Creating with Friends

Today my friend Tanya came over for me to help her put together a Wedding album for her sister who is getting married this weekend. Of course we don't have any pictures for the album but we wanted to give the bride a head start on her album. Her 4 kids and my 4 kids had a blast playing as we created. After about 5 hours of continual scrapbooking we were pretty pleased by what we were able to pull together. All of this from a Level 1 kit, some embellishments and a couple extra pieces of paper. What do you think?

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Towards the end of our scrapbooking the kids started getting really loud. Now whenever you have 8 kids in a house it's going to get pretty noisy but this was a lot noisier then normal. I run downstairs to find the kids yelling and screaming. Apparantly there was a new scrapbooker in the house - one who was not invited and not welcome. We had to send him home.

Boxin' them up

My hostess club was last night and everyone got to create the new My Creations Cube I was telling you about. Unfortunately we had a couple sick but the boxes that were created were super cute. A mom and daughter came and both used the Emporium papers and stickease to create their box. My mom also came and created her own box with her own papers and stickers that she had at home. This is a fun gift or home decor item that takes very little paper and embellishments and is a great way to use up your scraps from other paper packs. The hardest part is also the cutest part - the ribbons which ties all the sides together. Hope you enjoy - we did!!!

All boxed up!

I have been in my office all day creating and having fun getting ready for my hostess Club tomorrow night. We are creating Close to My Hearts new My Creations Cube . It's a fun little pattern that comes flat and you can make it into a cube, treasure box or wall hanging. I was hoping to make it into a trinket box for Princess and give it to her as a surprise. However, as soon as I opened my office door to create, I had 4 little munchkins right behind me to help me create and work on their own little creations. Princess was so excited to see me working with pictures of her that she was all over my space wanting to cut and glue and lay everything out. So, so much for my surprise for her, but it was a lot of fun for both of us and now everytime we look at the box we will have that memory.

Here is the cover that Princess created. She matted the picture and designed it all on her own. She was so excited with her creation that she had to take it to Nana & Papas to show them.

I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. I used an oldy but goody paper and stickease set from CTMH and it totally fit for my daughter. The ribbon on the sides holds the box altogether and really makes it pop. Give it a try and e-mail me your creations. I would love to see what you come up with.

Congratulations to...

Congratulations to Jeanette! She was the winner of the July Workshop challenge! Jeanette recognized the layout from the Imagine book, Fantastic Five layout on page 63.

Here is the layout shown in the Imagine book. I can't show how they created it due to licensing issues but you can come to my workshop on the 17th and use it to create the layout below. Or contact me to order the image book to create all the layouts in this amazing book.

Here is the layout that we will be doing on the 17th. If you compare the layouts you will see that the first page (the left page) has been rotated so that the strips to the left are now on the bottom of my page and the wider strip on the bottom that has the title is now to the left of the focal picture. I angled the pictures to give the layout a more fun feel and to show the movement in the pictures.

The right page layout was left exactly the same with the only change being the accents and the angling of the pictures on the bottom of the layout. I LOVE how you can change the entire feel of the layout by changing the papers, accents and adding your own pictures - don't you?!

As the winner of my workshop challenge, Jeanette will receive the roll of Summer Celebration ribbon rounds to use through- out her summer inspired scrapbook layouts and creations. Enjoy, Jeanette and Congratulations!!!

Raindrops Keep Falling On Their Head!

Well, I told you my family was crazy and my husband is always sure to prove it.


The other day Princess was outside playing and came inside to tell Bruiser to bring the dogs in (it's his job) because she heard thunder. My wonderful husband, the big kahuna in the house, looked outside and told Bruiser - don't worry, leave the dogs where they were. Princess, with her toes a little bruised from being stepped over, tried to tell daddy about the thunder but to no avail. It was such a beautiful, sunny day - it couldn't be about to rain. But, about 20 minutes later it began to rain. I don't mean a little trickling but a sudden down pour with loud thunder heard by all! Princess looked and me and just smiled. She tried but no one would listen. Mom to the rescue.


I yelled upstairs to Bruiser and told him to bring in the dogs that it was pouring and told him to bring daddy to help him since he didn't seem to think it needed to be done. Both boys came down the stairs, heads low from realizing the error of the ways to a Princess (and mommy) all smiles.



Well our family are not one to let the little things get us down. Daddy and Bruiser headed outside, brought the dogs quickly to save them from saturation and the rest of the world from their yelping and then decided to have a little fun.

You can't get a good bunch of boys down!

Running in the rain is so much fun and let's the heaviness of the world wash away. Next time it rains outside your house, I encourage you to grab your kids and have a little fun. Wash away your grumpiness and enjoy the beauty of the rain!

The New Babies

My sister and her husband recently had twins and it has been so much fun seeing and playing with them. It has brought back so many memories and made me wish for the chance to go through all of it again. Unfortunately, my husband doesn't see things the same way so... I get to just love on them as much as I can. Here they are at 2 months old - aren't they sweet!!! We are so happy for Misti and Allen. These little blessings were big surprises, wonderful surprises!!!

Trying to be understand and remember how I felt right after I had kids, I have tried to keep my kids at bay unless it was just one on one because 4 kids running around can be quite overwhelming when you are trying to handle new babies. Tinker Bell got to spend some one-on-one time with them but is still a little too young to hold them. So, yesterday, I just had one child as Nana and Papa H had the girls for a fun night and Whiz Kid was at camp so Bruiser and I went to visit the twins.

Bruiser was so excited to get to see the babies let a lone be the very first child to hold the babies. It gets even better. He decided to hold onto one (he actually wouldn't let go of him) and he actually put him to sleep. He was so proud of himself and so happy. He did good!!!