Goodbye 2011

I am relieved that this is the last day of 2011. It has been the worst year ever. I won't recap it for you, you'll just have to trust me.

I've decided to step down from BBTB2. Here is what I wrote:

I want to thank you so very much for sticking with me for the last two years. I have made a difficult decision to step down from being in charge of Bitten by the Bug 2. My grandson was recently born in late October and I will be his full time caregiver while my daughter goes back to work. I will have little time to do much of anything except play with Blake all day. :)

I'll still be here and will do the occasional challenge.

So, effective 2012 Donna and Carole are to take over. Yay! They're going to keep it going and I know it's going to be better than ever.

Thank you again for all your support. 

I will still be doing the occasional challenge, I just won't be in charge anymore.  

I bolded that last part because I think some people think I'm leaving-leaving. I'm not.

Also, spammers BACK OFF!! Geez!! I know I haven't updated my blog in a month. The spammers are trying to take over. I have to delete numerous comments each morning.

I'm here. I was just really busy so please stop spamming my blog. This is still an active blog. I'm not going to just stop after 6 years (or however long it's been).

Ok, that's it for now. I'll be back  soon. I promise.

 

Here's a little sneak peek from RSC

Here's a little peek at a layout for Ready, Set, Create using product from Under the Num Num Tree.

The new issue is out today.

This is HUGE

Good Morning! Design Team Sister, Melissa, asked us to use the mouse cut from the Meow cartridge.

This is what I came up with:

The stamp is from My Pink Stamper and the elephant is from Animal Kingdom.

Hippo Birdie Two Ewes

I think that is my favorite pun from My Pink Stamper's stamp sets.

Robyn sent me some more stamps to play with and I was excited to oblige. She sent me two sets: Lunchbox Thoughts and That's Puny-licious.

Here's what I've done so far:

I have another card made from this set but you can't see it until Monday. It's for Bitten by the Bug 2. The hippo and bird are from Create a Critter and the Ewes are from Birthday Bash.

These are from Lunchbox Thoughts. I just loved the idea of having stamps to make cards to sneak in your child's lunchbox. These are little cards, around 3x3.

I put a little Glossy Accents on the pieces because you know, pepperoni is greasy. Both of these cuts are from Locker Talk.

I plan on making more cards with these stamps. I'll keep you posted. ;) Thanks for visiting.

Hambly

Oh, well. I applied for the Hambly Design Team. Didn't make it, but I'll keep chugging along here. They asked for an unseen project. Here is what I sent them:

Hambly, owl stamp is Technique Tuesday, alpha chipboard is Cosmo Cricket, a tiny touch of Lily Bee and the wings are old Fancy Pants. The heart is a negative space from a Cricut cut. Spray paint for the blue splatters.

Thanks for looking and thanks for your sweet comments.

Joy

Good Morning! This week at Bitten by the Bug 2, Mona asked us to use the "Joy" cut from the Winter Woodland cart. Here is my take on it:

I added a little jingle bell and the snowman is a chipboard embellishment from BasicGrey.

Thanks for looking. :D

Rawr

This was a card I originally made for Ready, Set, Create but they ended up not needing it. I was really nervous about coloring in the tiger but I think it turned out ok. That is the 2nd time I had to color him. The first time he ended up a little too red.

Stamps are Mark's Finest Papers.
Copics to color

Fixed!

I'm so excited! My very good friend, Pat, fixed my photo of Ashley. Look at it now!!

No more toilet, no more bag. It's absolutely perfect!!!! Thank you so much, Pat!

Laugh with me

I've been taking photos for a LONG time. I was a 11 when I got my first camera. I know you're supposed to look at the background before you snap the picture. I know this.

However, yesterday I was so worried about ISO, aperture, composition, etc that I didn't follow the number one rule....look at your background.

*sigh* It's a beautiful SOOC picture of mother and son with a couple of exceptions. There is a blue bag or something over her right shoulder that is distracting me but not as much as the image of the toilet over her left arm.

At first, I was sooo mad at myself. I was almost in tears. However, having slept on it now, I think it's kinda funny.

So, let's laugh, learn and go back to the basics. Ashley, Blake and I will try again on Tuesday.

