Missing in action!

WOW! I cannot believe I haven't posted since June 8th! Things were crazy busy finishing up with school for the boys and then we decided to get away for a little bit and head up north to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a little R&R! We've been back home for about a week now, but that has been filled with catching up, grocery shopping, power outage, Parker's birthday and doctor's office visits.  Lucky me...been battling a kidney stone.  First time ever I've had this and OMG, hope I never have one again. 

Hope this update finds all of you doing well. I haven't created anything new in well over a month and I really need to get my space reorganized and find my mojo!  Although....that is going to have to take a back burner for now because...MY HUBBY IS COMING HOME from China!!!!  We just found out two days ago that Jim is booked to fly home on Thursday!!!  We have missed him sooooo much and will definitely be having some much needed family bonding time!  We only have a couple of weeks to cram in a summer's worth of fun and we haven't decided for sure what that is going to be yet, but we might just be trying to squeeze a few days in at WDW.  I'm a planner, so this short notice thing is driving me a bit crazy, but a few days on the spur of the moment at Disney is better than no days at Disney so I will try to go with the flow! 

So thank you to my faithful followers that have stuck around even though I have been horrible not only about posting on my blog, but also horrible about checking in on all of you.  Having my laptop on the fritz hasn't helped, because a lot of times I would hop on the laptop in bed during the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep and get caught up on everything going on.  It takes too much effort to climb out of bed and go downstairs to the desktop in the middle of the night.  :)  I promise I will be back at some point during July!!!!  Enjoy your summer!   Miss you all!

MPS NSD #10 Pet Challenge

I figured that there would be a lot of dog projects entered for the pet challenge so I decided to go with a lizard!  Unfortunately our lizard, Hungry Hippo passed away about two months ago.  He was a little green anole and the boys miss him.  We will probably get another one, but not until daddy is home on a more regular basis and not traveling as much because taking care of a lizard is not mommy's cup of tea so to speak!  



The lizard is from the Boys Will Be Boys cartridge cut at 4".  I used Colorbok pearlescent and Best Occasions Prismatic papers to piece him together.  For the tongue I just cut a thin strip of paper and curled it around my Gypsy stylus.  The background papers were all from my scraps!  I tore the edges of the yellow paper and then inked it with a lime green ink. 

The best thing about participating in all of these challenges was the amount of scraps I used up!  The only full sheets of new paper I used were the 3 sheets I used for the scrapbook pages I did.  Everything else came from my scrap basket!!!  

So... today Parker graduates from elementary school.  I have been dreading this day for awhile now.  I have found myself shedding tears often, especially throughout this last week.  Moving up to junior high is such a big step!  I am going to miss seeing him in the halls, or his classroom, or in the lunchroom on my days that I am at the school.  It feels like just yesterday that I was walking him through the big double doors at the school and into the kindergarten classroom to meet Mrs. Dreyer for the very first time.  Our baby is growing up....

Parker at 3 years old practicing his Prince Charming skills.  Great...now I'm crying again!  Hope everyone has a wonderful day.  I am going to try and get through mine with my water proof mascara. 





MPS NSD Challenge #9 Use Glitz, Glam and Glitter

Wow, I cannot believe it has been a week since I've posted on my blog!  Things have been super busy!  Today is the last Monday of the school year and Friday is the last day!!!!  Can't even begin to tell you how ready we all are for summer vacation! 

I gave up last week when I was still having trouble posting comments on blogs.  No clue if blogger is fixed now or not.  I apologize to all of you for my absence, but between the blogger issues and all of the school events going on there is very little spare time!

Still have a few of my MPS challenge submissions to post...

This was the card I made for the Glitz, Glam and Glitter challenge!  Not sure how much "Glam", but there is definitely some glitz and glitter!  I thought this one turned out really cute!

