New Stuff and Favorites

If you're looking for the Blog Hop, it's in the post below.

Here's a layout I forgot to post from the stamp challenge I was hosting at Peek.

The challenge was to use stamps to make a border. I used Technique Tuesday Borderline Notions for the borders.

This is using the new Flair Fresh & Fabulous:

I cut the crown on my Cricut. The clear buttons have the Flair line underneath them with glitter on top. Old school. ;)

Now, here are my latest and favorite Cosmo layouts. ;)

That's it! Thanks for stopping by. Don't forget to leave a comment in the post below for your chance to win a great set of stamps from Technique Tuesday.

Blog Hop with Candy

It's time for another blog hop with candy from the Bitten by the Bug team. I have a great set of stamps from Technique Tuesday that I'm giving away this time.

Regina asked us to use the "Freedom" cut from Graphically Speaking. Here's my take below:

Just leave a comment on my blog to be entered into a random drawing at the end of the week.

Now, after you leave me a comment, please be sure to hop on down to Carole's blog.

Thanks for visiting!

Card Story

The kids love to make cards. They pull out a scrap piece of cardstock, use my Score-Pal and go to town. Trent's are usually complicated with lots of pockets and fancy folds. Katrina only folds hers once and for whatever reason, she always writes her name in big letters on the outside.

Right now she is making a card for Kiersten. Kiersten died over a year ago but she thinks I can somehow get this card to heaven. On the inside, it says, "I love you, Kiersten" and it is full of butterflies and flowers (some I drew for her), caterpillars and a sad face with tears.

Here are some layouts. I get some stuff done even though I've been so busy.


October Afternoon Ducks in a Row

Technique Tuesday stamps. I had a stamp challenge going on this month and this is one of the pages I did for it.


KI Memories Friendship


Another October Afternoon Ducks in a Row

another day

It's been a bad week.

First, we spent 24 hours in the hospital with Trenton. He was having severe stomach pain with a low grade fever. He was soooo close to having surgery to remove his appendix, but somehow his white blood cell count lowered rather quickly and he was spared what would have been a very traumatic event in his little life. The IV the nurse put in his hand just about sent the kid over the edge.

This morning, Erik's grandmother died. Her name is Annette. The kids could never say, "Annette", so they called her "Grandma Neck".

I've been so busy this summer and I've hardly completed any layouts. I do have a few to share, though.



Prima Rebellious


Technique Tuesday and Pink Paislee

October Afternoon Weathervane

Scenic Route Garden Grove

Katrina really hates swimming lessons.

Something cute

Katrina is constantly picking up anything with a cute animal on it.


Crate paper Lillian


BasicGrey Lime Rickey


Sassafras Lass Bungle Jungle


Graphic 45

Last day of school & Blog Candy winner

Today was the last day of school. I always take a picture of Trent on the first day and the last day wearing the same shirt. Can you tell which photo was taken when? Even Trent got it wrong. :P


Scenic Route Sonoma

Also, the winner of the Blog Candy (by random drawing)is Tracie! Thanks everyone for playing. This was so much fun and I've never had so many comments/views on my blog before. That was kinda cool. ;)

Tracie, to answer your question, I didn't I didn't spend all that time sharpening the pencil. LOL! I actually broke it half and then sharpened it. I started to panic a bit because I couldn't get a good tip on it!! Next time, I'll take a Dremel or something to cut it off straight. I think the jagged edge of the pencil made it difficult for it to come to a good point.

2 days of camping

and all four of us looked like this. Actually, Katrina looks a lot better than I did. I think I got about 4 hours of sleep the entire weekend (we had very, very bad neighbors). Other than that, it was a lot of fun. This was a Cub Scout camp trip. There was fishing, eating, hiking, swimming, s'mores, awards and it was hot. Very hot! We even brought the dog. I think she liked it.

Here are some layouts:


Scenic Route, Rusty Pickle (I do believe that is an incorrect spelling of "Bucanier". *sigh*), 7gypsies, Sweetwater and a more.


Technique Tuesday, KI Memories, Love Elsie, 7gs. Can you see me?


Trenton wanted this costume so badly but when the time came to take pictures, he wanted nothing to do with it. Sassafras Lass, Maya Road and Reminisce.

That's it for now. Don't forget to post a comment on the post below for a chance to win that cool teacher stamp. I'm giving the card to Trent's teacher tomorrow. The last day of school is Thursday!!!!!!! UGH!

Blog Hop with candy!

Good Morning!

I have some blog candy to share this time. Regina from Bitten By The Bug has sponsored our challenge this week. That cute background is a digital stamp from her Cutting Cafe site.

If you want to win the same cute stamp, all you have to do is leave me a comment. I'll draw a winner randomly. Please make sure I have your email address.

Want to win more? Click on Regina's blog for a chance to win another digi stamp. If this is your first stop, make sure you start at the beginning of our blog hop here at Marina's.

Happy Mudder's Day

What a great day. I got new summer jammies, polka dot socks, new perfume and lots and lots of handmade cards. Then, we had brunch. For dessert, I had more bacon. Yum. ;)

Here's a pic of the kids from this am.

Here are some layouts:



Scribble Scrabble Evelyn

BasicGrey Wisteria and Technique Tuesday


This was for Flashback Friday at 2Peas. We were to do a page on milestones. Taco Bell was my first job.
Bam Pop

Thanks for looking. I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day

Cinco de Mayo

It's hot today. I've had the fan on all day and it's not really helping. The kids are at Cub Scouts and I'm trying to catch up. Here are some layouts:



I did this as a challenge on NSD. It's in honor of Kiersten (who passed away last year from evil cancer). She loved the Beatles and the challenge was to make a layout with something Beatles inspired. The title is from a line in Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

Fancy Pants (mostly)

Cosmo, Fancy Pants, American Crafts, Sassafras Lass

BasicGrey, left over scraps of Fancy Pants from the layout above, K & Co., Technique Tuesday stamps

This is for Flashback Friday. We were to scrap our baby picture. BasicGrey

bees at school

I forgot to post this in my previous post. These are at my son's school in a tree near the buses. Pretty cool, huh!?!?!


I took the picture from very far away. I'm not that stupid. ;)

A few projects

This is for my next card class. We're doing birthday cards. Stamps are from Technique Tuesday (what else?)


A Bitten by the Bug challenge. We were to use the inch box from TBBM and one of four darling vintage images from Peggy Loves Vintage.


another Bitten by the Bug challenge. Regina asked us to use any border cut from the Doodlecharms cart.

That's it for now!

The Fair

Katrina wanted the very expensive unicorn face painting. I don't know why she didn't want the $4.00 image that read, "I {heart} Mom". The artist saw our hesitation and offered us a better deal. We took her up on it and then she gave a dragon to Trent for free. She made our day. The kids were so excited and I took a ton of photos (even though I have 2 here).

Trent's dragon. It was cool!!

The kids didn't want to wash their faces (of course) when we got home.

I've been playing with Picnik again. I love that photo editing site and I especially love that it's free.


This has a little boost and a little vignette.

My favorite edit is the cinema-scope. It crops it, changes the color a bit and makes it grainy.