I'm Back

Okay so I will be honest here.  I went through a pretty dark year last year.  I got into a dark place in addition to burning myself out trying to do too much at once.  I kind of shut myself off from everything that I could.  I am happy to say that I was able to pull myself mostly out of my hole.  I am still a bit overwhelmed with life but I am finally getting the itch to start crafting again.  Kind of take time to do something I enjoy so I can try to handle the overwhelming stuff a little better.  So remember I said I cut a ton of piecing sets a couple of years ago so I had something to do during all my down time on our vacation.  I decided to finally put those together.  That is how I am easing myself back into things.  Oh except for the most exciting news of all that I finished my very first photo album.  It is my oldest son 0-3 months.  Silly me I thought it would be his first year, but I have way too many pictures!  Anyway it is finally done.  I just need a few journaling spots and apparently I need to go re-stick some things.  I was trying a lot of different adhesives in the beginning and most of the glue squares and tape runners didn't work.  Anyway so now I am organizing pictures on my computer that I want to print out and prepping for the next album.  I am also putting together the sets that I cut so long ago.  I actually find the piecing relaxing (though time consuming) the cutting, not so much.   A couple of these I did while I was there and most of them I just finished.  Can you tell what pictures I plan to work with?

One of the first sets I had to have, from Treasure Box Designs

One of the very first sets I bought, it was from PPBN

From little scraps of heaven designs

From Little Scraps of Heaven Designs

From Little Scraps of Heaven Designs

From Kadoodle Bug Designs

From Little Scraps of Heaven Designs

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first banner

I am trying something new this time.  I have not made a banner before, and I actually just bought myself a banner board so I could easily make banners, but for this time, I wanted something different.  I used the Sunday Best file from Scrappy Dew http://www.scrappydew.com/products/my-sunday-best/?aff=4 or it also comes in an expansion pack.  Anyway I only used a couple of the key pieces.  My son is getting baptized soon and this is the banner I wanted to make for him.  I can't believe how quickly he is growing up.  I kept going back and forth on how I wanted to do the ties and bow ties but I like the way it turned out.  (I had to add the apostrophe to the word it's and I almost put it on a bow tie) I still need to attach it to whatever string I'm going to use and of course I keep going back and forth on how I want to do that as well.  Now I get to go figure out how to make dog tag invitations for his birthday.

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Expecting

We get a new ornament for our tree every year and my favorite one is from the first time we were expecting, it is a bear couple and the mommy bear has a big tummy.  Naturally, this was one of my favorite files since the first time I saw it.  Something about the cute memory of a miracle inside.  It is from Scrappy Dew and it has moved to the vault in the 2012 files.  You can sign up for that here http://www.scrappydewmembers.com/members/  There are so many files in the vault, I use it all the time.
I have to apologize for the pictures, I don't usually have the photos on the page yet so the flash didn't want to cooperate, also my phone died and I only have a very old, not so great camera to use.

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Lazer Tag

My boys were SO excited to play lazer tag!  My oldest loved it right from the beginning.  My second one took a little convincing, but mostly just because the vest was too big for him that it was uncomfortable.  The second time he actually went without a vest and loved just running around.  I have some really cute pictures of them just before the game started that I need to dig up.  My 3rd guy was too small to play but some workers will let them in, so the next time we went they all 3 got to play and loved it.  I am kicking myself that I didn't get a picture of my 3rd little guy.
I chose the lazer tag set that can be found inside the Scrappy Dew Vault http://www.scrappydew.com/pages/scrappydew-vault-members  I love the vault, there are so many fun files in there!  I also used the Dew Drops facial stamps 2 and 3.  I let my boys choose their own faces.  My oldest chose the mad face, because "we are about to go to war and I need to look tough."

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Construction Time

My boys would probably be really good at obstacle courses.  They have grown up learning how to dodge around things, climb, and teeter.  We have been doing various work around our backyard for a very long time.  It was pretty much 95% rock and 5% clay when we started so any work we did was extra painful.  We are not done yet, but we are getting close.  I have plenty of yard work pictures and my boys love the machinery.  I decided to use the Scrappy Dew Construction Kids File http://www.scrappydew.com/products/construction-kids/?aff=4 to make this layout.  When one of my boys saw what I was making he asked me to make him his own cement truck, because he really loves them.  So I made the set and an extra truck for him to play with. I didn't have any confusion with any of the pieces, everything came together really well.  I did trim some of the under pieces so they were just what I needed and I left the road off the title, as we weren't doing road construction.  I love the little vests and tool belt!

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3D

I have been very intimidated to try anything in the 3D realm.  I found this Nativity 3D box card at Dreaming Tree http://www.3dsvg.com/shop/cards-svg-files/nativity-paperscape-box-card-svg/ I knew my parents would LOVE to get this so I thought I needed to at least try.  (I have also seen a really cool nativity set on cricut but not sure if that file would transfer as an svg so I could use it with my silhouette) Anyway, turns out it is not as scary as I thought.  This actually came together pretty easily.  I watched the tutorial several times and took each step very slowly, but I probably didn't need to, it was rather simple.  There are a few things I would alter to this card if I made it again.  For my first try, I wanted to do everything exactly as it was laid out.  I just went and bought some little tealights to put in it, I haven't tried them yet but I hope it looks as cool as the display at the store.  I will probably give this to them with their gift and send another card in the mail, because they love getting mail.  Sorry this is not a great picture.

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Sale of all Sales

Oh my goodness.  I just found out Scrappy Dew has decided to put their whole scrap factory on sale.  If you don't know what this is, it is a program that allows you to put all of the expansion packs into it...then you get to choose from those pieces, what you want it to make.  So you choose which body, which outfit, which accessories then it makes the svg for you.  It is just a super easy way to mix and match your files.  You don't have to worry about resizing if you want to use the hair from one file, the outfit from another and the body of another...it puts them all together and sizes them for you.  This sale includes the program AND all of the expansion packs...they just released 2 new ones, including peanuts...which makes 27 expansion packs...27!  Some of these packs are loaded, they come with a ton of pieces.  I love scrap factory, you can see a lot of my work has used them.  Even if you have the program already and only a couple of expansion packs, it is an awesome price to get all of the expansion packs! Here is the link, you should check it out!  http://www.dash12.com/scrapfactory/special/index.php