Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween to you!

(My Little Shoebox Trick or Treat collection)

Today is one of the days that kids look forward to each year with great anticipation of the large amounts of candy they'll receive and then (for them) hopefully consume.

It's the day that dentists love- simply because all of the ensuing cavities help to pay their bills.

Today, though, one of my girls is sick and she won't be going to the trunk or treat at the church with her sisters. I told her that we could do a Halloween egg hunt, carve her pumpkin (we have been out of town and STILL haven't carved our pumpkins) and just hang out at home. I think she's okay with not going out tonight since she hasn't been feeling well today anyway.

I am busy peeling apples again- we're making apple butter and apple sauce and whatever else we can think of to make with the apples we just got and then are making marinara sauce and salsa with our tomatoes. Bountiful Baskets has been such a fun investment for us!

I was talking to the girls about food storage and why it's important to have some extra food on hand- in case their Daddy loses his job, we don't have any money, there is a food shortage in the stores, a natural disaster, etc. Sarah told me, "You don't have to worry. I have a LOT of money. I have 68 coins."

I am not sure how much those 68 coins amounts to but I'm sure it's not more than a couple of dollars.

She told her little sister, "I promise I have that much. I just counted it last night," to which her 4 year old sister replied, "You're supposed to be sleeping at night, not counting your money."

Silly girls. They make me laugh every single day.

Anyway, I hope that you have a fun and safe Halloween .

I will take some pictures of the girls tonight before they leave for the trunk or treat at the church and we'll take a group pic when everyone is feeling up to it. I think Sarah will be okay to go back to school tomorrow. That fever is all that kept her home today. She's complained of a sore throat and stomachache so we didn't want to take any chances since apparently strep is going around.

Fun times, huh?

Happy Halloween!!!

New Releases from Bella Blvd!

Good morning and happy Friday to you!

I hope that it's been a good week for you- I am looking forward to the weekend, though, and spending time with family we love and doing some fun things with the kids.

Today I have a couple of new projects to share with you using the BRAND NEW Bella Blvd releases, "Spring Flings and Easter Things" and "Winter Wonder."

There have been a lot of fantastic spring and winter-themed projects on the Bella blog this week but I wanted to show how these papers can also be used for everyday projects, something that I always do. I even used the winter collection for an everyday page, which you'll see here:

I used a picture of Aimee to cover up the snowman on the yellow journal spot and it worked perfectly! See? Don't be scared off by themed collections because there is a bit of something for everyone in this one. I had fun mixing up the different patterns and really like the cute chevrons and little hearts. 

I live in west Texas and we don't get a lot of snow so I scrapped these fun pictures of Aimee that I'd been holding onto for a while: 

I used one of the stickers to incorporate into the title and simply cut off the last words about snow:

And for my NEXT project I used the "Spring Flings and Easter Things" collection to scrap this cute picture of our baby Lily:

I think the little froggies on the cutout sheet are so cute! I also used the rainbow and bee from the same page to add as embellishments to my page. 

I layered the pieces, added some cute twine and foam adhesive to some and Ranger Stickles glitter glue to a few pieces as well. 

You can see more projects using these two brand new collections (SHIPPING NOW!) on the Bella Blvd blog http://bellablvd.typepad.com/

Have a great weekend!

Two of A Kind

Hello!

How are things where you are today?

We are finally getting some much-needed rain and it is SO much colder today. We are supposed to have a high of 44 degrees. Brrrrrr!

I find it interesting how different each of my girls are- alike in some ways but unique in many others.

My Sarah, almost 6 years old, is our silliest one with a very zany personality. She is the one who cracks us up with the off-the-wall things that she does. I think she gets a lot of that from Matt. Here is a page with pictures of the two of them together after a church activity at the park at the beginning of the school year.

I had a lot of fun putting together this page using a mix of the new Jillibean Soup products. I really like the new corrugated alphas and the fun stickers that come with each collection. Here I mixed the Sweet and Sour Soup line with some Hearty Barley and some Apple Cheddar Soup. That cute little cloud punch is from Fiskars, one of the punches I got from our Fiskars cross-promotion. So fun!

The new Soup Labels are one of my favorite additions to the Jillibean lines. 

LOVE the cute new twine, too!

The rain continues to fall here and we are so grateful. 

I hope that you are enjoying this nice fall day. 

Where are you visiting from?

 I'd love to hear about what you do this time of year for fun. 

Have a wonderful day!

another card today and MLS giveaway winner!

While I was finishing up some Jillibean Soup assignments I decided to make an extra card to share here today.

I used my Martha Stewart anywhere punch (heart shape) on this which was cute but punching through the two layers killed my punch. So sad. I will have to see if I can fix it today. I also used a cute Fiskars flower punch, one of my current favorites.

For this card I used some Sweet and Sour Soup (my fave!) along with one of the cute new Soup Labels and cardstock stickers. Oh, there's a bit of blue from the Apple Cheddar Soup collection, too, and one of the cute new buttons.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

p.s. the winner of my random My Little Shoebox drawing is lucky comment #26:

 Minerva said...