Hello baby boy

Since this started out as a scrapbooking blog, I thought I better add a layout every once in awhile. I've been bombarding you with just pictures lately.

I have been scrapbooking but I just haven't been able to post anything yet. I'm making projects for Ready, Set, Create!

I did get this done the other day...

It's my first layout of my first grandchild, Blake. I love Lily Bee and I thought the new Memorandum collection would be perfect.

Thank you always for your sweet comments.

They meet....

Like I said just a few hours ago...it's been the longest day EVER!!

But at 3:30 Kat, Trent and Blake finally got to meet each other:

Kat wanted to go first....

 

 There was no containing her excitement. Gimme, gimme, gimme!!

 

 ...and all was good with the world.

But then it was Trent's turn and Kat got a little antsy...

 

Katrina gave Trent 10 seconds; she wanted to hold him again.

 

 Who could blame her? I wanted to hold him, too. I was tired of taking pictures.

He woke up and started to cry. Katrina seemed confused,

 but like a good Aunt, she soon realized that if she talked softly to him and stroked his head, she could calm him down a little.

and on top of all of this excitement, my parents got a new puppy. They're thinking of the name "Wally".

It's been quite the long day. A good day.

Blake is here!

My first grand baby was born yesterday at 2:11 PM. I took over 300 pictures, but here are just a couple for starters. I want to watermark them before I put them up on my blog. Let me introduce you to Blake Warren:

I guess I could have made that watermark a little bigger. Oh, well.


He weighs in at 6 pounds, 5 ounces and I think he is 19.5 inches long. He is a natural nurser....he took right to it. That makes Katrina one proud aunt and sister (of Ashley). Kat is a bit, ummmm....obsessed, I guess with breast feeding. Let's just say that I breast fed her for way too long. I had to forcefully wean her because there was no way on Earth that kid was going to give it up on her own.  

I was so worried about the pictures. I could not find my gray card so out of desperation, I decided to take a piece of gray cardstock from my stash (I honestly think the kids probably hid it from me because they think it's stupid). It actually worked out perfectly! Different lights in the room kept going off and on so I probably had to customize the white balance five or so times. While Ashley had her knees up and was pushing, I set the gray card right there in front of her leg. I had to make sure the shots of her pushing came out correctly! You would have done the same thing. Admit it. Lucky for me, the nurse knew what I was doing and kind of laughed.

I had spent the morning taking practice shots and playing with the ISO, etc. When the time did come for Ashley to start pushing, the batteries on my external flash died. I couldn't believe it!! I had to quickly switch lenses and try to find correct settings. It's not an easy task when you're nervous as heck and it's not like you can say, "hang on, Ashley! I have to take some test shots first."  So, the pictures of Blake in the doctor's hands are nothing but big blurs. However, the color is nice. I had no intention of taking pictures of Ashley below the waist but I really, really wanted those first three to four seconds of life.

This morning I changed the batteries in my flash. One of them was actually leaking! I had just pulled those batteries out of the fridge yesterday. I'm ready now for more pictures. You will be bombarded with pictures. Trust me.

This has got to be the longest day in history. The kids haven't met little Baby Blake and they can't wait. I can't wait for them to meet him, too. The hospital has strict rules about allowing kids under 16 to visit so all I've heard for almost 24 hours is, "When are we going to see Blake?"

In other news, my sweet friend, Carole, made this darling wall hanging for Kat for her birthday.  Kat LOVES it and was so excited when she saw it. She says she is going to hang it on her door knob.

 Thank you so very much, Carole!!

Thank you everyone for all of your sweet comments and for all the Congrats!!

If the broom fits...Part II

Good morning! This week at Bitten by the Bug 2, Susan asked us to use the witch cut from the Happy Hauntings cart.

This is what I came up with:

I just love that sentiment from My Pink Stamper's Spook-alicious set. I can't help but giggle every time I read it.

The kitty is from Happy Hauntings, too. The fence and random star are Martha Stewart's. They're both two of my most used punches.

Grandma's Bears

Almost 8 years ago, my grandmother passed away. She collected Beanie Babies and had asked that when she passed, the Beanie Babies go to Ashley (my oldest).  When my grandfather died a couple years ago, the Beanies were then given to Ashley. She was 22 at the time, and didn't really have room for hundreds of Beanie Babies. My grandmother had every. single. Beanie Baby. ever. made. Maybe there were thousands. It kind of felt like it. Ashley picked several favorites and agreed to donate the rest.

