Thursday, June 23, 2011

June Hello Thursday pt. 3

Introducing the new Princess Party cartridge!

If "Princess Party" doesn't describe my life right now, then I don't know what does even with a little guy in tow. This cart is soooo perfect that when I started making my projects, the girls started fighting over who got to wear the crown based on whose princess dress it matched! lol! Needless to say I'll be making another crown from this cartridge! ;)

Even though this is a "party" cartridge, I decided to make a layout with some of the cuts. Big shocker there. I've got soooo many dress-up and princess pics I really had no choice! lol! So I combine 4 of my favorites--Caroline over the years in her princess dresses. It's nice to know she's an equal opportunity dress wearer, as here she's feautred in Cinderella (Halloween 2008), Ariel (Halloween 2009), Belle + a pink boa(Princess birthday party 2010) and Snow White (Nov. 2010 with an everyday dress-up curtsy).




Supplies: Bazzill cardstock; Echo Park "Little Girl" patterned paper and sticker letters; Crate Paper pink eyelet lace; Prima (blue) Kaisercraft (pink) and Studio 58 (Yellow) pearls and rhinestones, American Crafts pen and adhesives

The funny thing? When she was born I SWORE I would NOT have a "princess". Guess she proved me wrong. LOL!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Hello Thursday Pt. 2

a real quick post to show you what I made for last week's Hello Thursday that was post on the Cricut blog. I got to work with the Summer Celebrations cart, which I really like! It's so versatile!


If you're a Cricut Circle member, you can see more projects that I made with this cartridge along with other DT members on the Circle blog. ;)

And stay tuned for Hello Thursday pt. 3 coming up this Thursday! It's my most favorite yet!!!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Hello Thursday! Part 1

Say hello to the first of several Hello Thursday June reveal.

As a part of a special treat for all Cricut users, Provo Craft has decided that instead of having ONE Hello Thursday new cartridge release this month, they're going to have THREE!!!

The first new cartridge I got to work with was the new cart "9 Months Lite" (for obvious reasons). Here's one of the layouts I created:

"Love my Baby Bump"


Supplies: Pebbles Inc. patterned paper, Bazzill cardstock, Crate Paper trim, Pink Paislee twine, misc. button. Cricut Expression, 9 Months Lite cartridge

To see all today's releases and the amazing projects the DT girls created, visit the new Cricut blog! You can find it here. And stay tuned for the next 2 weeks of Hello Thursday reveals, which I have to say, are some SUPER cute cartridges!!! wink, wink!

Happy Thursday!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

June Photo challenge so far...

Hmm....what started out as what I thought would be my 4 Wordless Wednesday June posts has now transformed in to this. Wordy. Mainly because there's a story, however boring it may be, behind each photo. So it can't really be "wordless". But I do hope to keep everything fairly concise.

Day 1 assignment: self-portrait:
Taken in the bathroom mirror in very poor lighting, which I'm trying to disguise with a cross-process photo action.

I had all kinds of hopes and many more creative ideas like taking my picture in the side mirror of the car (where I spent most of the day), or in the mirror that's opposite the dining room table where I scrap...but I forgot my camera both times. So a plain ol' non-creative self portrait in the bathroom mirror will have to suffice for today.

Day 2 assignment: what you're wearing--SWEAT.
Well, since our air conditioning went out today with record highs around 97 degrees (heat index in the 100s), I was wearing SWEAT! lol! In fact, you can see it rolling down my forehead above my eye. I literally feel a film of it covering my skin. Isn't that a lovely mental picture? Ew, no. But for the record today I also wore a tank top, mandatory in this heat, and black gauchos with no make-up . And my hair started out in a ponytail and ended up in a bun because even the ponytail felt "hot". You can see a loose ends of my bun up there on top.

Day 3: Favorite place to be
This one was hard for me since my 2 favorite places to be, the lake and at Kamp, are in Alabama and Missouri respectively. So I chose to do a self-timer shot of me and Mac on our couch where we spend each morning looking at the flowers, the birds, and watch the world go by. It's my favorite place in my house (yes, even more so than my scrap room) because of the special moments spent there. Sorry it's so badly back lit that you can see my huge hydrangea on the other side of the window. :(
Day 4: A high angle
My computer buddy pulling up on my leg. He pulls up on EVERYthing now. And he's shuffling his feet to get where he wants to go. It's all too soon for me but since he'll be one next month I guess it's time.

