A Football Mom's prayer...

Last night, I saw something that literally made my heart stop with fear.  A friend of mine posted a photo of an air evac helicopter in the middle of a football field, and said that an eighth grade football player had to be life flighted from their game after taking a hit. My heart stopped. You see, last night was an away game for my son, and the first game this season that I did not go to, since it was further away than most of his games. As I waited for my friend to respond about what game it was, and who was hurt, I prayed and hoped that it wasn't mine. But I knew even after finding out that it wasn't him, that another mama out there was watching her son and praying for his life. This business of being a mom is hard. I let him play for so many reasons. Sports are such a positive influence on kids, their self confidence, building relationships, learning to work and play well with others, and keeping them healthy and fit. But they can be hard as well. It is hard to watch your son's (or daughter's) team lose. It is hard to keep the right attitude and teach them good sportsmanship when they do. It is so hard to watch them go into potentially dangerous situations, and let them go. Even though you know that they are smart and careful, you know that bad things still happen. But I wanted the other mama's out there to know that I am praying for my son (and yours), and you are not alone in this scary business of raising a child.
And, for the son I am talking about; #85-

You keep doing your best, and I will keep praying for you. That you make the right choices. That you stay safe. And that you become a good man in the process!

A Very Productive National Scrapbook Day...

When National Scrapbook Day rolls around each year, it seems like I always have something else important to do. Not this year! Well, of course there were things that I could have been doing, but I just didn't. I took the  whole day and scrapped and played on line! I did pre-make a few layouts on Friday for the Big Picture Classes' 10K Celebration on Instagram:

 

I saw an idea for inspiration in one of the youtube videos that I watch while cleaning and working around the house, on nicmackin's channel , for using those old scrappy mags we all have kicking around before we get rid of them. She makes up kits from her stash and tosses an old magazine in with her kits, to draw on for inspiration, then tosses it or sends it off to a new home after she has drawn all of the inspiration she can. I used an old Simple Scrapbooks special issue magazine for most of these layouts, except this one:

 

Which was inspired by the Birthday Bash sketches at Creative Scrappers :

 A closer look at the other individual layouts:

                              

 

 

I still need to add journaling to this one:

 

 

Most of these layouts came from this kit: 

 

In non-scrappy news, we are dealing with the hustle and bustle of school ending, and we just got past our local spring Strawberry Festival:

 

The twins had to have candy apples:

 

I, on the other hand, "had to have" a red velvet funnel cake...because I have to try it if it is Red Velvet anything:

 

I have to say, though-it was soooo sweet!  I couldn't eat all of it, but that is probably a good thing. I will leave you for today with a selfie I snapped with Natalie:

 

And yes, I do realize my bra strap is showing, but, this is real life, and I only got one shot! I'll be back in the next day or two to share more of my crazy life and NSD productivity.

 

July Layout #20!!!

WooHoo! I can't believe I actually did it! I got 20 scrapbook pages done in July! I really didn't think I could get it done , since I am a sloooow scrapper (as in, I usually work all night on one page-and I only scrap in spurts, whenever inspiration strikes. I must admit that this layout is a complete and utter scraplift of the most recent cover of Scrapbooks, Etc. I had a photo that was very similar to the cover photo (this picture doesn't really do it justice, it looks much better in person). I used the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder to dry emboss the beach ball and the blue strip, and sprayed the beach ball with Pearl Glimmer Mist, and the blue strip with Sapphire Glimmer Mist. The title is made with red chipboard Thicker letters, mounted on a piece of Making Memories Noteworthy paper. I popped the beach ball up with left over sticky foam from Pop Dots (the negative sheet works too, why waste it!). The "orange slice" strip on the bottom is by Sassafrass Lass, the gemstones are from Making Memories, and I cut the photo corners and beach ball with my Cricut and SCAL. Thanks for the challenge to get some scrapping done, Lora!

Lindsay's Stamp Stuff Thursday (and I got more scrapping done!)

