Our Little Kinder-gator {Basic Grey: Out of Print; Birds of a Feather August Kit}

Last week my oldest started Kindergarten and I couldn't be more proud of her! She was so brave about going and didn't hesitate a bit ;-) The school district's mascot is a Gator, so I played on Kindergartener to be Kinder-gator for the title. I fully expect that next year I'll use "First Gator" instead of "First Grader" :-)

I was inspired by Lisa's layout that you can see here as well as the layouts in this post. I really need to look into a better tool to distress the cardstock...

 This is for the August color challenge at Birds of a Feather and is made of products that are from the August kit! Thanks for looking :)

Our Everyday Life {Birds of a Feather Kit Co: February Kit; Lily Bee Lovely Collection}

Amy challenged us to take a portrait this month and this is what *I* consider to be a good portrait of my girls. I tried getting a shot of them both looking at the camera, but the little one just doesn't do it unless her finger is up her nose! lol But to me, this perfectly represents how I see my girls, hand in hand :)

 My older daughter is my "little mommy" so this quote was perfect for our life right now, and this picture. When I asked her to take her sister's hand and walk, she jumped at the opportunity "sure, mom!"

 I used sketch #74 at Inspired Blueprints for this layout.

This week has been so fun to see how the girls interact now that they are not spending 24 hours a day together. They really enjoy each other's company and made it a point to be together tonight - I hope their friendship continues on this path!

Love Her! {Cosmo Cricket: Togetherness}

I just adore the Togetherness line from Cosmo Cricket... the kite paper, the clouds, the butterflies...they are so much fun! So I've had the digital line on my wishlist for a while and when it came up on sale for $1 this week at Jessica Sprague...I finally indulged! And then I got to work right away with a template from Jessica Sprague as well (I used #26 for this). It is totally free to download! 

I entered it into this month's Cosmo Cricket challenge at scrapbook.com to use more than one photo. There is still time to enter a layout to have a chance at winning the prize this month!

Smurf*tastic {My Mind's Eye: Alphabet Soup, Fine and Dandy}

This layout is inspired by two things I saw online....the current sketch at Inspired Blueprints and a sneak of a layout using the sew easy tool. 

 I had the pennant head for my sew easy tool but hadn't used it yet. The sketch was perfect for it! I had lots of fun with this layout and love how it turned out :) I even remembered to use a movie ticket stub! The pictures are of my daughter and her friend from one of those photo booths...I had forgotten my camera so indulged their request to take the pictures there and I'm so glad I did!

Thanks for looking :)

P.S. I just realized the dot to the "i" is missing in the title! Must have flown off while I was taking pictures, lol.

Family Moment {My Mind's Eye: Alphabet Soup}

I created this layout for this week's challenge at The Paper Variety - to add threads to your layout. Not a hard one for me since most of my layouts have some sort of stitching now! I stitched a border around the patterned paper and also some zig zag stitching on the embellie cluster in the upper left.

The green flower is another one of those silk flowers that Kayla sent me - it was perfect! The layout itself is a little plain to me, but I didn't want to add anything else since there are so many photos. The Paper Variety is having a birthday celebration soon - can't wait!

For the love of Pinterest! {Meet the Teacher Gift Ideas}

I was a skeptic of Pinterest for a long time. Not sure why! But I've totally turned around now and love that it's my one stop place for inspiration for craft projects. After just a few minutes, I knew I wanted to do something like this for a beginning of the year gift for my daughter's kindergarten teacher. (They even provide a free file for you to download to make the tag!)

2 shopping trips later, this is what I came up with:

 The little monogram tag came 20 to a pack so I can use them all year....both the teacher's first AND last name start with B and so does my daughter's :-) So I will have no trouble using the tags. Since I am low on printer ink, I went with the tag and some mixed alphas to get this:

 The bucket is filled with Ghirardelli mint chocolate (on sale!), peppermints and mint gum. I personally do NOT like mint but I hope she will enjoy at least one of the three!

Next up... when I saw this, I knew I wanted to make a card that looks like this:

Yes, I had the exact papers and they were just scraps so it worked perfect for a card instead of the box!

My daughter wanted to help but I was being selfish, so I let her write a note to her teacher :)

I hope she likes them, I know I had lots of fun making them!

