Sending Hugs and Kisses

Today I wanted to share with you an idea using a sketch from Scrapbook and Cards Today .  This is their challenge sketch for February and I thought it would be perfect for bookmark cards!  These cards are perfect for Grandparents, parents, aunts or uncles for any occasion and Valentine's Day is no exception! The important thing to remember about a sketch is that it is meant to be a starting point but if you want to CASE it completely that is okay too!  Sketches are a great way to get your creativity flowing.  I followed the sketch pretty closely on these card but tweaked it to work with the supplies I had on hand.  I created two cards; one more manly and the other a bit more feminine. These adorable bears were colored with Staedtler Watercolor Pencils, Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers, and Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils.  I was going for a specific look with these images; I wanted them to look like illustrations.  The bear stamp sets are Cub Cud...

It's our last week of summer break.  I'm sad and excited ; sad because it means that I won't get to hang out with the kiddo all day and excited because he is excited to learn new things and go back to school.  I'm excited to go back to school this fall too but mostly because I'm only taking one... REALLY hard..... class. We have our traditional list of things we try to do this last week, sort of our last summer hurrah... Buy school supplies. Buy new shoes... for C and me. See one last movie. Cats and Dogs in 3D... it was super cute! Go out for ice cream cones. Try to catch one last community event... thinking a concert at Streets of Southglenn. Haircuts. Lunch in downtown with Aaron. Pasquini's in the Highlands (the photo above) YUMMY! Sleepover at Grandma's (we did this last week but might sneak back up this week) At least one night camping out under the stars. Headed out in 10 min! Soaking up the last rays of summer at the pool. I'll mis...

C is me.  He is smart, funny and kind.  He is impatient, determined and stubborn.  He loves freely. He gives generously. He likes to create, sketch and write. He loves a good book. He sings along with the radio. He makes me laugh. He makes me cry. He throws his dirty clothes on the floor. He leaves cups all over the house. He "collects" so much you can't see the top of his dresser. He is all mine. I'm so very lucky.

Image found on the web So this post has been in process for a few weeks... but the truth is it is also long overdue. I'm blessed to have an amazing bunch of girlfriends. I didn't always have that.  I've had a hard time making solid connections with women, I think it's a whole trust-issue thing, but I have some of the most wonderful women in my life and they support me even when they don't understand what I'm thinking or doing... and that's HUGE! I came home bruised and broken-hearted two weeks ago.  I had just lost something in my life that I thought was forever, someone that I loved and trusted had turned their back on me hours before I was to walk through the courtroom doors and end my marriage.  I was kicked hard when I was already down.  I was a wreck.... but you know what... the women in my life surrounded me and picked me up, gently wiped away my tears, served me some sangrias and listened to me pour out the pain.  These women gave me ...

Papers by Bazzill, Studio Calico and Basic Grey Embellishments from Cosmo Cricket, October Afternoon, American Crafts and Maya Road Just dropping in with a layout today.  This is C and his cousin Taylor, she is wild, just like her Papa!  It's always special to get to spend time with her and this year it was even more fun because she was older and able to jump all over   play with Coley.  He was super patient and kind to her and it made my heart so happy to see them together.  This layout is another lift of the fab Lisa Dickinson ! Happy Friday!

We had the best time on our horseback ride in Yosemite and it's been fun to hear Coley describe it to his grandparent's on the phone! I wanted to capture his version of the trip so I had him tell me about it and used his words as the journaling. It reads: "We went on a really fun horseback ride in Yosemite to Mirror Lake. Edith was my mule and she was very well behaved, sometimes she tried to eat but not all the time. My Mom's mule, Oliver, thought it was an all you can eat buffet. My Dad's mule was named Twitch. The Corral Boss, Katie, said that Edith could probably do the trail with her eyes shut,. Edith was very tall and I was nervous at first but I felt better after the Katie took me walking around the corral on Edith. We saw a rattlesnake, that was in a swampy part, just laying there, and luckily he didn't rattle with his tail... it was sort of scary and when we came across it I patted Edith softly on the neck so she wouldn't look at it. There w...

TEN THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT LAS VEGAS BEFORE YOU GO 10. Smoking is allowed everywhere, even in the ELEVATOR!!! * Personal Experience * The Venetian is the only hotel we encountered where they pump some type of air freshener through the vents to cover the odor of smoke. Oh and those people hacking in the casinos, don't worry they don't have TB, it's just that they've been smoking while gambling away their children's inheritance! 9. The four acre pool at the hotel will be filled within half an hour of opening, if you want a free chair, get in line early. * Lounge Chair Tip * The chairs that do not cost $100 - $800 a pop are filled immediately... cop a squat in the sand and then start scanning the ten rows around you, wait until you see someone who is putting on their shoes and then pounce! This can take a bit but the relief your rear will feel when it's out of the scorching sand is worth it! * Pool Time Tip #2 * You can book an $800 cabana online, with a special po...