Adorable!

October 21, 2011 1:02 AM

Please send your mailing address info to me at mattandbeckywilliams at yahoo dot com and I will send some goodies to you!

sharing some Jillibean Soup cards

Good morning to you!

I hope that your weekend was a great one.

We had so much fun celebrating Aimee's birthday with some of her little friends. I'll post some pictures soon.

Today I have a couple of Jillibean Soup cards to share with you:

Both of these cards use the cute Apple Cheddar Soup collection, perfect for scrapping fall pictures and making cards. Aren't those little gnomies cute? 

The My Little Shoebox drawing is now closed and I will choose a random winner later today so you can be on the lookout for that if you left a comment on the MLS bloghop post.

Have a good one!

happy birthday to Aimee!

If you are here for the Unity Stamps/My Little Shoebox bloghop, please scroll down to the next post or click here 

Today our little Aimee turns 4 years old.

She's a sweet girl, quite the feisty, spunky one as well.

What a blessing she is in our life.

Here are some of my favorite Aimee pages:

Happy birthday cute girl!

Unity Stamps and My Little Shoebox Hip Hop!

Good morning and welcome to the Unity and My Little Shoebox Hip Hop blog hop!

Just in case you've stumbled upon my blog and you'd like to participate in the hop, I have listed the hop order below. Of course you would like to do the hop to have a chance at a great prize!

Here is the line-up for today:

Unity Blog - http://theunitystampco.blogspot.com/

Brooke Lien - http://brookelien.blogspot.com/

Beckie Dreyer - http://beckiedreyer.blogspot.com/

Eva Dobilas – http://evafromca.blogspot.com/

Becky Williams - http://onescrappinmama.blogspot.com/   (that's me!)

Jen Erichson – http://shut-up-its-true.blogspot.com/

Erin Yamabe - http://erinyamabe.com/

Karen Maldonado – http://reallifeinpictures.blogspot.com/

Ilene Tell - http://whatabunchofscrap.blogspot.com/

Lisa Henke –  http://www.mylittlecreativeescape.blogspot.com/        

Keely Yowler - http://www.keelyy.blogspot.com/

Maria Gurnsey – http://scrapsbym.blogspot.com

Kristine Berc - http://stashofprettypaper.blogspot.com/

Robyn Weatherspoon – http://herebygrace.typepad.com/here_by_grace/

Linda Kretz - http://cloud9ideas.blogspot.com/

Wendy Chang– http://www.justwen.blogspot.com/

Mandy Starner - http://www.heyheymandykay.com/

Jolande van Oosterhout- http://www.justjolande.blogspot.com/

Melinda Spinks - http://www.thescrapfarm.blogspot.com/

Jessica Diedrich – http://thewhimsicalbutterfly.blogspot.com/

My Little Shoebox Blog - http://www.mylittleshoebox.typepad.com/

Today I'd like to share with you a project that I created using this set of stamps from Unity:

which can be found here: http://unitystampco.com/product/1127-a-little-trick-or-treat.aspx

This stamp set of course goes perfectly with the Trick or Treat collection from My Little Shoebox.

  

and a card using that fun journal spot stamp:

Please make sure to check back for part 2 of this hop one week from today when you'll be able to see even more great projects from the Unity and My Little Shoebox teams. Check the Unity blog or MLS for more information and for the hop line-up.

NEXT you will visit Jen Erichson – http://shut-up-its-true.blogspot.com/

For YOUR chance to win the My Little Shoebox prize please leave a comment on the My Little Shoebox blog by midnight on the 23rd. One random winner will be chosen. 

AND: for another chance to win leave a comment here on MY blog by October 23rd at midnight telling me what your favorite Halloween treat is and I will choose one random winner to receive a sampling of My Little Shoebox. Thanks so much for stopping by! 

hello cows!

Hello again!

Last spring we had a little get-together at the home of some friends from church who have some cows. At feeding time they let all of the kids go in and help feed the cows and my girls were some of the first to want to go in. I was 7+ months pregnant and had a little bit of difficulty squeezing through the gap in the pokey barbed wire fence with my big ol' belly but someone had to be there with the girls and of course I had to take some pictures! I'd been hoarding these pictures for just the right paper to come along and then I got this Studio Calico paper in the October kit from Midnight Rooster. You can take a peek at the kit by clicking here http://midnightrooster.net/kits/  

Aimee and Sarah weren't nervous at all about getting up close and personal with those cows!

Here I just cut out some of the hexagons and popped them up with American Crafts foam adhesive.

I'd cut out some of the cute cows to use on my layout and didn't end up using them so I put them on this little card. I was near the end of my kit so I was using scraps and the extra letters (the I is actually from a "j" and the N is a "z" but it helped me to get more mileage from my alphas). 