Alllllmost done! {Little Yellow Bicycle: Baby Safari}

I finally had the urge to finish the first year album for my youngest. I haven't done a layout in oh, say over a year? I did really good with her album, stayed up to date till the end when she started moving ;) This is what I came up with for month 11:

As I was working on it, I realized it was almost the same colors in this week's color challenge at The Paper Variety:

I didn't think it had enough yellow though, and too much pink. So for month 12, I really tried to concentrate on using mainly green, orange and yellow.  I couldn't avoid the pink though! 

All I have left for this album is the back page -a picture of her 1 year photo shoot. As soon as I get that done, I'll recap the whole album...I can't wait! Thanks for looking :-) 

Rainy Day {Erica Zane: Imagine If}

My friend, Jill, bought me a couple of digital goodies this weekend as a belated birthday present. The timing was perfect as I'd just seen this kit released last week but would not allow myself any purchases. But there is a rainbow...and clouds...and rain!!!!!!! So, as soon as I downloaded the kit, I got to work. This is what I came up with.

I used a free template from Jessica Sprague's Template Tuesdays. The only thing not in the kit was the tag which is also designed by Erica Zane and part of my gift :) I had so much fun with this one! I didn't include a title because, well, I guess I felt like it didn't need one. The journaling is a quote I found from googling: "Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain" Thanks to Jill for the kits AND answering a bazillion questions this week about digital scrapping :)

Kudos to Tattered Angels & EK Success {Viva Pink,Embossed Curve Edger Punch}

Shortly after I finished my June Project 12 layout, this punch:

which I use on every Project 12 layout (for 2011 at least) stopped working correctly. It had been jamming off and on but after another layout, completely jammed! I even had to get my husband involved ;-) I contacted EK Success and they very quickly responded to me and sent me a replacement punch! I love great customer service!! I even had it in time to finish my July layout :-)

Not a week later, I decided to try my hand at misting again. I pulled out the few colors I have and discovered that my Viva Pink Glimmer Mist had turned BROWN! The original version of mine is on the right in the next two pictures. 

I again contacted the manufacturer, Tattered Angels, and they also sent me a replacement. Totally hassle free! And now that I have the true Viva Pink again, I don't feel so crazy or color blind! ;-) What a great industry this is and these two companies showed me great customer service! I often complain about the cost of punches and mists, but knowing that I can get them replaced hassle free if a problem comes up makes the sticker shock a little less shocking.

First House {Pink Paislee: Twilight, My Mind's Eye: The Spider's Web}

I created this challenge for the August sketch challenge at Birds of A Feather. Here is the sketch:

And I saw that Janet made hers into a 8.5x11 layout so I decided to copy her ;)

Of course now I see her little strip on the right and wish I would have done that too! But this is what I came up with:

I'm already looking forward to fall weather and deciding on what the girls will be. Can't wait for the first house this year!

Thanks for looking...I'll be back tomorrow to brag on some manufacturers! :)

Cute girls {Basic Grey: Olivia}

I created today's layout for a challenge over at Birds of a Feather...to scraplift a layout from the gallery. 

Janet lifted Kayla here:

I really liked BOTH layouts and I had a couple of photos that needed scrapping so I lifted both of their layouts. Can you see a bit of both in mine? ;)

The tag says "I might be biased, but I think these are a couple of cute girls". Thanks to Janet & Kayla for the inspiration :)

July Project 12 {Pretty Little Studio: April Showers}

I've been having lots of fun playing with the Pretty Little Studio papers! For the month of August, if you complete a sketch challenge, you are automatically going to receive a $5 gift card - go check it out, they have one per week!  I won a $5 gift card two times now and with just a few extra bucks, I've gotten all of the pattern paper & tags used on this layout. (Do I need to mention that I have tons left over?) The only thing not from PLS is the cardstock. 

 The left side. My oldest daughter told me I should add "rain drops" with my glimmer glam, and upon my husbands approval I decided to go for it. I think I went a little too crazy but this is one of those things that can't be undone! I fussy cut those umbrellas, trying to make it like a banner. If I had just a few more of them, i would have taken the banner to the edge of the cardstock ;)

 And the right side. I don't think you can read my journaling on the little tag, but July was a month of rain for us after a 6 month drought! It wasn't much rain, but enough to make us happy :)

 I had to include a closeup of this picture. My youngest daughter avoids bedtime like any 2 year old. But she'll play possum for a while and then walk out with her blanket on her head. Not sure how she sees to walk so far out without hurting herself, but it sure is cute :)