Better with a friend like you!

Yep, way to much Barney in the house these days!  Both Gino and Vinny have become attached to this lovable purple giant dinosaur and so even without knowing what I was doing I titled my layout ... yep, Better with a friend like you!  Here I was so proud of myself for coming up with the title so quickly until I heard our purple friend singing it. 

So anyway here is my Barney inspired layout using this month's Jillibean Soup sketch and goodies:

What songs are you singing today?  I hope your selection is better than mine! 

And I got some very happy mail yesterday - thought I'd share...

Yep, that's mine of my little Beano!  It is in the Create Magazine - All About Baby.

Learning to tell time...

with Thomas!  Not really as my son has just turned 3, but soon enough I will begin to teach him he can't yell for mommy before 8am and 3pm nap!  I saw these circles at Wall Sugar and I love to make clocks and so the wheels of my mind started turning and this is what I created:

Materials Used:  Bo Bunny, American Crafts and Thomas products

Now I just have to get Daddy to hang this one up (along with a few other projects) so I can clear out my scrap room and create some more!  So what about you, what do you see when you spot a piece of wood/cardboard/etc...

Smash Winner!

So I am just a little late announcing my winner for the Smash products, sorry about that, life kinda got away from me!  By Random.org, #16 is my winner!  (Send me an e-mail with your address and I will get your goodies out to you - my info is above.)

NitashaApril 16, 2012 12:37 AM

This is such an awesome use of the Smash products! Fab layout! Happy to be a new follower of your blog!

Thanks so much each of you that stop by and leave comments - I really appreciate it!

More Fabulous - ness!

Here are 2 more projects I created using the Fabulous line from Simple Stories - love this stuff!!!

The first I created using the 6x8 photo mat element sheet #2113 and the 4x6 journaling element cards #2112 - I fussy cut around some of the elements to make a place for my picture.

The next project I created was altering a chalkboard for my daughter - if you remember I made this chore board for my boys a few weeks ago, and what you do for one, you had better do for the next!  I bought this chalkboard from Michaels years ago in the dollar section - painted it - and then stopped...  The paint color matched the Fabulous line perfectly so I set about altering it and here is the result.

The flowers are magnetic.

Sketch Time with Artful Delight

I received a box of Echo Park This and That a few weeks ago.  So I finally got around to looking through my pictures to see what needed to be scrapped and what went with this line.  Although I've already scrapped Tracy's dance recital the colors were perfect for a few of my favorite pictures.

I used a sketch from Artful Delight to create each page - although the pages are separate I also made them to go together.  Here is the first sketch:

Even though the sketch was a card sketch it fit perfectly with my collage of pictures so I used it for my layout.

Here is the next sketch I used, this was created for a layout:

And the second page of Tracy's dance pictures:

Notice that lovely little bubble!  I ran out of my Fabri-Tac which is my liquid glue of choice so I used another one I had in my closet, Aleena's clear tacky glue - needless to say I was a little ticked!

I have one more dance picture to show you, I actually didn't realize I had scrapped another dance picture!  I have officially completed scrapping Tracy's 2011 dance recital and just in time as the 2012 recital is in 3 weeks!  LOL

Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate each of you and your comments!

Lily Bee sketch #9

I have been putting in a lot of time the past 2 weeks in the cake bakery department - Marc and Vinny both celebrate their birthdays a week apart.  Last weekend found me making a Luigi cake...

and right now, I'm supposed to be finishing up the Thomas cake for this evening!

In between all the hustle and bustle of 2 little boys birthdays I grabbed a few minutes (very late at night) to document Gino's 1st birthday with the help of sketch #9 at Lily Bee. 

Here's the sketch:

 

and here is what I created using some of my new Lily Bee stash... 

Materials Used:  OA Sprinklers, Jillibean Soup number, Lily Bee, twine and clips from stash

When I saw the banner and the ovals I started thinking about balloons and birthdays.  I knew that I had some wonderful yellow in my stash and so here is the layout that was born.  Now I have better run or I will have some seriously unhappy boys! 

Life Lessons

As a mother of 5 and a homeschooler, I am constantly keeping my eyes and ears open for anything that will help our daily lives run smoother.  I've found that our dynamics change so often that what was tried and true last month is totally useless now; this has become more and more true as the children 5 and above become more and more of themselves.  One of the places I have found great inspiration and hands on practical knowledge is from the Duggar family - when their show first came out I would tape it so that I could really listen and go back and listen some more to the truths that worked for their family.  Later as it became a weekly show, while we still enjoyed watching as a family some of the little details were missing, so I began reading their books.  While our family is not the same as theirs, our values are very similar and I truly appreciate the Duggar family being so open about their lives because in a day and age when large families are not the norm - I need some help!

You can imagine my excitement when I found out the Duggars were only going to be 2 hours away from us at a marriage conference!  So for the first time I left all 5 of the dudes with a baby sitter and my hubby and I headed off for a day away.  It was wonderful to be together, it was wonderful to actually hear Jim Bob and Michelle speak and share exactly what I needed at that moment, and it was wonderful to eat and shop a little just the 2 of us.  I was thrilled to find a Michaels and an AC Moore right next to each other, go figure!  And so I headed in with my trusty coupons to find something...

I quickly filled up my basket as would be expected, but I chose to use my coupon on a new tape dispenser by glue art - a glue glider pro.  I had seen this advertised in my magazines, but I never had a chance to actually find one in the stores; another yea thing for my day.  So when I saw that Glue Arts had offered up a challenge for NSD I just had to participate and scrap the topic of the day!  (I didn't make a card because I wouldn't be sending it to the Duggars, but I did want to document a mom who really inspires me!)  Isn't it amazing what your mind links together!  LOL  I also found this sketch and loved it so I decided to participate there too.

Here is the sketch I used:

And here is what I created using my April Scrapbook Nook kit (Crate) and my Glue Arts: