Carsten catches a fish....

Totally random (well, sort of, you know this will be a  scrap page soon)....I have to share photos of my son catching a fish.  These were taken today.

Next years scrapbook challege

Time and time again we are told that studies show that if you write your goals down, you are more likely to achieve them. I think for me its because I forget them, heck, if I write them down, there is even a good change I forget WHERE I wrote them down. I'm looking through photos taken over the past month and realizing how far behind I am in scrapbooking. I look back at photos just taken a few months ago and already have trouble with the journaling. Looking at photos taken of my boys as babies just a few years ago, I can barely remember which is which (I know, bad mommy, but cut me some slack, they are very identical). Looking at photos taken as a child, I barely remember anything. If I don't scrap them now, how will I tell the stories later? I doubt my memory will get better with age. SO, I'm writing down my goal for all to see, but mostly just for me -I don't think I'll forget where my blog it.
Next year, I'm going to do at least one scrap page per week. I usually do one a month, so this will be a big jump for me. I am a hybrid scrapper (if you don't know what that is...it is someone who mixes both traditional and digital scrapping) and wanting to get better with my PSE and CS3 software so my goal also includes to try at least one new technique each month too, shouldn't be too hard because there is just so much you can do with digital scrapping/photo editing and so little I've tried so far. I am hoping I will have some others who will want to join me in this quest. I also know that tomorrow never gets here, so I'm starting today, then I will have a couple weeks jump on things. If you can relate this all too well, I hope you will join me. If you are doing traditional scrapping, maybe you can use my layouts or cricut .cut files for embellishments, if your digital or hybrid maybe you can join me in trying some new techniques, or suggest some you really like. 52 scrap pages? 26 new techniques? I do love a challenge!

TLC195 Triangle Fold Medallion

I love to teabag folding on cards but I don't do it very often, kind of one of those things you forget about when you have a million other projects running around in your head. Todays technique challenge was a teabag fold I am fond of (because its an easy one:) so I of course had to play along. I also had to use my two new punches from MS - border arches and branch. Here is the card I came up with:

If you'd like directions on making the medallion, they can be found on Splitcoast HERE

Now I have to post this photo of my son taken yesterday, it is sure to makes it way into a scrap page very soon. This was on one of our geochase hunts yesterday. Isn't he cute? And he has an identical twin brother, two heathy beautiful little boys, how on earth did I ever get so lucky?

Welcome Fall!

From the neighbors tree.............to our front porch

I love the fall. I love the quiet in the streets, I love the smell of the air, I love wearing sweaters even when its sunny out. Most of all I love the colors. Today the kids and I collected leaves from the trees in our neighborhood. While most people are raking them up to haul away, I am scooping them up and taking them home to press in books and scatter on my front porch. How can anybody throw away something so beautiful? I think they are as beautiful as any spring flower, and every year they amaze me. Someday I hope I have a big maple tree of my own, until then I will borrow from the neighbors.
Oh, and for you cricut crafters...yes, vinyl sticks to pumpkins :).
Happy Fall!

First Mate, SBSC157

Andy will definitely be a boater, just like his daddy. I took this picture a couple weeks ago when we went crabbing. I didn't include any photos of crabs....because we didn't catch anything. Thankfully, I got this adorable photo of the two of them, AND our wonderful neighbors caught their limit and gave us a bunch (better than catching it myself and having to clean and cook it!).

This sketch is from SplitcoastStampers, its is the weekly sketch challenge (SBSC157). Most the elements in it were freebies, except for the swirl paper, which is from Close to my Heart. I scanned it and then used a hard light filter with a brown background so it would match, gotta love photoshop!

Sucia Scrap page

This was done mostly with PE6, the journaling brackets are from my new Storybook cart cut at 1.5 inches. I took the layout from 2PeasInABucket. I used one of my pictures for the 12x12 background. We had taken the dingy to shore to look for a geochache. We didn't find it, the cliff was just too scary to continue with small children, but we did get a good picture of the boat from there.

ARGGGG! Cricut Pirate Party Hats

ARGGGG, WALK THE PLANK!


Everything in my house is Pirate - my boys are obsessed. Earlier this summer they had a birthday party and I made a stack of these pirate hats with Paper Dolls, they are still playing with them....and having me make more. It was a cute moment because he asked for a feather and I didn't have one, a little while later he showed up with a blue pipe cleaner tied to it (its tilted back behind his head so you can't really see it but its there). He had gone into his craft supplies and fashioned his own out of a pipe cleaner because.....


(Carsten in his exasperated "why don't grownups understand?" voice)


"Monny, every pirate HAS to have a blue PEATHER!!!!"


If you have a little pirate, set you Paperdolls on 4 inch (Real size dial on), cut out the crossbones at 1.5, and staple on some 1/4 elastic (I did corded too, but flat worked better) - they will be thrilled. To make his patch I used the blackout of D in George, slightly skewed (Design Software) - but it could be made by hand easy enough, for that I put in a couple quick eyelets (LOVE my crop-a-dile) and ran some corded elastic. Don't forget to buy some feathers :0)


As long as I'm posting, here are the other photos from the party. I make a pirate ship cake for the family party - I used craft sticks and paper for the sails, which quickly set on fire - looked like we had our own pirate battle. For the kiddie party I made cupcakes, each with a pirate flag from paper dolls cart, I attached them to sucker sticks (available in the Wilton Cake section). They were cute, but I can't find a picture. The invitations and thank you cards were make with Stampin' Up! Ahoy Mate! stamp set, thanks to CJ for helping me get them done in time.

