Valentine's Day is on its way!

Wow - can it really be that it was September 29 the last time I posted? I guess it's not as unrealistic as it sounds - we've been busy in our house! The thing that gets left behind of course is the scrapbooking and card making.....who has the time? I've made a card here and there and have photographed a few of them and will post them soon.

I've decided that this blog is going to move in a new direction - so that I can post more and maybe create more! I am going to start posting neat ideas that I find on the web (sometimes these are courtesy of other great bloggers and I will always give credit where credit is due)....sometimes I'll post cards or scrapbook pages that I've done (when I get that chance).....and I'll be posting too on craft projects that I'm working on including my new project "Project Life" (you can find more about this at www.beckyhiggins.com). I am hoping that Project Life not only encourages me to catalogue more photos, but also to work on my photography skills (my new camera has so many options that I still have no idea about) as well as document "the everyday".

I wanted to show off the cute valentines that I am making for Ethan's class at school - the idea is not original but it's so easy! I took a photo of Ethan with his arm outstretched - added some words in Photoshop (oh yes - I'm learning how to use that great new program too!), had them printed on 4x6 photo paper at my local pharmacy, cut a slit at the top and bottom of his fist and slid in a lollipop....adorable! I'll have him sign his name with a sharpie before they're all assembled and then I'm going to glue them onto a red backing. You can find the original post for this project here.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll be back to check out some more great ideas from this everyday mom!

Contempo-baby

A coworker of mine recently had a precious baby boy and we are going to soon have a shower for her to welcome the new addition to her family. This is the card that I made for everyone in the office to sign.

At first, I was concerned that the rattle would be too small for a 5 1/4 x 5 1/4 inch card but with a few embellishments, turns out it's just right! I used the sweet treat cups from Stampin Up and filled it with seed beads, blue and green safety pins and some blue acrylic soothers that I found in the party aisle at the local dollar store. I didn't want to use traditional baby colours....I find them a little overused and washed out. I decided to go a little more contemporary this time with browns, bright blues and my favorite - a splash of bright green. I hope that she likes it.

Fall is in full swing at our house - the kids' activities are back in session which makes us busy outside of the home every night except Tuesdays and Saturdays. That doesn't leave a lot of down time to scrapbook or card make for me....I'm hoping to fit in a few quiet days to create over the winter with my beautiful photos taken with my new camera!

Thanks for visiting!!

Finally!

I asked for a copy of this photo taken by a friend of her daughter playing in the puddles months ago. I printed it months ago.....I've been working on the layout for the photo...well, for months! Literally! I had a patterned paper full of polka dots that I was going to use for my main background. I worked a million different ways with the paper and could not get it to look good. So I tried a different polka dot paper....still nothing. Then, I thought I'd use a bright pink background paper and incorporate the polka dot paper and flowers into the layout. Yuck. So after months of trying, I put the layout aside - determined to work on it again some day when the feeling struck me.

Well today was the day - using this blog from Ali Edwards as inspiration, I was finally able to come up with a layout that I love! And it's nowhere near what I thought it was going to look like! In my mind, it was going to be polka dotty and flowery and pink......not! I fit the polka dots in more subtly and also the pink.....but no flowers! Instead, this layout called for bling! I am super happy with the outcome.......even though it took months to get here!

Just goes to show - things don't always turn out the way you planned! But they usually end up great anyhow! I hope that you're enjoying what's left of the summer before the kids go back to school. Thanks for visiting!

Costa Rica!

This is not a new layout - we went to Costa Rica three years ago now...but it is one of my favorites...for several reasons. I loved Costa Rica - I love how the photo turned out (I got the idea from a travel magazine - we brought our tripod and took the photo ourselves) and the layout just came together beautifully. It's simple - which I love...I"m not really one of those frilly scrapbookers. I mean, I like bling and I love embellishments but some layouts I see online just go way over the top! Though everyone is entitled to their style and opinion....that's just mine :-)

This layout was done with bazzil cardstock (love it!), some flowers (sorry, I don't recall the make) and the lettering was done by tracing some letters I already had but that didn't match onto chip board, cut them out and then glued and cut out again with designer paper. Then, I put some crystal laquer on the letters - for some pop. The rub on swirls are from Stampin' Up. I love rub ons!!!

I'm struggling right now to complete a layout of a friend's daughter - she is so cute sitting in a puddle in her brown snowsuit with pink and blue polka dots and flowers. I asked her to email me the picture because I thought I could easily come up with a layout in no time....but I was wrong! I don't have any mojo right now....I've started that layout 3 times already! I've just ordered a new book by Becky Fleck that is chock full of layouts. I'm hoping once I get it, this layout will come together in a snap! Hopefully, I can post it soon!

I hope you are enjoying the weather - we were supposed to get rain here today but it's held off so far and was a beautiful day! I hope the rest of the weekend is as nice!

Thanks for stopping by!

It's the most wonderful time.....

Well, parents may not be singing that song but I think the kids are....my kids are anyhow! They don't have many more days until summer vacation! I am actually ahead of the game this year and have already purchased my teacher thank you gifts. Though I am a pretty organized person, this is the one thing I always forget about. Typically, you'll find me shopping for a gift and dropping it off at the school office on the last day! Not this year!

This year, I purchased a BBQ grilling spice set for both kids' teachers....and am also including a jar of my very good friend Rebecca's homemade rhubarb salsa. This is some of the best salsa I've ever tasted and she won't share the recipe.....:-)

I've come up with a cute card to include with the teacher gift as well (holy cow, I am ahead of the game.....). I bought a cute little set from Stampin' Up a little while back with the intention of using it for teacher cards. I heat embossed the apples on the trim of the card. I stamped the "sheet" and cut it out 3 times. I used my cropadile to punch out the holes so it looks like real lined paper. The top sheet is popped up with dimensionals.

It's been a busy few months in our house with little end in sight....but I hope to post a little more often than I have been! I've purchased a new camera (my new baby...lol!) and it takes the best pictures. I will have to take a course to learn how to use the camera to it's capacity but right now I'm having fun playing with it. I hope that once I learn how to take great photos...I'll do more scrapbooking! That's my goal!

Hope your June is going well - happy summer!

Diaper Cake

I finished the diaper cake and I'm really happy with the outcome. I have to say, it cost WAY more than I expected but it's so cute! I bought a bunch of stuff that I really didn't need for the cake that I thought I would so I think there will be some returns - but I hate returning stuff so maybe I'll just give mom-to-be the extras and be done with it.

I read quite a few blogs about how to make these cakes - some people make them by rolling the diapers and using elastics to hold each individual one but I don't really like that look. I did the one I made in what is referred to as "boutique" look. I rented a cake pan from the Bulk Barn and used it as a template. Then, I fanned as many diapers as I could fit into it and positioned them until they looked good. Then, I took a big elastic and put it over the whole lot and then inverted the cake pan onto the cake round that I bought. The second layer was done with a smaller pan and the top layer, I just did by hand to make it small enough - though you could rent a pan that small if you want. I was just too cheap to put a $20 deposit on each pan. LOL! I bought the beautiful wired ribbon at Costco - as I mentioned in my last post. inside each of the rounds of diapers, I rolled up onesies, etc....the biggest layer has a whole sleeper rolled and shoved in the middle. I used baby spoons instead of dowels...though I think I might need one dowel through the whole thing to make it sturdier. The top top is baby sock rose buds....that's what took the longest - with a pair of pink booties on the top. I haven't figured out how to anchor the booties on yet. I'll pull the whole thing together with cellophane and ribbon on Saturday before I leave for the shower. I hope she likes it.

If you are looking for instructions on how to make these cakes - just google "diaper cakes" - there are tonnes of ideas! Hope you liked mine and thanks again for stopping for a visit!

There's Going to be a Wedding!

I think this is officially more posts this year than I did in total last year - it's a record!

This card was a challenge for me - I wanted to include red in the card but didn't want it to look too Valentine's Day....it's for a wedding shower that I'm attending. I originally did the tree trunk in black embossed but thought it looked a little too "Morticia Adams" so I did it again in silver and am now thrilled with the card. I embossed the tree twice - once in black and once in silver. On the black copy, I coloured all the hearts red and then crystal laquered them. Once they dried, I cut them out and either glued or dimensionalled them onto the card for layers. I also added some bling to the tree.....and a little ribbon. The congratulations sentiment was hand cut to match the matting on the main image. The white layer, though you can't see it in the photo is embossed card stock.

I have a baby shower to attend this weekend and will be trying my hand at making a diaper cake...complete with baby sock roses...I'll post photos of the outcome. I'm pretty excited about it - I got a huge roll of fat ribbon (3 colours) at Costco for $4.99 in the clearance bin - I didn't even know Costco had clearance!! This could take my Costco addiction to a whole new level.

Have a great second half to your week - and don't forget to stop by and check out the diaper cake after the weekend!!