geared up to learn

This Bo Bunny Grease Monkey collection was positively made to go with these pictures of our Cub Scout Den visiting a local auto repair shop for a presentation about changing oil and basic car maintenance. I designed and cut the large gear using my Pazzles machine. For the "tire treads" on the background, I also used the pazzles to cut the design as a "stencil" from scrap cardstock. Then I applied ink with a piece of felt, dabbing through the stencil until the coverage was just right! It worked great!

Journaling:
What a fun & educational Cub Scout outing! The Den went to Elizabeth Auto Care. Dave showed you how they change the oil in a car, check the other fluids, and perform the emissions test. He explained how the oil is processed & recycled. They even gave you each a bucket of small goodies & gifts afterwords. How nice!

Here is a close up of the Maya Road gear-date-sheer. I applied some of the Bo Bunny rub-ons to the bottom layer, and a sticker to the wrench, to tie the embellishment into the rest of the page. I used the Making Memories tiny alpha stickers to add the year, and also changed out the center brad to one of the "screw top" brads". I love the effect!



Here is a closer look at the inked tire treads:



I created a 2-pager sketch with this page! You can check it out here, and enter a page in the Sketch Challenge for a chance to win a gift certificate to the store here!

complete comfort

The Webster's Pages - A Sweet Life collection had the perfect soft and sweet feel to it for this picture I caught of my little guy in his favorite position... sucking his thumb and playing with his ear. LOL! I played with a distressed photo edge in Photoshop, so carried that theme into the whole page by distressing the heck out of all the paper edges, by roughing them up and then adding lots of ink.

Journaling:
Right thumb in mouth, left hand on ear... in the car, watching TV, going to sleep at night... for you, this is it. Complete comfort.

You can find my sketch for this page in the Allyscraps Gallery.

some of the wild things at the zoo

I love the gorgeous colors in this Crate Paper Little Sprouts collection! It has such an earthy and natural feel, I thought it was perfect for another zoo page!

Journaling:
TOP ROW: Red Panda; Mexican Wolf; Large Flying Fox; Koala Bear; Random Bird.
BOTTOM ROW: Grizzly Bear; Markhor (goat-antelope); Water Monitor; Bald Eagle.
Columbus Zoo – April 18, 2009

This is also the page for my July 3rd Sketch Challenge at Allyscraps - check it out for a chance to win a $10 gift certificate to the store!

Columbus Zoo

This Doodlebug Zoofari was perfect for these pics from our trip to the Columbus Zoo in April!

Journaling:
We had a wonderful family weekend getaway in Ohio to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary! We couldn’t miss the opportunity to check out the Columbus Zoo. We always love a zoo, and this one was very impressive! There was plenty of hands-on fun, including the pony rides and petting zoo. Hopefully we will make it back for another visit someday! April 19, 2009

bugs fear him

WOW, how perfect is the Bo Bunny U Bug Me line for these pictures of Ryan chasing fireflies!? I love the rich colors in these papers, and the fun patterns! The bug theme is so cute, but plenty of the patterns are neutral enough to work for lots of other topics, too!

I had several pictures that I wanted to use on this page, and didn't want to make them super tiny, so I did something I haven't done in a long time, and added the extra photos in a "flip-book" style hidden element. I really love how it turned out! See below for the inside of the flip book.

This page goes with the current sketch challenge at Allyscraps! Be sure to check it out for a chance at the drawing for a $10 gift certificate!

Journaling:
What better way to spend a beautiful summer evening than out in the backyard catching fireflies? Like a little scientist, you carefully capture and study them. They really have nothing to fear, because you are always very gentle. After your observation is complete, you set them free.

Here are the inside pages of the flip book:

the very best kind of summer fun

This fun, bright Fancy Pants Delight was perfect for these pics from a trip to a local amusement park with friends last year!

Journaling:
Kennywood is always fun, but sharing it with friends makes it the best kind of summer fun! What a great time we had there with Jacob and Kathy! 8-22-08

seeing beauty through the eyes of love

This page is for the Allyscraps Blog May Design Team reveal! Each DT member chose a challenge that one of the other DT'ers did for our crop on May 9. I used Dana's challenge, which was to choose 3 sources of inspiration and use them to create the layout. My three inspirations were:
1. The Scrap Within Reach “Cottage” line with it’s dandelion theme – perfect for these SWEET pictures of my little Tyler, who loves to bring me these pretty little “flowers” at every available opportunity!
2. Stitching: I don’t sew on my pages often enough! Every time I see it, like on this awesome page by Guest DT Jana, or this great page by forum member Tina, I think that I really should do it more often!
3. Die-cut “bracket” style paper: these shaped papers are so popular and I just love them! So I used my Pazzles and a print-and-cut technique to create my shaped journaling block in this fun style!

Journaling:
“Here Mommy, I picked a flower for you!” I know that these bright little yellow “flowers” are really weeds, and Daddy would like nothing better than to rid our yard of them. Still, I’m kind of glad that there are always a few to be found. You gather them up as you walk from the bus up to the front door, and then gleefully hold them out for me with that sweet, loving smile. To you, they are a thing of beauty and a chance to give me a gift full of pure love. I love these sweet flowers, when they come from your heart.

making the grade

I love Scrap Within Reach's Elliot line! The alphabet soup pattern, with the numbers along the bottom, were perfect for this page. I also mixed in the notebook paper pattern from We R Memory Keepers Grandma's Kitchen collection, to fit the theme of the page, and used a journaling stamp to put the lines on some of the title letters to match the "lined paper" look. Check out the Allyscraps forum for the current scrappy challenge and a chance to win a $10 gift certificate!

