One little, two little, three little pumpkins....

Well, there are only two in the picture, but page down and you'll see my third little pumpkin in a previous post.  To be fair, I guess I should scrap my fourth too!  But that's for another day.  I LOVE, LOVE this picture of my twins sitting in a pumpkin patch on a gorgeous fall day 6 years ago.  They hadn't yet turned one...and all they could do was SIT!!  Oh, those were the days.  Just plop 'em down and know that they couldn't go anywhere fast!  :-)  I laugh when I see how chunky they both were...they were each just over 4 pounds at birth.  How quickly they grew!



Recipe

Patterned papers - My Mind's Eye Bloom & Grow stack

Cardstock - Recollections

Tree, 'little' - Simply Charmed

'pumpkins' - Plantin Schoolbook, welded with my Gypsy

Martha Stewart pumpkin border punch

Cuttlebug d'vine swirls on tree

Cuttlebug distressed stripes on tree trunk

Orange peel Stickles on leaves

Cat's Eye chalk ink in chestnut roan

White Gelly Roll pen; black and brown Creative Memories markers for doodling & journaling

Button from stash to mimic hole in tree

Pop dots

I'm submitting this page to a couple of challenges:

Peachy Keen Stamps Challenge 38: October Inspiration - Create a layout or project (no cards) based on the season.

Got Scraps?: First Monday of the Month Challenge - Create an Autumn or Halloween scrapbook page or card.

The Paper Variety: Week #4 Challenge - Draw inspiration from one of their designers' pages.  I was inspired by Melissa's road trip page.  I loved that she used one old photo of the kids and the corrugated letters for her title.  I, like Melissa, scrapped one older photo (although mine wasn't quite as old as hers!) and I used a 'corrugated' effect on the tree trunk using the Cuttlebug to emboss with the distressed stripes folder.  Pretty cool, huh?  Thanks Melissa for your inspiration! 

The Scraproom Blog: Week #40 Challenge - POP-DOT something on a layout.  I chose to pop dot a few leaves on my tree and really liked the dimension they added.

Thanks for looking!!





The Pick of the Crop!

I just love this picture of my middle son....he was three at the time...we celebrated his 9th birthday last week  (yes, have I mentioned that I'm WAAAAYYYY behind in scrapping??).  The picture was taken in a local pumpkin patch.  My kids loved roaming through it....touching each and every of the hundreds of pumpkins on display.  I'm pretty sure my son touched every pumpkin twice....and he tried to carry one of the largest to the car.  :-)  We negotiated on the two he's holding....and he rode home with both on his lap...so proud to have chosen his own!

I was excited to use my new Cricut Simply Charmed cartridge to cut the pumpkins and the title.  I think this cartridge is going to be a favorite!  I also chose papers from the My Mind's Eye Bloom & Grow stack - perfect for fall!

Recipe

Trio of pumpkins and 'pick of the crop' - cut from Simply Charmed

Scalloped rectangle - sized with my Gypsy, cut from A Child's Year

Patterned paper - My Mind's Eye Bloom & Grow

Cardstock - Recollections

EK Success scalloped diamond border punch

Googly eyes

Pumpkin brads from Target's Dollar Spot

Black Creative Memories black and green markers & White Gelly Roll pen for faux-stitching, doodling

Pop dots

I'm submitting this scrapbook page to a few challenges:

Made by Momo - Tuesday Challenge #13 - use green, orange and yellow and add some faux-stitching or doodling.  All of these colors - perfect for scrapping my fall scene - are in the papers I chose from the My Mind's Eye Bloom & Grow stack.  I added faux-stitching around my yellow cardstock layer and around the scalloped rectangle used for my title and journaling.

Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog - Challenge Me Monday #29 - in honor of National Sewing Month, use some type of stitching- hand, machine or faux.  I added faux-stitching around my yellow cardstock layer and around the scalloped rectangle used for my title and journaling.

