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 

minions

My boys love the minions.  In fact we had to make minion birthday cakes twice because they love them so much.  The second time we did the purple minion just so they didn't end up being the same.  The first time, my son was turning 3, so I decided to make 3 minion cakes.  We also made some minion twinkies.  I did this layout before I printed the pictures out, but I had to add the pictures so you could see how perfectly the file went with the pictures...however when I went to add them I found that I had done the photo mats vertical and all the pictures seem to be horizontal.  I will have to go back and rearrange a few things, but for this it worked out okay...but that is why the picture doesn't fit quite right.  So I used Scrappy Dew Minions http://www.scrappydew.com/products/minions/?aff=4 and let me be honest...I actually have a few different minion files already, however they have a lot of little pieces to them.  I chose this file because it looks just right and it is so easy to put together!

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Another Challenge

After I finished my items for my design team, I found myself with some extra time so that's why I ended up participating in a few different sketch challenges.  I usually try to do the ones for Little Scraps of Heaven anyway, but I'm not always able to.  I saw the sketch and thought right away what I wanted to do with it.  After I actually made it and laid it out, I realized it didn't exactly follow the sketch after all, but it was still my inspiration and it was close enough.  I used the Little Einstein file and used the chalkboard as the background they had placed.  I left the mustache off Einstein and made him blonde instead of gray, so that he looked more like my son.

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Last Designer Post

Well I got my final 2 files from Marjorie Ann Designs but I called one of them Boys at play because that is the title, but the file is really called Building Buddies...I got the Boys will be boys file instead, which I already have so I guess that makes this my last post.  This is the Night before Christmas filehttp://marjorieanndesigns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=164_192&products_id=1544 and I thought it would be cute to do pictures of the quiet night before.  I always take pictures of the presents around the tree and one of each of my sleeping boys.  I decided to do print and cut with these pieces and I still haven't figured out how to get the nice cuts like other people do.  I saw someone else that was even able to cut between items within the image (like the banister).  I traced this as the outside and it traced things in the middle like the eyeballs to cut so I traced again and tried to get it to cut the banister but it did a pretty sloppy job.  It may be my cheap paper or I may need to play with settings.  I had to go back to the silhouette mat for this because it cuts way off with the cricut mat.  I thought with the registration marks, you could put the paper wherever you wanted and it would cut within those marks, so it shouldn't matter which mat I use...but apparently it still goes of the edge of the mat...there has to be a different way for that...maybe I am setting the cut up wrong....anyway off with the tangent.  I thought it was cute that the file has mice as the characters, to go along with the story...usually I don't do too many with mice.  This is not all the way finished...I still need to make a title and finalize placement but you get the idea.

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Tweetheart

There is so much cuteness in the fuzzy loves fall set http://marjorieanndesigns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=164_192&products_id=1531  I knew I had to have it.  The piece that jumped out to me first was the one holding the little bird...It looks like he is holding a baby so that is how I decided to use it.  My cousin just had a little boy and I thought it would make a cute baby card so I played on the word sweetheart to match the bird.  I tried to put a border under them but everything seemed too busy or too plain I decided to leave it as is.  Looking back now I think a nice pile or border of leaves would have worked perfectly.  I used a versamarker for the eyebrows and I tried to use chalk for the muzzle line, wondering if the versamarker would have been enough or leave it blank?  The card is from Craft Smith and then I threw on the cute washi tape for the top.   I decided to pop them up and put the greeting flat.  I love the way the eyes look on this!

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Piles of Fun

We kind of missed out on playing in the leaves this year.  We usually drive up the canyon when the leaves change and take pictures.  We also go to the park and play in the millions of leaves but the seasons were so mixed this year that the leaves barely changed at all and once they fell it was all the sudden over and done with, and now it's winter.  I have enjoyed having some actual fall weather though, it usually is too hot then only 1 or 2 weeks of fall then winter.  Anyway...I have these really cute pictures of my oldest two boys playing in the leaves.  I saw this file at Scrappy Dew http://www.scrappydew.com/products/piles-of-smiles/?aff=4 and I thought it was so cute...but I held off getting it for a while because I just thought there was going to be a million tiny pieces to put together.  Finally I decided it was cute enough to be worth it...and I was pleasantly surprised.  There really aren't that many pieces, they made this very well so that it looks full but isn't too difficult.  The only problem I had with it is I think I lost a couple or few leaves but I didn't even remake them, I just made it work with a few less leaves and it is still adorable. (The file is currently on sale this week)  I used the Dew Drop Facial expressions on the faces.  I am still having some slight issues with stamping so if anyone has any tips on what the best way to cover it is I would love to hear them.  I am getting better but not consistent in getting a clean image.  I was using a colorbox ink and it didn't seem to hit everywhere or go on dark enough.  I switched to Stazon and that stuff is sticky.  It dries fast and is very permanent, I don't really like it so I'm still looking for a good dark, easy to use ink for these.

Here are the pages laid together.  I think they turned out really cute!  

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Rainy Days

I remembered about this Rainy Day friends file http://marjorieanndesigns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=164_192&products_id=1281 and thought it was so cute and so many different uses for it.  When I got the file I kind of had a brain freeze and all those possibilities disappeared.  I couldn't think of any sayings that would work with a card or why would they have such and such animal with them.  So I spent a few days and decided they would be cute on a layout of my boys playing in puddles.  So that is how I will eventually use them.  I changed the file a bit because they weren't actually playing with critters in the rain, just the puddles so I thought it fit better this way.  I like the way it turned out too!  I thought the stamp was fun, because what kid doesn't try to catch raindrops on their tongue?  Both faces are from Peachy Keen.

