from the start. Then, in the top of the 4th, the other team came back to tie at 7. We were home, so we had last bat. With Blake on 3rd, I thought for sure he'd score the winning run. But then the batter got the 3rd out.

Into extra innings we went. No runs from either side in the 5th. Or 6th. It was the bottom of the 7th and we had one out and two runners on bases. Blake stepped up to the plate and hit the winning run in.

Yes, MY kid did that. This kid:

And you should all be so proud of me because I didn't cry even though I was so proud that I could have. You should have seen his face and all the kids jumping up and hugging each other...and chest bumping! If I had had my camera with me, I would show you...but it was in the truck.

Oh, and I learned a new term tonight, too. That thing Blake did - hitting the run in to win the game...that's called a walk off single. I think I learn something new on each trip to the ballpark!

Rain, Rain go away...

It's been raining since late Friday night. I'm tired of rain!


Sunday was a lazy, rainy day. I worked in some time to knock out a few more challenges for the Personal Scrapper online National Scrapbook Day crop. Everything I made used the same kit - Personal Scrapper's July '09. There was a challenge to use up a PS kit. I was already down to scraps, but was really able to stretch that kit out!

The kite on a journaling card inspired me to dig out these photos of Kevin from a Cub Scout event in '08. I kept it really simple for the "something old, something new" challenge. The old is the kit, but the new is the one "super" flair in the upper left hand corner. I just purchased it on Sunday.
I had these photos from Father's Day '06 on my desk. I saw a LO by Kim Moreno in the June Scrapbooks, Etc. magazine that I LOVED, so I lifted it. I thought it would work for the "finish up a PS kit challenge." But...it didn't. Then I realized the blue pattern I used for the photo corners had a purple dot in them. With purple, I had all the colors of the rainbow represented for the "Rainbow Brite" challenge. So no one would think I was making up the purple dot (it's hard to see), I also added some purple brads for accents. I'm really happy with how this one turned out. These photos have been pulled and refiled countless times in the almost four years I've had them!

I thought the blue floral pattern left over in the kit would make a nice Mother's Day card. I made three cards, actually. One for each of our mother's and then one for my Grandmother.

I do not consider myself to be a cardmaker, but with the help of cards shown in the May Scrapbook Trends and June Scrapbooks, Etc. I found the inspiration I needed to create cards I liked.

But I STILL had stuff leftover in that July '09 kit!

So, I made cards until I ran out of supplies in the kit.

I made four of them. Again, I used cards in the magazines for inspiration.

And now, it's back to work...

National Scrapbook Day projects...

Yes, there is such a thing as National Scrapbook Day. It falls on the first Saturday of May each year - the same day as the Kentucky Derby.

PersonalScrapper.com has an online crop going on in honor of NSD with 15 challenges posted. You get a prize for doing all 15 challenges. I'll give you one guess as to how many challenges I hope to complete...

I started scrapping on Friday night and stayed up way to late scrapping while keeping an eye on the weather. Then I was up early yesterday morning (awaken by storms) and decided I might as well scrap. Although we headed out of town mid-morning for a birthday party, I was still a productive scrapper. Remember - I have 15 projects to knock out!

For the "National Scrapbook Day challenge" to scrap something scrapbook-related, I scrapped my scrap space. (Did anyone else notice I have "scrap" mentioned FIVE times in that last sentence?) "Old Space New Space" documents how my space used to look (using Mamma's old row of sewing cabinets) and how it looks now that I invested in scrap storage storage cubes at the beginning of the year. I used the American Crafts "Teen" line/Diva paper kit I purchased at Shannon Zickel's fundraiser crop in March.

I find that once I have a coordinated line or "kit" out, I like to continue using it. I work faster that way and feel that it keeps my mojo going. So...I continued on with the "Teen"/Diva for my next challenge. It was a "Collage" challenge to use three photos (minimum) side by side like a collage.

The 3 smaller photos were actually printed as a collage. If you read my blog, you've seen my green Lucky Brand bag before (here). (I love her!)

The amazing Lisa Hidy/jakobsmommy created a sketch that was used for one of the challenges.

I altered the sketch a bit since I only had two photos to scrap and moved the title and journaling placements. I LOVE how this one turned out. I used the American Crafts Valentine's kit with "I heart you" papers (from Shannon Zickel's amazing crop!). This is a line that I was worried I wouldn't use, so I just kept the kit out and looked for photos to match up to it.

I liked these b/w photos of Kevin with his cousin Reese from last fall. "Love Reese to Pieces" (get it???) is a scraplift of a layout by PS design team member Heidi for the "Scraplift the DT" challenge.

There was also a recipe challenge to use 1-12x12 sheet of white cardstock (check!), 2 patterned papers (heart and stripe), 1 solid (pink), one alpha (check!), and three embellishments (flair, sticker, felt cupcake). These b/w shots are also from Kevin's birthday in November. I didn't get too original with the song challenge. Knowing these b/w shots of Blake with family at his birthday in October would match this kit, I simply went with "We are Family." Yeah...not too creative...I do like my page though!

So many challenges, so little time...

How about something girly?

One of the fun things about having an adorable niece, is that I get to make some cute girly layouts now. I used one of the American Crafts kits I picked up at Shannon Zickel's fundraiser crop in March for this layout. The papers are from the "Teen" line. I added some Paper Trunk alphas and Sassafrass Lass chipboard with a scrap of felt. It also helped that I printed two photos on one 4x6 print.

I had so many photos of Reese from this day, that I ended up printing two 4x6 photo collages with four photos on each. Then, I cut them apart and pieced them together to make a row along the bottom of the following 2-page 8.5"x11"layout. I love everything about this little girl - from her head to her toes! The crown in the main photo is actually a rub-on!

I also used my Noel Mignon "Playdate" kit to make another Reese page. This one highlights some of my favorite photos from her party after her Baptism. Isn't she adorable in those sunglasses!
You'll be seeing a lot of Reese photos in future layouts!