The Scraproom Blog - Week #39 Weekly Challenge - use a scalloped something on a layout.  My title sits on a scalloped rectangle and I used my scalloped diamond border punch to create the green strip near the bottom of the page.

More Than Favors - Wacky Wednesday #9 - make a card or layout using a circle and a scallop.  My Simply Charmed pumpkins are circles and I used a scalloped rectangle for my title.

Always Crafting - Whimsical Wednesday Challenge - share the inspiration for your project and how you come up with your creations.  My inspiration for the design of this page came from HERE.  Okie's blog is terrific - her projects are always fantastic and I adore her humor.  I really liked the layout of her cards in this post and decided it would work well for my scrapbook page.  Thanks Okie!  Ideas from other's blogs are often the inspiration for my projects. 

 

Happy Fall!!

"Race to Read" Bookmark

Happy Thursday!  I wanted to post this before I started 'party mode'.  My middle son is turning 9 years old next week and we're celebrating with family at our home on Sunday.  Lots to do before then!  I hope everyone has a good weekend...ours should be fun!  Now....

My youngest son just entered 1st grade and is required to read for at least 30 minutes every day.  This has been challenging.  He usually wants to stop after about 10-15 minutes, so I thought I'd make him a cute bookmark to excite him about reading.  He LOVES race cars, so I used one from the Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge (I can't tell you how often I turn to this cart!) to decorate his bookmark.  I hope it does it's job...and makes mine a bit easier!!

Here's the front:

And the back:

I wanted to make this simple and fun for him.  Since he'll be placing it in his books, I didn't want to use any embellishments that weren't flat....or glitter...that could damage the books.  That was hard!  But I did find the perfect button to mimic the smiley stars on the bookmark...it too has a star.  Whoo hoo!  On the back, I put his name...my kids love to see their names on their stuff!

I entered this project into both Fantabulous Cricut's "Button Up for School" Crawl challenge and Crafting with Cristina's "Back 2 School" challenge.  Both challenges are to make a back-to-school project and Fantabulous Cricut's also requires a button somewhere on it.  Two checks!

Recipe
'race' and 'read !' - Mickey Font, welded with my Gypsy
'Daniel' - Mickey Font
'to' - Alphalicious, welded with my Gypsy
Race car & flag - image & blackout, Everyday Paper Dolls
Stars - Create A Critter
Cardstock - Recollections
Patterned paper - from my stash
Black Creative Memories marker for stitching, doodling
White Gelly Roll pen for doodling

Are You a Scaredy Cat?

My kitty looks spooked!  Like the way my 6 year-old daughter does when I ask her to head upstairs at night...or to the basement anytime.  If there are creepy crawlers or mighty monsters there, I just haven't seen them!!  My husband and I thought it was her age, but her twin brother doesn't have this fear.  Neither do her two older brothers.  Hmmm...maybe it's a girl thing??? 

Stephanie at Always Crafting hosted a fall- or Halloween-themed challenge this week.  She posted a cute story and a Halloween card she made using Mini Monsters...be sure to check it out.  I haven't made any cards lately, so I decided to make one for this challenge using my new Peachy Keen Nikkity Knack Cat Gang stamp set (Thanks to Samantha from the PKS design team!).   Love that scaredy cat!  I think the creeping kitties on my patterned paper may have given her the spook....what do you think?

Recipe

Kitty stamp - PKS Nikkity Knack Cat Gang set

Lime green cardstock - DCWV 'Brights' cardstock stack

Black cardstock - Recollections

Circle - George and Basic Shapes

Scalloped circle - Mini Monograms

Patterned paper, ribbon - Target's Dollar Spot

White Gelly Roll pen for doodling

Pop dots to pop up Kitty

Workin' for a Livin' - Remember That Song?

Oh, the 80's...gotta love them!  Big hair, Madonna, valley girls, leg warmers, high school for me...I'm SO glad we can't go back!!  But they WERE fun.  At the time.  :-)  Do you remember the Huey Lewis and the News song?  Workin' for a Livin'.  Well, that's my take on the theme for this week's challenge at Fantabulous Cricut. 