I hope that you have a great day!

when we were just 5

Here's another page that I made with the October kit from Midnight Rooster:

This picture was taken just a few weeks before Lily was born. I was big and pregnant and not very comfortable and anxious to meet that sweet little girl. Little did we know that I would end up in the hospital on bedrest for two weeks and that she would come 6 weeks early.  

One thing that I like about the Midnight Rooster kits is the mix of embellishments including fabric. For this one I just cut a thin strip, gathered it up with a needle and thread and then glued it down using some Helmar 450 Quick Dry adhesive. That stuff keeps things in place when I really need them to stick. I then used American Crafts foam adhesive on the whole panel to give the page some dimension.

For the title I used a Copic marker on the Studio Calico chipboard alphas, one of the My Mind's Eye brads, a cute pin and white ribbon from the kit gathered and glued down with some more Helmar 450.

Thanks for stopping by today!

just a couple of projects today

Good morning!

It's Saturday, our last soccer game of the season for our girls and a day to hopefully reclaim our house from the messy state it's in right now. I can dream, can't I?

Here are a couple of projects I have made recently:

These are pictures of Aimee and the county fair from last year. This year we didn't make it to the fair at all, times were just too busy with everything else that we had going on. It's a simple page with some embellishments from Sassafras, Making Memories and American Crafts. 

I made this card using the Crate Paper Random collection featured in the September kit from My Scrapbook Nook. 

Have a great day!

hello Friday!

I don't know about you but I am so glad that the weekend is almost here.

It's been quite the exhausting week!

This morning I am going to share with you another page that I created with the October kit from Midnight Rooster. There are so many ways you can use this kit, such a fun mix of patterns that work for any style.

For this layout I used some pictures of my Lily and Sarah. We'd bought this pretty pink dress for Sarah for Easter and I later found the same dress on clearance at Target but in Lily's size. Sarah was beside herself with excitement for the day that they could both wear their little pink dresses. We took some time before church one Sunday to get these pictures.

Everything you see here came from the kit except for the thread and staples. With the kit you get two strips of fabric. I used a piece of one to make the big flower on the page. The white envelope with the stitching and butterfly on it is the envelope that the pins and other little extras came in. I cut it open from the bottom because as soon as I saw the envelope I knew that it would be come part of one of my projects! I added one of the cute pins to the center of the butterfly by simply poking the end of the pin through the little white bag and glueing it down with some Helmar 450 Quick Dry adhesive. I used the same glue for the flower and to glue the trims down. 

I really liked the white ribbon in the kit (you also get a ribbon card from My Mind's Eye that has the lace, blue trim and an orange trim) and will have to find some more of that somewhere. The brad in the center of the fabric flower came differently in the package. I liked the look of the big white pearl with the brown fabric so I simply switched them out. 

I liked that the Basic Grey paper had lines on it.I used my big 3" scallop circle punch to make my own journaling spot out of that paper. 

Well, folks, that's it for today. It's still early and I am going to go back to sleep for a while. Baby Lily is usually up by now but she's still sound asleep so I am going to do the same. 

We have a fun weekend ahead of us- perhaps a trip to the pumpkin patch and the girls' last soccer games of the season. 

Have a great weekend! 

Take a broom ride over the Cuckoo's Nest!

Hello!

I had the cool opportunity to be the guest designer at Midnight Rooster this month.

Midnight Rooster is a fun kit club where you get a great mix of papers from different manufacturers, coordinating embellishments, handmade notions, fabric, etc. Here is a peek at the beautiful October kit:

My favorite parts of the kit were the cute Studio Calico chipboard alphas, the handmade tags with banners and the little pins. So very cute. You can take a look at the kit, see a full list of contents and and buy one of your own here:  http://midnightrooster.net/kits/

I have been able to create 4 pages and 2 cards so far and I'll share one of those layouts with you today. 

First off, these are some pictures that I'd been wanting to scrap for a while, pics of when my Sarah cut off her bangs. We were growing them out so they'd blend in with the rest of her hair and she would walk around holding onto her long bangs and say, "I wish I could just cut these off." Well, one morning right before church she did just that. I didn't even notice until we got to church since things are always crazy busy with us getting ready. We found the scissors and the rest of the evidence in the garbage can in my scrap room. Of course. She KNOWS she's not supposed to be in there. We had a lock on the door, too, but she figured out how to open it. We've since changed the lock and only me and my husband have a key to get in. 

The yellow background didn't photograph very well but you get the idea! It's cute paper from American crafts. I also used the handmade tags, the cute Cosmo Cricket buttons, some MME brads and Studio Calico alphas. The little blue alphas are Cosmo Cricket ones from my stash and the twine is from my stash as well. I used my Martha Stewart punch for the butterflies. Oh, and before I started I used some Jenni Bowlin paint daubers in pink and ivory and used some Studio Calico white mist. 

Aren't her bangs cute now? Not at all, I know. At least it's just hair and it will eventually grow back and look normal. Thankfully she likes to wear headbands which helps to disguise the funky bangs. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. Tobi will have a write-up on the Midnight Rooster blog later today and you can check back here for more of my projects as well. 

Have a great day!