A LOT of them came to Katrina who fell in love with every single one. Trenton took a lot of the dragon, patriotic themed and dinosaur ones. Cousins in other states picked some out before they even made it back to Tucson. We gave some of the birthday bears to friends on their birthday.

I still struggled with the hundreds we had left. I knew we couldn't love them all equally but I didn't want to donate them to Goodwill where they would sit in a box for months unloved and not played with (this is where I thought I had watched Toy Story too many times). I thought about donating them to a hospital but was unsure if they would be safe to donate them there since they were in my "house of dogs and cats".

This is when it hit me. I'll donate them to the kids' school. They would be perfect as a prize for the annual school carnival. The kids and I would "know" who they were going to and knew that the child that chose the bear chose it because they loved it and wanted it.

So, the kids and I dug through the Beanies. We decided the bears were the easiest for us to give away. The puppies, kitties and bunnies and the other cute animals were too difficult for Katrina to give away. Let's just say she had a small anxiety attack. At 5 years old.

 These are the Beanies we decided to donate to the school. The kids and I spent hours choosing, holding and wishing happy new home thoughts to each one.

We donated these in April 2010. A couple school carnivals passed but there were no Beanie Babies. I was a little concerned so I asked about them a few days ago. 

Last night was the carnival.  I almost didn't go because my head hurt so badly. I'm glad I did go, though. When I saw this, I was so excited! The spirit of my grandmother was at that carnival and I knew it!

They were going to use the Beanie Babies this year!

As some of the kids were winning the bears, I asked if I could take their pictures.

I have to confess that there was one Beanie Baby I took back.  There was no way it was a coincidence that this Beanie Baby was right next to me:

It's an "It's a Boy" Beanie Baby. In April 2010 when I donated these, this bear would have been just like the others; just "another bear".  However, Ashley is due with a baby boy any day now. I knew we did right thing by donating the bears to the school. The kids were thrilled and my kids were happy to see that their Great Grandma's bears were going to good, loving homes and now I know because of the It's a Boy bear, that my grandmother approved also. 

Have a great day!

Chocolate Basket

Each year at the kids' school, the PTO auctions off baskets.  There are so many great themes like Baby, Family Fun Night, Christmas Decorating, etc. My favorite is the Chocolate themed basket which happens to be what was assigned to the kids.

I told Erik that I was going to purchase the limited edition Halloween chocolate Pop-Tarts for the basket. He sort of made fun of me. I thought it was a swell idea and bought a box anyway. I told everyone to stay out of the chocolate Pop-Tarts.

Well, guess who opened the box of Pop-Tarts and helped himself to one? You're right. It's was Erik. It was at that point that I knew that:

a) my suspicions of whether or not Erik ever listened to me was confirmed, and
b) the idea to buy limited edition Halloween Pop-Tars was not just a swell idea but a GREAT one.

I made the trek back to Walmart to buy another box all while chuckling to myself about the situation.

Since Pop-Tarts are kind of cheap-o (even if they are soooo goood), I wanted to contribute another thing to the basket. Both kids had the same basket so I felt like I should contribute two things. The second thing I added were some homemade chocolate themed note cards.

I used the Sweet Treats cart and My Pink Stamper's Sweetest Cupcakes stamp set. I made two of each design so there is a set of 6 cards for the basket. I put them each in a little cellophane envelope and tied it up with a ribbon.

Here they are:

Thanks for looking. :D

If the broom fits, ride it!

I got up early before the sunrise today to work on some cards. Robyn at My Pink Stamper will be hosting BBTB2 in the next couple months. She sent me some stamps to give away and gave a set to me to play with. I was so excited!!

All the cuts are from the October 31 cart.

 

All the stamps are from My Pink Stamper Spook-alicious set. 

Thanks so much for visiting!

Katrina Couture, Part II

Katrina has always had her own sense of style. Sometimes it's a little odd and surprises me, but for the most part, I've gotten used to it. I learned a long time ago that this was not a battle I was going to fight with her (unless, of course, it involved fishnet).