Day 5: whatever you want
Well I didn't intend to turn this in the "photos of McClain" blog post, but I loved this one of him in his high chair. If you look closely you can see his teeth. (hint: they're all on his left, so his smile's a little lopsided. hee!)

Day 6: a low angle
Mmmmm.....popcicles outside. For this one I laid down on their plastic picnic table and nearly royally busted onto the patio!

Day 7: a silhouette
This was last night's sunset as we left the ballpark, which is across the street from the church that hosts the league. Not only do I love sunset pictures, but what I really enjoyed about this one was how the beams of light were peeking out from the clouds. That's what made me stop and take a picture. That and it was nighttime and I hadn't don't my assignment for the day.

But just now as I look at it more closely, the 2 clouds on the right look like hands tenderly holding something. Do they not? They stopped me in my tracks for a minute. This is particularly meaningful, especially with the cross in the foreground. I can't help but see the implication of Christ holding me in His hands with the sunbeams suggesting hope in midst of the clouds. My cloudiness. I won't go in to it, but this is huge for me. Huge. And very very timely. Like Godly timeliness. And here I was just taking a picture of a silhouette to complete my photography must for the day. Funny how God works in the little things. Guess He wanted to get my attention. Well. He's got it.

That's all I've got. For now. Off to think, ponder and pray now that my attention's been grabbed.

Happy Not-So-Wordless Wednesday!


Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Stuck...

Just dropping in to say hi and share a quick card. Lately I've felt stuck in my creativity, well in life really, so to try to shake it up a little bit I made a card. I used this week's Crate Paper Color Challenge and a sketch by Ingrid Danvers at the Nook. It's for a good friend who just found out she's expecting, which was a fun surprise.

supplies: American Crafts cardstock, pop dots and brads, Crate Paper pp, die-cuts, Fiskars punch, SRM sticker sentiments
\
Speaking of STUCK, I just had to add this little guy to my "stuck" post. hehe! He climbs up onto anything he can and then gets stuck. This one in particular made me giggle.


Notice his little red face. :( Poor baby. His mama laughs at his predicament and takes a picture rather than helping him out. But I feel sure that one day he'll laugh at it too which makes me think it's okay to laugh about it now. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself. ;)



Friday, June 3, 2011

These are the days I want to remember

Love that 10,000 Maniacs song, love the saying, and it's definitely true for me. These ARE the days I want to remember. The days when they're all small. When McClain's is the tiniest instead of the tallest. When the girls spend more of their time in princess dresses than in their real clothes. These are the days I want to remember...


Created as a part a 45min. challenge using Noel Mignon's "Mary Ellen" kit.

And it's not only the "big" days I want to remember like how this one captured the kids at TJ and Kristen's wedding. But it's also the everyday days and activities that I want to remember too. Like today's little trip to Krispy Kreme.

Today is National Doughnut Day (who knew there was a such a thing?!) and to "celebrate" I took the kids to Krispy Kreme where they were handing out free doughnuts. SO yummy! And a fun way to break up the monotony of these hot summer days. (Is it bad that I'm already trying to think of ways to break up the boredom? Probably going to be a long summer at this rate.) But of course I took my camera along for the ride...




Well, that's about it from around here. I hope y'all are having a good Friday. Today's day 3 of the photo challenge--"My Favorite Place", and I'm struggling with what to shoot. My favorite places aren't in this state! They're at the lake, which is in Alabama and Kamp is located west of Branson, MO. So I'm thinking of taking a picture of my favorite place in our home. We'll see. The day's not over yet. ;)

Happy Friday!




Wednesday, June 1, 2011

A different kind of Wordless Wednesday...

June 1st. Today is June 1st, and I'm wondering where in the world almost half of 2011 has gone. Can I tell you that I wrote 2010 on a check the other day?! Yeah. That's pretty bad.

Well in an attempt to capture everyday life 'round here, I going to do this:

I love the idea of it, purposefully taking one photo every day. I like that hopefully it'll stretch my creativity where photography is concerned, but I'm really wanting to capture our "life" as it really is--keep it real too.

And I can do it for a month. I struggle with committing to the ones that are a year long--I'd just be setting up myself for failure. But this? THIS I think I can do. And I'll share these as a part of my June Wordless Wednesday posts.

So I start today. June 1st....I still can't wrap my head around the date.

I hope you'll join me. And if you do, link me up. I'd love to check out your shots. ;)

Off to take my self-portrait. Maybe I should take a shower first....hmm....what was that about keeping it real??!! I'm pretty sure I can stay real and be clean too. hee hee!