Pack 'em up, move 'em out... and praise God that Starbucks is open bright and early and they have a drive-thru, seriously, thank you God for whomever created the drive-thru Starbucks. (Most of you know I'm not a pretty sight without my caffeine fix ;) We left on Sunday morning and were able to drive through the Rockies on a beautiful sunny day. Perfect for spotting the six big horn sheep that we saw... of course they were right on the side of the road next to the car so it wasn't that hard to see them! That is the thing about these animals, they are never up on the rocky mountainside like you expect, they are eating the grass along the side of the road, so it's like... "Look Big Horn Sheep." you turn your head and in an instant you see them and then they're gone... you can't stop to take a photo or anything because you're whizzing down the interstate at 80mph and the giant trucks would mangle you and the sheep if you stopped. PSA to Big Hor...

The internet is a powerful thing, I have found so many wonderful friends through the world wide web. I'm blessed everyday to connect with woman around the world who love the art of scrapbooking as much as I do. These are funny, warm, caring women who struggle with everyday life, motherhood, and marriage just like me. There are days when we connect over kids, recipes, friendship issues, and loss. True friendships can be built through the keyboard and screen. The MB's and blogs are the modern day equivalent to the long letters my Gram used to get in the mail from her friends. The beauty of the web is that I get to keep up with these girls everyday, I know how they are feeling on any given day and I get to share what I am feeling. There are a lot of naysayers who think the web is only a dangerous place, but for many it's a life line to women around the world who are mothering at home all day alone or who are stuck in a town where nobody really "gets" who they a...

This weekend, while eating hot dogs outside our local Lowe's, we saw our neighbors, now I would like to point out that we live right next door to these people but only ever see them out at restaurants, or in this case hot dog carts! After enjoying our lunch and chatting for a bit they asked us if it would be okay for them to move their boat down to the back of the yard along our shared fence line. I appreciated them asking because their yard is the only one that we really see due to having just a chain-link fence separating us. "Sure no problem." I replied.  Well, by that evening the boat was moved and someone at our house isn't happy about it...  Edgar is not pleased at all by this turn of events. He spent a good half hour barking and growling at the boat, sometimes quietly sneaking up on it and then exploding into a barking rage. The boat was unfazed... this infuriated Edgar even more, by the time we cornered him and brought him inside he was shaking with ange...

I am truly blessed to have a wonderful friend named Kirsty Wiseman . I had no idea she was a scrapper when I emailed her on Facebook, all I knew was that she had one handsome red Dachshund and I wanted to tell her so. Later on she made a comment about me being an SC Girl and I thought... oh she must subscribe to Studio Calico too... this is where that dog from the V8 commercials comes and knocks me on the head ... um no, she is on the SC Design Team, DUH! (In my defense I had just joined SC) Anyway, I have had the pleasure of chatting with her via the internet and learning more about her life and the fab Patti Picklicious CD's she designs, they are amazing! I had the pleasure of playing with her first release today and I thought I would share some of the cards with you... Her CD has even more designs, greetings, labels and the cutest little Patti girls. Check it out, it's fantastic, and it will turn you into a card maker in no time!

Hans has been part of our family for 9 weeks now and he has started to act like the puppy he is... he plays tug of war with Eds he steal my socks when he thinks I'm not watching he eats more than one bite of food at a time he enjoys getting up for a midnight snack he can go up and down the stairs by himself he digs in the yard he barks at the neighbors, but only when I am not home he gets excited when I come home It's amazing to watch him learn to trust and come out of his shell it's still an ongoing process but these little steps have been huge hurdles for him.

So last week I was quiet, this week I am contented. I was blessed to spend time with lots of my wonderful, creative, kind and caring girlfriends over the course of the week. I am so thankful for those moments to help refill my soul. It got me thinking about some of my Florida girlfriends and how much I miss them, so I created a layout just for them using some fab supplies from various Studio Calico kits and bits I found on my desk. I also was playing around with getting my Disney photos from 2007, yep two years ago, into some semblance of order so I could get them into an album... I am using one of those great We R Memory Keepers albums with the 4x6 slots and a few layout thrown in for good measure... here is my title page... by the way the album is lime green and all the photos have such great bright colors in them that I am thinking I'll use the BasicGrey Urban Prairie line for the whole thing, keep it consistent and all that... Yep I have a glitter & bling problem... but ...