For this week's LSS post, I did another layout, since my goal was to complete 20 layouts in July. For the "Magic" LO, I used a photo of one of my twin girls at the carnival this past spring on the Merry-Go-Round. To me, there is nothing more "magical" than a carousel to a child- I still love them! Anyway, I embellished it with the Carousel digistamp from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff that I colored with colored pencils first, and then blended with baby oil and went back over the edges with some Copics for shading and blending. I then heat embossed the edges of the page with gold embossing powder, and inked the edges of the pink photo mat and chipboard letters with a couple of Copics.

For my "Playin in The Rain" pages, I cut the Rain Frog from MyScrapchick.com and the splat with my Cricut and SCAL, and the spotted blue paper is from GCD Studios.

The layout with our wedding photo is also on GCD Studios, and the edges of the photo mat are inked and the the edges are embellished with black vinyl Thickers.

The last layout is a quick one of my big girl, and I used one of the shopping bags digistamps from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff, cut one out, and colored and embellished it with a gel flower from Heidi Swapp, some Twistel type stuff for the handles, and cut out some flip flops with my Cricut which I embellished with beads and flower shaped rhinestones.The beach ball is a rub-on , that I colored also.

Now, head on over to the other designers' blogs to "Find the Freebie"!

Lindsay (owner)

Melissa B.

Melissa C.

Olena

Janet

Leanne

Row

Tracey

Tamara

Katt

Lisa

Kim

Erin Bailey (July Guest DT)

Girls, Girls, Girls! (July LO#14 for Lora's Challenge)

I've been scrappin' again! And of course, I scrapped some of my favorite subjects, my kiddos! This photo was taken of my little girls and myself on my birthday last year. I used Lora's beautiful cherry blossom svg freebie (Thank you Lora, it's beautiful!). I drew the dots in the center of the flowers with a black pen and accented the flowers with chalks and inks to vary the colors. It was the perfect accent to this paper from GCD Studios, and I also accented it with some Making Memories Vintage Findings (The metal heart and bingo card), and the journaling spot is from Anna Griffin. I have to say thank you to chelemom and Tracy from HappyDaisy, because the GCD Studios paper and the Vintage Findings paper are from their great blog candy packages that I won!

July LO's 11 and 12

Well, since I took Lora's challenge at the beginning of the month, I have been trying to get as many pages done as possible for the month of July. This is LO #11 and 12 for the month (which is really good for me- I am a SLOOOW, messy scrapper! I have to get every thing out to do one page- I don't know why. But it looks like a tornado hit the living room every time I scrap. I have to run around cleaning up before DH gets home. I based these layouts on some sketches that I missed from 52 Sketches, 52 Weeks. the "Sweet and Sassy" layout is based on Week 1 Sketch, and the Glam Goddess LO is from Week 13's Sketch. Of course, I used my Cricut! On "Sweet and Sassy, the title is from Graphically Speaking, the border is one of Paulo's fab borders, and a scalloped border (not sure where I got it) cut out using SCAL. The rocking horse is from Joys Of the Season, and I attached ric-rac for the mane and added Stickles to give it the look I wanted.

The flowers are a combination of Primas and flowers from The Paper Studio, and are attached with Brads by Making Memories. The Patterned Cardstock is Nana's Nursery Girls Stack.

For the Glam Goddess page, I used the title svg from Tamara's blog, another scalloped svg file I had, paper/cardstock from Glitz Designs (Hot Mama collection), Wasau paper, Glitter Stack by DCWV, and a scrap piece of iridescent vellum to go under the title. I added Primas that I inked with a silver Martha Stewart inkpad, and attached with a Making Memories Glitter brad.

Lindsay's Stamp Stuff Thursday

For today's Lindsay's Stamp Stuff Post, we were challenged to use this sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches , since Lindsay is sponsoring it this week and giving away 10 digistamps to the winner!

Since I am trying to get as many layouts done as possible for the month of July, I thought I would adapt the sketch for a scrapbook page instead of a card this week. I loved the Layered Waterlily digistamp, and I thought it would go perfectly with the froggy I paper pieced for this layout. I colored it mostly with Bic Mark-Its, and used my Copic colorless blender over the whole thing. The patterned paper is by Tinkering Ink (Blur Collection-perfect for little boy Layouts.