The croc was cut from the Create a Critter Cricut cartridge at 2 1/2".  After he was cut I ran him through the Cuttlebug with the Mesh folder.  I also embossed the turquoise background paper with the Seeing Spots Cuttlebug folder.  All the paper and the ribbon was from my scrap basket and I used Stickles and Jolee's All that Bling to give the croc his "Glitz and Glitter".  The stamped sentiment is by Pink Stamper.  



Hope all is well with everyone and that you haven't given up on me!  I promise to be around more frequently soon!  Just get me to Friday...get me to Friday...get me to Friday!!!  :)

Still can't leave comments

Boy it sure has been a month of issues with blogger for me!  First towards the beginning of the month I couldn't post...then I couldn't view any of the blogs I follow in my blogger reader for WEEKS...then once that was fixed, for about the last week I haven't been able to leave comments on other's blogs!  FRUSTRATING!!!

On a much more important note... thank you to all that have or are currently serving our country and making sacrifices to afford us our freedoms and keep us safe.  Freedom is not free, it comes with the highest of costs...the cost of blood.  I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Memorial Day. 



MPS NSD Challenge #8 Summer Theme

Phew!  I completed ALL 12 of the challenges for the My Pink Stamper National Scrapbooking Day Celebration!!!!  I didn't go in order since I didn't get to start on time with the others.  I might not have started on time, but I  FINISHED them all and got them posted before the deadline last Monday (5/9/11).

This challenge was Summer Theme and what says "summer" more than making S'mores?!?!  I had a particular friend in mind when I made this card.  Wonder if she will see this and know I'm talking about her?  I am so in love with the Campin' Critters Cricut cartridge!!!!  When I first got it and looked through the handbook I knew I was going to cut this cute little porcupine and that I had the perfect sentiment stamp to go along with it!  (I just love saying the word "porcupine". With heavy accent on the "u" a little shout out to the Disney movie Chicken Little...   "Porcupine"  hee hee) 

The porcupine (hee hee) was cut at 4" from the Campin' Critters Cricut cartridge.  The fire and logs were cut at 2 3/4" from Campin' Critters as well.  I used some Dew Drops metallic ink on the spiky edges of the porcupine.  The stamped sentiment is Pink by Design.  I used an orange Martha Stewart glitter marker on the flame and white liquid applique on the marshmallow and hit it with my heat gun.  Doesn't the marshmallow look cool!?!?!  Almost good enough to eat don't you think? 



Well that might have been the last project I completed for the challenges, but since I'm posting them in numerical order for all of you...there are still 4 more to come so stay tuned!  

MPS NSD Challenge #7 Create a Scrapbook Page

I started this layout MONTHS ago.  I had picked out the patterned paper and matted the photos, but then I couldn't decide what else to add or embellish it with.  I decided to pull it back out and work on it for the scrapbook page challenge.  Glad I did and figured out what to do with it!

"flying high" was cut from Plantin Schoolbook Cricut cartridge.  The peanuts are from the Create a Critter cartridge and I used the hide/contour freature to hide the face on them and then unlinked so I could adjust just the height and not the width to stretch them out a bit.  After I cut them out of Recollections Kraft paper I ran them through my Cuttlebug with the mesh embossing folder and inked them up a bit.  The tickets are cut from the seasonal Summer Vacation Cricut cartridge and inked up as well. 

Hope you all have a happy hump day!  One day closer to the three day weekend!  Thanks for stopping by! 



MPS NSD Challenge #6 Incorporate a Tag

This was the second to last challenge that I completed.  For some reason...this one took me the longest to come up with an idea.   Once I remembered these vellum and metal star tags in my stash, I knew I wanted to use them, but wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to put them with.  I searched for "moon" in my Gypsy and this phrase came up and that was it!!!

"Over the Moon" was cut from the Nursery Rhymes Cricut cartridge at 3".  All papers used were from my scrap basket and I tied the stars off with some Twinery bakers twine.  I placed a small pop dot on the back of the large star to anchor it to the card, but the small star is just dangling freely. 

For not really having a vision and kind of just letting it happen, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  

Last day of bagel orders for the school today!  One more thing to check off my list!  How are you spending your Tuesday?