Journaling:
At first I wasn’t really paying attention to what the boys were doing, until I happened to hear Ryan say “ok Tyler, here you go – take this math quiz I wrote for you.” After Tyler was finished, Ryan set about the task of grading it. First he located his “grading pen” – a green pen, just like the one that I use to grade my students’ work! I guess the apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree. He then carefully reviewed the problems, explaining the ones that were wrong and praising Tyler for the ones that were correct. You must have teaching in your blood, sweetheart. You are a natural!

friends & fun at the pumpkin patch

The rich colors of We R Memory Keepers Grandma's Kitchen were just perfect for these pictures from last fall of Tyler's class trip to the pumpkin patch! The sketch for this page is the current Sketch Challenge - check it out for a chance to win a $10 gift certificate at Allyscraps!

Journaling:
It’s a highlight of the fall – the school trip to the pumpkin patch at Kerber’s Dairy farm. The whole kindergarten and preschool class has a blast! First a tractor-driven hay ride winds through the farm and takes you out to the pumpkin field, where you get to pick a pumpkin. Then it’s back in the wagon to return to the dairy, where everyone enjoys an ice cream cone. Kerber’s has the very yummiest ice cream! I was not able to chaperone the trip this time, but Daddy was lucky enough to go along and enjoy the fun.

indisputable proof

I thought the fun, summery, water-themed patterns of Fancy Pants Summer Soiree were perfect for this picture of Ryan and I, just after getting drenched in a water ride last summer at a local amusement park! My sketch for this page can be found in the Allyscraps Gallery.

Journaling:
Kennywood – love it. Getting soaked right down to my socks and having to walk around the amusement park that way for the rest of the evening – not so crazy about it. But when you asked to ride the Pittsburg Plunge, I couldn’t say no. You never used to be so bold when it came to riding some of the bigger rides, but in the last couple of years you’ve become much more willing to try new adventures. So I wasn’t about to say no. You loved it, and it was worth having soggy hair and being sopping wet for the next couple of hours to see how thrilled you were by the ride, and how proud you were that you rode it.

your very own prehistoric park

This was my page for the Allyscraps April DT reveal, using the bonus 2-pager sketch! I used the Studio 8 Dinosaur Land line. I mixed & matched and painted some different raw chipboard alphas I had for the title work.


Journaling:
You are definitely two dinosaur-loving boys! Both of you were able to identify the various dinosaur species (and pronounce their names!) by around 4 years old. One day, after being secluded together in Ryan’s room for quite some time, you came to me with great excitement and said “Mom, come look what we did on the train table!!” You had carefully arranged various books as “partitions”, and created a prehistoric paradise for several of your dinosaurs – complete with a schematic drawing of what animals are located in each exhibit! I love seeing you engage in this kind of creative play – no electronics required!
June 30, 2008

I was the featured Bella Blvd. Guest Artista this week!

I was so honored to have been asked by Bella Blvd. to be a Guest Bella Artista! Their product lines are so bright and fun and I had a great time working with them! I was featured on their blog this past week. Here are the pages that I created with their goodies!

My Adorable Boy

I added the “Party Hearty” paper from Sweet Celebration – the perfect complement to Swing into Spring for these sweet pictures of my little guy! I hand-cut the folksy hearts, to match the ones on the paper, from the "Candy Buttons "paper. I varied the font color on certain words in the journaling to match the colors on the page.



Hunting Easter Eggs

My "Designer's Challenge" was to use small photos. I knew that I wanted to include several pictures from our Easter egg hunt last year on this page, so it was a perfect topic for this challenge and the Swing Into Spring product line. I used a variety of photo sizes, with the focal point photo a bit larger and the other pictures each 2.5” or 3” high. I really liked the color and the pretty pattern on “April Showers”, but since my page doesn’t have anything to do with rain, I turned the paper upside down (I think it sort of looks like balloons!). I also used a circle punch to punch circles from Candy Buttons for the scalloped border at the bottom.



Bright Lights in the Big City

My oldest son and I recently went with friends to see the musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in downtown Pittsburgh, and the colors in Pack Your Bags were perfect to go with the photos. Even the ticket stubs matched!

Join us at Allyscraps for an online crop on Saturday!

mommy I love you infinity

Tyler said this to me one day out of the blue... I immediately wrote it down and knew it would become a page! Loved the My Mind's Eye Bloom & Grow collection for my sweet guy. I cut the infinity symbol from scrap chipboard with my Pazzles, and painted it and the chipboard letters and word.

Journaling:
Tyler to mommy, straight from the heart. I love you infinity too, my baby. ♥ mommy
2-27-09

Scrap Within Reach - My 2 Boys minibook!

I am so honored to have been asked to work with the April Kit from Scrap Within Reach as their Guest Designer! This kit features their "Cottage" collection with it's beautiful blues and greens, and lots of coordinating embellishments!

I created my custom "My 2 boys" minibook by cutting the base of the pages from scrap chipboard, using my Pazzles Inspiration and a cutting file that I created myself (I ♥ my Pazzles!). After painting the outer edges of each page (and the back cover), I covered each page with paper or cardstock from the kit. Then I went about embellishing and adding photos of my two adorable boys! I converted all of the photos to b&w except for the 3 color photos on the “tag page” that I inserted near the end (created from the two large tags in the kit). Those I left in color for an unexpected “pop”, and since that photo just happened to match the colors in the kit so wonderfully! Other than stamps and ink and the ribbons tied to the binder rings, everything is from the kit.