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Turkey Time

I love these lazy little turkeys.  They are from the I'm stuffed file. http://marjorieanndesigns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=164_192&products_id=1600 I had originally planned to put him on a card but decided he was just so cute and would go great with a family picture.  Well I got a little mixed up going back and forth.  First a card layout, then a layout with one large photo, I mixed things around a few times and now looking at this layout I'm not sure that everything that ended up together goes well together, I may have to go back and change one of the papers.  I also would have made him a little bigger if I knew he would be on a layout alone.  What I do love about this though, is I was finally able to experiment with using patterned papers with my file.  I never remember or dare to use patterns instead of solids, but I did for his feathers, and I love it!  On his shirt I thought the letters were too tiny so I just wrote them on.  I also just drew on the eyebrows (Versamarker) and the beak dots.

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Patriotic mouse

Cuddly Cute designs put a sketch challenge up on their site.  I mostly just have titles from them so I wasn't sure I would be able to participate but I found a file that would work.  I used the 4th of July Mouse and this layout actually came together pretty easily because of the paper that I happened to have.  Most of my paper is pretty cheap and I try to find it that way and get the majority from yard sales.  However, my friend sells her stash occasionally and she always has very nice papers, I'm sure this paper came from her.  Some of it is a little crooked because I hadn't glued it down yet and I must have bumped it.  (Most of my layouts I take the picture before I glue everything down, so I can do little adjustments when I add the photos)

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Another Sketch

I was just planning out what to do for the current Little Scraps of Heaven sketch challenge and realized I never even posted my last entry.  My boys love building forts or obstacle courses or military bases or whatever they want to call it.  So I made a layout of a fun little fort.  I threw a couple extra pillows and a blanket around the page, but my husband said you can't tell what they are.  I also made my own title.  I like doing sketches because I don't have to think about how to arrange everything but it's hard for me to do pages in advance.  I print out all 4x6 sized photos so I usually have to pick my photos and then try and plan my layout around what sizes they are...I have a hard time cutting items out of photos or cropping it to just a small part of the photo so usually I try to cram as many 4x6 photos on to a page as I can, or slightly smaller than 4x6.  I have just found out about interactive layouts and I am excited to try those....eventually.  I do really like how this page turned out.

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Candy Freaks

Hello everyone!  Did you survive Halloween?  How about the sugar rush afterward?  My kids had a great time trick or treating.  It was a little rough for me since I recently sprained my ankle, but I made it and I love watching their excitement.  As I mentioned before one of my kids has told me that candy is his life (oddly he was the one that was the most willing to share ALL of his candy) but I thought these crazy bats would make a great layout to display some of their Halloween pictures...I never remember to take a picture of the loot.  But I would much rather see their cute faces anyway.  The file is from Marjorie Ann Designs and can be found here http://marjorieanndesigns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=164_192&products_id=1567  I decided that these bats were really cute and they didn't need the crazy eyes to give the full effect.   There isn't really anything else to explain...I did have to cut a couple of the fangs myself since they didn't cut right with my machine, they are tiny!

Sorry this post is a little late, I couldn't get BlogSpot to open the picture window.  I finally tried it in a new browser and it worked.  Thanks for the idea Debbie.

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Bedtime

I absolutely love sleeping pictures of my kids...they look so cute and peaceful.  I have always loved them, some days it may be because of relief they are asleep ;-)
For this layout I used a couple of premade frames and the file Our Baby Boy http://marjorieanndesigns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=197&products_id=1381  I have a lot of baby pictures to scrap still and this file has a good baby variety.

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Changes

I have been cruising right along getting a lot of pages done.  Partly because my hubby let me have some extra craft time during fall break.  The main reason is my design team changed some rules, you can't be on any other design teams.   I wasn't sure if I would be able to stay on the team so I wanted to do as many files as possible, and they said as long as I was posting I could get more....but now it is back to only 2 a week so it slowed down as soon as it started....and I am not going to be on the design team anymore.  I will finish out this month and say goodbye.  I was a little sad because it came kind of suddenly but it is probably better this way.  I have been neglecting my housework and other responsibilities and I need to get back to my chronological layouts instead of jumping all over.  I am still part time with Scrappy Dew which I love, they are so thoughtful and I really like feeling included and part of a team.  Stay tuned for some mixed pages and hopefully some new layouts.

First sketch

Marjorie Ann had their first sketch challenge last week.  Here is the sketch that I did for it.  I used stoneage family http://marjorieanndesigns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=164_192&products_id=1424 (another favorite cartoon)  The whole set is really cute, but I chose just to use Bam-Bam.  I have a few pictures of my boys climbing on hills.  (We have a VERY rocky back yard.  When we put grass in, we had to remove a ton of rocks, by hand and it created a huge 20x6x6 pile of rocks)  Anyway, they love to climb and be outdoors.  Unfortunately I also have a couple that like to Bam Bam.  I decided he would be great for a layout of some king of the mountain pictures!  I made my own title.  I also did my reverse piecing on his had and loin cloth.

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