Now head on over to the other designers blogs to see what they have to show you today (one of them has an awesome free digistamp from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff for you):

Lindsay (owner)

Melissa C

Row
Melissa B

Tamara

Leanne

Olena

Lisa

Katt

Tracey

Kim

Janet

Erin Bailey (July Guest DT)

And don't forget, for the entire month of July, Lindsay has a sale, spend $5, get a free digistamp of your choice. Go check it out!

Layout for the new PageMaps Contest

I am loving cherries right now (especially this great 2 Cherries digistamp from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff for only $1.00!). I decided to use these for this birthday layout that I did for the newest sketch challenge at the Page Maps blog. I mixed the cherries with some more stuff that I love right now- Jenni Bowlin chipboard buttons, gingham paper and ribbons, flowers and Stickles! Oh, and of course I had to use my Cricut a little bit! The green flourish behind the cherries is from the Accent Essentials cartridge. And it's another page for July, for Lora's scrapbooking challenge.

Play (July LO#5)

Woohoo! I am rockin and rollin! I rarely get so many pages done in one week! This LO combined The challenges over at 52 Sketches, 52 Weeks, One Little Word (JOY), and How Much Is Too Much (Paint the Town Red). There is nothing that says "Joy" to me more than a child blowing bubbles on a spring day. For "Paint the Town Red", We were to have red in the photo (the bricks), the paper (patterned paper and red mulberry paper), and the embellies(the journaling tags and letter stickers). The patterned paper is from a Me And My Big Ideas stack-it is flocked and yummy! I cut the circles (bubbles) from my Cricut and Plantain Schoolbook cart, 2 out of light blue vellum, and one out of iridescent vellum. The Title is Making Memories Puffy Alphas, and the journaling spots are stickers from MM's 5th Avenue Collection. Oh, and since I got another page done, that's another entry in Lora's Challenge too!

Laugh and Play Layout-and another free SVG

My second page for this month's challenge from Lora (thescrapbooklady) to GET Some Pages DONE! This page is made using a butterfly paper lace pattern that I found on the sure cuts alot forum at Craft Edge, and a full page bracket SVG that can be downloaded for free HERE. The butterfly was cut from my Storybook cartridge, and I sprayed the flowers and butterfly using Glimmer Mist. The butterfly wasn't sparkly enough for me, so I added glitter and Stickles.Thanks for looking!

Project 365

Ok... about Project 365. The whole idea, at least for me is to practice and improve my photography by taking at least one photo a day, recording our day to day life in the process.

Here are the photos I have taken so far and a bit about them.

Jan1:
Mexican cornbread:I never had it before I met my husband, but now I have to have it ; with chili, with Ham and Beans, and today, with our traditional New Year's Day dinner of Ham, Cabbage, and Potatoes, and blackeyed peas on the side for good luck. The trick with cornbread is not to over mix it. You'll kill the baking powder/soda. After you add the wet ingredients to the dry ones, just stir with a spoon until blended. And a well seasoned cast iron skillet, preheated in the oven and sprayed with cooking spray or buttered is key also. Yum,Yum!

Jan2:

Hot Oatmeal (Playing With Photoshop):I thought I would play with Photoshop a little bit to make this photo "more exciting". My girls LOVE oatmeal (with a little milk, butter, and brown sugar of course!). I used the diffuse glow filter on this photo. I love how it softens it! This would be great for Christmas morning photos, I think! After I gave Natalie the oatmeal, she said,"Pease can you open the window?" "Why?" I said. She replies, "'Cause I want my oatmeal to cool down!" I guess you can't argue with that logic, huh?

Jan3:

Holiday Returns: I had a pj set from Old Navy that I got for Christmas, but it was too big for me, so I returned it and got this sweater.

Jan 4:

The Sunday morning newspaper: reading the paper with Eric on Sunday morning is one of my favorite things to do. I always enjoy this special time with my hubby if we get the chance to spend a little time chatting before the kids get up, drinking coffee and reading the paper together (truthfully, though, he usually drinks coffee and I usually have a Cherry Coke Zero). We missed this week though, cause he had to spend the night at his parents, helping with his mother. But I went in and had breakfast with them.

Jan5:

And it's back to school for the kiddos! Natalie and Cecilia wanted to wear my gloves (they each grabbed a pair,then said, "Ha ha, none for you!" Little stinkers!