Little Benjamin's Birth Annoucement

I made these for my friend Lacey, who just gave birth to her second child, Benjamin.  I used taken with teal, close to cocoa, and whisper white cardstock.  I used close to cocoa classic and taken with teal craft ink.  For the patterned paper, I used some paper that was close to certainly celery, that I had gotten on clearance at joann's.  I took the photo of baby Ben, when he was just a few hours old.

Congratulations to Lacey and Will! And big brother Patrick!  

Happy Birthday Jen!!

Today is the birthday of someone very dear to me. Jen has been my friend for almost eight years, and has seen me through some pretty trying times. This card isa party of a package I am putting in the mail for her today. Hope you have a great day Jen!

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A New Season of Life

Fall is still in the air. Though I've heard that it is supposed to be more summer like tomorrow, I just can't imagine that as I look out my window now.  Today is our first day of our first full year of homeschooling.  We are all excited, and a bit sad to see summer end.  Wish us luck!  Yesterday, one of my best friends had her second child.  He is just so precious!  Baby Benjamin arrived at 11:30am at a whopping 9 pounds 7 ounces!  Everyone is happy and healthy, and they should be on their way home this morning.  It was just a few short weeks ago when I was throwing a baby shower for baby Ben - so today I thought I'd share his shower invitation.  I am hoping to finish up his announcements today, maybe I will share those tomorrow.

For the shower, I decided to try and use up some of the retired stuff  I have.  Stampin' up! just retired about thirty colors from their palette at the end of june, and I still have a decent stock of all 30 of those colors.  We went with a Safari theme, in close to cocoa, taken with teal, certainly celery, (which is thankfully not retired!) and a little bit of chocolate chip.  Please excuse the nice patterned gum wrapper that is covering up my address and phone number.  LOL

Have a great day!

Hat Box

I can't believe it - I woke up this morning to a cool house, and grey rainy clouds outside.  Fall is coming!  I can feel it in the air, I can smell it.  I am so excited.  Fall is my favorite time of the year.  I love the rich colors, and textures - and how families tend to stay knitted together a little more.

Today I am sharing a hat box.  It has become my favorite 3D project.  They are pretty simple to make, but I think they are so elegant.  This one I made for a shoebox swap that my friend Cristena Bagne hosted.

For the embossing on the top - I used a new technique I found over on Stampin' Addicts called Reverse Letterpress.  You put ink on your texturez plates before you put the cardstock on.  It makes your embossed images pop!  I love it!

Here are the materials I used:
Stampin Up! Big Shot
Scallop Circles #2 Bigz die
Word Window Punch
Modern Label Punch
Five Petal Punch
Big Shot Texturez Plates
Basic Grey Classic Ink
All Holidays Stamp Set
Styled Silver Hodgepodge
White Smooch Spritz
Chipboard
Basic Grey Cardstock
Pretty in pink Cardstock
Pink Pirouette Cardstock
Basic Grey Taffeta Ribbon

My Albertson's shopping trip!

I am so excited!  I just went to Albertson's and spent $6.68 out of my own pocket.  I also walked out with a $4.00 catalina. (free Albertsons cash)  Here's what I bought - 30 boxes of post cereal, 1 package Oscar Meyer Turkey Bacon, 1 package of Red Vines, 1 Wilton easter bunny cookie cutter, and 1 box of Oreo Cakesters (peanut butter).

I was able to do this because of a fabulous blog I follow.  These women who run this blog have saved our family hundreds of dollars!  They will do the same for your family!  Check them out!  Fabulessly Frugal  They posted about a week ago that this post cereal sale was coming.  As soon as I saw this post, I headed to ebay to buy some coupons.  I know that sounds silly, to pay for coupons - but it was well worth it for this sale!!!  I spent $2 on 20 coupons ($1 off of 2 boxes).  They also posted that with the purchase of 5 boxes of Post cereal, you would get a $4 catalina. (Catalinas are basically free Albertsons money.  You can use them on your next purchase, for whatever you want!)  Here is what my transactions looked like:

#1 

6 boxes of Post Cereal    $9.54

(3) $1/2 boxes coupons -$3.00

(3) double coupons       - $3.00
                                    = $3.54 out of pocket
                                    + $4.00 catalina

#2
6 boxes of Post Cereal    $9.54
1 pkg Oreo Cakesters     $1.99
(3) $1/2 boxes coupons -$3.00
(3) double coupons        -$3.00
$1/1 Oreo Cakesters     -$1.00
$4.00 Catalina               -$4.00
                                   = $0.53 out of pocket
                                   + $4.00 catalina

#3
6 boxes of Post Cereal    $9.54

1 pkg Turkey Bacon       $2.49

(3) $1/2 boxes coupons -$3.00

(3) double coupons        -$3.00

$1.50/1 bacon coupon   -$1.50

$4.00 Catalina               -$4.00

                                   = $1.53 out of pocket

                                   + $4.00 catalina

#4

6 boxes of Post Cereal    $9.54

1 pkg Red Vines             $1.00

(3) $1/2 boxes coupons -$3.00

(3) double coupons        -$3.00

$4.00 Catalina               -$4.00

                                   = $0.54 out of pocket

                                   + $4.00 catalina

#5

6 boxes of Post Cereal    $9.54

1 bunny cookie cutter      $1.00

(3) $1/2 boxes coupons -$3.00

(3) double coupons        -$3.00

$4.00 Catalina               -$4.00

                                   = $0.54 out of pocket

                                   + $4.00 catalina

Pals Paper Art Challenge 33

Look at me being regular!  Two days in a row... or more like two hours in a row.  But the date is still different so that counts, right?

I did this card for the Pal Paper Arts Challenge 33.  I didn't think I could do a St. Patrick's Day card - I do not own any St. Patrick's Day stamps, and I do not use Glorious Green.... or at least that used to be true.  Apparently I do own a "Happy St. Patrick's Day" stamp... I did not know this.  I've decided the next time I order something, I will look at the whole set, instead of just the stamps I can't live without.  That way in the future, I will know what I have. ;)

Man! This medallion stamp can work with anything!  It was the main focus of my valentine cards, which I will post soon... but just use green instead, and you have a beautiful st. patty's card.

Hope you enjoy the card!

Wow! It's been almost 6 months!

I can't believe it has been almost six months since I have posted anything!  Life gets crazy busy when school starts around here, and I just haven't had time to get here.  But I am here now, with high hopes of becoming regular again.

Since December, I have been scrapbooking, in hopes of showing my in-laws that despite what they think - we do have a life, and a I do photograph it.  This isn't in any way to speak ill of my in-laws.  I love them dearly, they are good people.  We don't spend much time with them, and so they would have no way of knowing that I take pictures almost as often as I blink my eyes.  So, I have pledged (to myself...)  to scrapbook 2009, to prove that we do have a life.  Since my only goal right now is scrapbooking 2009, I was able to let go of that feeling of "needing to catch up" - and boy am I thankful!  That feeling of needing to catch up, kept me from scrapbooking for a long time.  My poor daughter, who will be 5 in may, hasn't even been born in my scrapbooks yet.
Here are a few photos of some of the pages I've done so far... let me know what you think!

Don't they look adorably silly in those goggles?  This was the first time either of them had tried them out, and neither of them liked how they felt on their head.