Before the Fire

ABANDON SHIP! Look at those sad little faces :(

Family Notes for July

The boys play for hours in the dirt pile at Grandmas

Quetly reading in their room together


July was a lovely month and I'm sad to see it go, we've been blessed with pretty nice weather for the kids to play outside. Thanks to the mole at Grandmas house, the boys have had lots of loose dirt to drive their little cars in and have spent MANY hours doing so. July was a big month of change for the boys, something clicked in them and all of the sudden they are playing without constant fighting. By day they actually go outside and play without me hovering to break up the fights and in the evenings they go to their room and close the door for hours of lego time. Its great to see them play so nice and enjoying each others company. They also learned to count to 100 this month. We heard it the first time in the car, we are in the front seat listing to them count (funny what kids do to entertain themselves in the car), we were amazed to hear them get to 99. We asked "what comes after 99?". Andy paused and thought about it and said "ten-ty", it was priceless.

This month was also the first time they tried to pull a twin fast one on me. Carsten made a mess and when I told him he needed to clean it up, he looked at me with a smirk and said "I'm not Carsten, I'm Andy". True, I do mix them up sometimes briefly, but I assured him that I knew who he was and he would be cleaning up his mess. That little stinker!

Tall Ships

This weekend we went to see "Pirate Ships"...OK, actually Tall ships, but close enough... WE THOUGHT. The boys were very upset when we got there and informed us that (In my sons angriest tone) "they are NOT pirate ships!". Why? No flag. We solved the problem by telling them it was too dangerous to fly the flag in port- they would get their treasure looted - so they had the flag hidden away. How long to we get to make up stories for our kids? Eventually they are going to be on to us. I actually love to make up stories, so having children has been like a creative outlet for me. We love to make up stories before bed, but I'm sure that these other little tall tales are going to catch up with me soon. I guess I'll just enjoy the moment and worry about reality when they force me to.

Visiting the ZOO

This scrap page didn't come out as I'd hoped, but I'll save a red0 for when I'm caught up (when is a scrapper ever caught up?) It was a good chance to use the Lifted photo biggie from Scrapgirls and to finally use my zoobaloo cricket cart for something other than bookmarks. I'm having a hard time with size since I moved to hybrid scrapping. I love the 8 x 8 because I can print at home and because the 12 x 12 books are just too overwhelming - pulling out a 12 x 12 seems like today's equivalent of Grandpa pulling out his box of slides - but with 8 x 8, I feel like I have no room for journaling if I have more than one photo per page. I think the trick will be doing 2 page layouts. I am also having a hard time with layering "papers" so this page has no layers (people for a passion for paper NEED layers). I need to practice to get comfy with that, I also need to sit and scan some of my paper so I have something to layer with. I used real brads and ribbon in this one, I won't be doing that again. The other thing I like about digital is that I can have fake buttons, brads, clips and staples (I use mounting tape for my die cuts for dimension, but they are still not "bumby" like brads and buttons), plus you can match color. It will drive me crazy every time I look at this that the brads are summer yellow and the giraffe is saffron. The photo of the boys in real life is much better, it was really a cute picture of them and makes for a good memory, which is the important part of the page :)

Is this vacation over yet?

Our boat (middle) from the top of the cliff where we risked our lives trying to find a geocache

Man, what a busy couple of weeks. Is is just me or is vacation a lot of work? Love having hubby home but all the family fun has been exhausting....after this vacation is over (tomorrow), I need a break. We started his vacation with a trip to the zoo. We had wanted to take the boys for their birthday but June-uary weather had postponed that. Most the animals were napping and the kids were far more excited about the play area then the animals. I could have save $70 and stopped at a park, everybody would have been happy, but I did get a good photo out of it (I'll post scrapbook tomorrow). Next was cruise to the islands, it was supposed to be 5 days but engine problems brought us back early. We did get one nice day on the first island (scrapbook page will be up soon), it was beautiful that day and the boys loved playing on the beach. We tried doing a geocache but half way there we turned back. Two little wandering boys and a LONG skinny trail running one foot from a giant cliff, not a good combination. The boys were very disappointed that we didn't get to go to the TollyCraft rendezvous we had been promising (they had been talking about the pool all week) so after a very rough ride back to the marina, we took them to the community pool where we encountered the pool police. We left shortly after getting there. Give a teen a whistle and a lifeguard shirt and they think they own the world - I think I know a good place for that whistle. Later that day we noticed that the bug bite on my sons foot had gone from little to ENORMOUS turning his whole foot purple, so I guess it was good we were home to take him to the doctor. He's fine now, it went down after a couple days of discomfort. Next was a camping trip, 3 days and two nights at a local park. That was fun, kids had a great time at the beach and they learned to ride their bikes with no training wheels (another scrapbook page in the works). On our second night we had an amazing lighting and thunder storm like none I've ever seen. Had I been at home I would have loved this, however.... being out camping, all I could think was that a tree was going to catch fire and fall on top of the motorhome. By morning the place was soaking wet and with mud getting quickly tracked inside, we opted to head home early.....AGAIN! Today is the last day of vacation, not sure where we are going, but I'm sure I'll be home early. Tomorrow I will start in on the piles of laundry and housework I neglected while I was having all this "fun". Then I'm taking a break to scrap all those great photos!

Trim the tree

The boys are really excited for Christmas this year. They went and saw Santa at the mall last weekend and this weekend its time to put up the tree. They helped out by putting all the non-breakable ornaments on the lower half. When they ran out of ornaments, they started making their own. I ended up with a fairly naked top half of the tree and a bottom half covered with small, wet (they did some water coloring first) pieces of paper. It turns out that I really don't have enough ornaments for a 9 foot tree. Fortunately I have several boxes of those clear ones to decorate, guess what tomorrows project will be!