Whether she's using my good cardstock to make tails,  or wearing a pink fluffy skirt with angel wings it's always her idea. Sometimes fashion ideas come to her in ways I've never thought of. For example, this outfit works because "bears eat horses". Well, of course! Why didn't I think of that?

(this is an old layout)

We found, well I should say, she found this dress at Savers this week. My first instinct was to say, "no" just because it looked old and it looked like "too much" polyester.  After a "PLEASE mom," I said, "why not". It was only $2.00 anyway.

Now that it's washed and on her, I think she did a good job. I LOVE houndstooth and I think it looks a bit vintage. She loves it and she's already received a few compliments from people in the stores we ran errands in. The girl at the bagel shop even commented that Lady Gaga is all about houndstooth these days. That comment took Katrina over the moon.

She was so excited that she even let me do some "glamor shots".

Now, for those of you thinking "Why doesn't Heather have many pictures of her son?" here is your answer. Trent was given the option of having his picture taken, too. Just as I did his sister, I suggested he sit at the end of the couch with his head towards the window.

This is what I got.

Happy Halloween

Agnes asked us to use the Vulture cut from Life's a Party. Can you believe I don't have that cart!!?? If we didn't have the cart, we could use a scary bird from another cart. I found the crow on October 31 and thought it was perfect.

I also dug out the Nesties for the oval and then remembered why I don't use them frequently. I can never get them to emboss properly. Ugh! The dies slip around and I end up with crooked embossing.

Stamp is Inkadinkado
Punch and pumpkin are Martha Stewart
Paper is Recollections

Come over and check out what the other designers did at Bitten by the Bug 2!

Katrina Logic

Kat and I headed out to Michael's to use the 50% off coupon. I had no idea what I wanted as it seemed that EVERYTHING I was interested in was already marked down in the ad.

Anyway, we pull into the Michael's parking lot and Kat says, "Mom, what is Michael's? It's not a store. It has a lot of paper." Then she looks around at the other stores in the shopping center and claims,

"Hancock Fabrics...no paper, that's a store." 
"Money store (this is what she calls Dollar store")...no paper, that's a store."

I said, "What do you mean, Kat? Of course it's a store. Why wouldn't it be a store?"

and then it hit me.....

I said, "I have a lot of paper, don't I?"

Her eyes got really big and she says, "YES!! That's what I mean. You have a lot of paper but you're NOT  a store!"

So, in Katrina Logic if a person/company has and/or sells a HUGE stash of paper, they are in no way shape or a form a store. I admit I do have a lot of paper, but I never thought it would it would warp the thinking of my 7 year old.

If she starts saying the same thing about M&M's then I think we'll have a problem.

Wheelbarrow Challenge

Design Team sister, Donna, chose the wheelbarrow for this week's BBTB2 challenge. I haven't used this cart in ages! When I pulled out the book, I was shocked at how simple the cuts were. I forgot that the Cricut cuts used to be sooooo simple. All of them are so very detailed nowadays.

Anyway, this is what I came up with:

What? Were you expecting just flowers? It is almost Halloween, ya know?

Recollections paper, the stamp is Tim Holtz and the little epoxy greeting is BasicGrey

Willy Man Benches

Oh another day. This is a picture from my Project 365. We found these benches at a yard sale. The lady that was selling them said that her dog (now deceased) used them when his hips were bad. He liked to look over the wall and with the little benches, he could. Her friend that put them in the back of my car, made a comment that he couldn't believe she was giving them up. She made several comments about her dog and how he liked kids so she gave us a great price on these. We'll use them to roast marshmallows outside next to our "fire pit". Later, I took this picture and printed it off and took it back to the lady at the yard sale so she would know her "Willy-Man" benches were very much appreciated. She said she was going to put this picture on her fridge.

Jillibean Soup Sweet & Sour
Technique Tuesday

when are we going back to Legoland?

Trent makes it clear that he is unimpressed with the gardens at Balboa Park.

LilyBee papers and alpha stickers.

Flowers from my "red box". 

Have a great weekend!!

Enjoy Life

I found this picture in a stack of others. It's Trent and his cousins the week before Kat was born. They look like they're having so much fun playing in the fountain.

I used the new Crate paper for this.


Buttons are OA.