The challenge, in honor of Labor Day, is to "create a project that has something to do with work or a job, congrats on promotion, retirement, etc."  I had a tough time thinking of something to scrap....then I came across a picture of my oldest son shoveling snow last winter.  We didn't have a lot of snow, but we did have a few big storms.  He took it upon himself to shovel our front walkway while his dad was at work, so dad didn't have to do it when he came home.  That was real work.  Don't you love it when your kids do something nice without being asked???  :-) 

I used the sketch and color combo from the current challenge at the Peachy Keen Stamps blog to layout my scrapbook page...I turned it upside down actually.

Now here's my page.  I glittered the snowflakes and the word 'snow', cuttlebugged the snowman with dots and spots, cuttlebugged the fallen snow with divine swirls, and used stickles on the snowman's nose and earmuffs.  I used my Gypsy to make the earmuffs by welding an oval to each side of a jumprope, sizing them to fit my snowman's head.  I clipped the jumpropes handles off after cutting the image on my Cricut.  Woo hoo!  Didn't want his ears to get cold!!  Oh, wait...do snowmen even have ears???  :-)

Recipe

Patterned paper - atd Year Book paper pack

Cardstock - Recollections

Snowman - from Doodlecharms, Cuttlebugged with spots and dots folder

Fallen snow - welded piles of straw (from Every Day Paper Dolls) together, Cuttlebugged with divine swirls folder

'snow much work' - from Mickey Font, welded with my Gypsy

earmuffs - 2 ovals from Every Day Paper Dolls welded together with 2 ovals from George and Basic Shapes

White Gelly Roll pen for stitching

fine glitter

orange peel Stickles

googly eyes
Pop dots - popped up the title and the snowman

"Gearin' Up" Football Page for Made by Momo and Always Crafting challenges

Hello again!  Hurricane Earl is slowly making his way towards New England and we're all hanging out, wondering whether this storm will sizzle or fizzle.  Just a lot of fog and drizzle (he he he) at the moment, but time will tell.  My kids created their own carnival in our basement today and they're keeping busy playing all the games.  :-) 

My kids went back to school on Tuesday, so this was a transition week for us.  So far, so good.  But my house has been unusually quiet - it's the first time in over 10 years that I haven't had a child home with me for at least part of the day.  And it's been unusually neat here at home too...hmm...I wonder why!  :-)  Anyway, since I had some free time this week, I decided to make a scrapbook page for two different challenges.  Mari aka Momo at Made by Momo has a challenge every other Tuesday.  The current challenge is to make a project using black & white and one color of your choice.  I chose green....for our school's colors.  And Stephanie at Always Crafting posted her Whimsical Wednesday challenge  - use bling, buttons and/or brads on a project.  I used two brads to mimic the snaps on my son's football helmet...hope that's enough!!  :-)

I must mention that the layout for this page was inspired by a scrapbook page created by Marie on Write. Click. Scrapbook.  You should check out this blog...such beautiful projects!

The pictures I scrapped are of my middle son who began playing football on a team this year.  He was so excited to get his practice uniform....and proudly modeled it for us.  I think he's looking pretty tough for an 8 yr-old!  What do you think?  :-)

Recipe

Football helmet - Cricut Sports Mania cartridge, used hide contour

"M" - Cricut Plantin Schoolbook cartridge

"gearin' up" - Cricut Plantin Schoolbook, welded with my Gypsy

Patterned paper - My Mind's Eye 'everyday tango'

Cardstock - DCWV and Recollections

Brads - Recollections

Black Creative Memories marker, white Gelly Roll pen for stitching, doodling, journaling

Cat's Eye chalk ink

Pop Dots

A New Challenge Blog - The Paper Variety

Do you love a good challenge?  Then check out the new challenge blog, The Paper Variety, launching on September 15.  They just revealed their design team and are doing a GREAT giveaway, Echo Park's 'Life is Good' paper kit (cute, cute, cute!), to help promote their blog.  I'll be following them!