Happy Birthday Gavin!!

My oldest is Seven today!! Man this past year has really flown by. Seven years ago today I was writhing in pain!!! 25 hours of pain, to be exact. He finally decided to make his entrance into the world at 8:02 pm, by C-section. The party is over...the cake and ice cream are devoured...the new toys are being put to good use. Happy Birthday my sweet boy!!!

Beate's Challenge!!

Yes I am a sucker for Blog Candy...especially when it comes to Beate's Candy!!! My stamping HERO!!! Beate posted a challenge layout for her blog candy. This time for 200K hits!!! Can you believe it!! I can...she's amazing!! Anyway, here is my take!!

Images are by Papertreyink!! I am so in love with Nichole right now!! I wait with baited breath each month to see what she comes up with next!!

Ice Stickles were applied to the butterfly to make her shimmer. I big HUGE shout out to Valerie Stangle. She posted to her blog a bow tying video...I am now tying perfect bows!! Yeah Val!!!

Remembering the Locks

I am very partial to "furry" kids. All of my children were born with gorgeous heads of dark hair. My son had hair, that according to my hairdresser, "girls die for!" She informed me that she tell girls wanting perms or color to wait until they are 12-14 years old, so they have *mature* hair. Why did she tell me this? Because at 10 months Gavin could have had a perm. His hair has always been so thick. I joke with him and tell him that we called him Elvis for the first six weeks of his life, because he had so much hair. Including the mutton chop side burns!! These pictures were taken at only Five months...so you can see where we were headed. I love this layout the moment I saw it. It is one of Becky Higgins Sketches. I love how she shows different interpretations of the same sketch.

Gavin will be seven in a few weeks...my how time flies....

CD case used for Ink pads

I have had several emails and queries as to what my inkpads are stored in. It is a CD case by Caselogic. 48 SU! ink pads will fit into one case. The case sits on it's side. 4 Jewel Cases are need to separate and hold the ink pads in place. I purchase this from HERE. They seem to have the best price. Fast shipping also. Hope this helps.

I LOVE YOU!!!!!!

I am in tears right now!!!! I don't know who you are but I truly LOVE YOU!! Why am I crying? Because I have the most fabulous friends in the world!!! You see, I was invited to go to a stamping retreat in August. A group of friends went last year, while I stayed at home and looked at pictures. I have been saving to go this year because I vowed to myself that I was not going to miss going a second year in a row!! I received and email from Piney today...

I just wanted to let you know that your retreat fee has been paid for you by one of your shistahs (and don't ask, because I won't tell you who it was )

See!!! Don't I have the most wonderful friends. She told me not to ask, so I won't but I want to say a HUGE THANK YOU!! I wish I could thank you properly!!! You know who you are.....Please feel my arms wrapping around you very tightly!!!!

Note to Self....

do not attempt one of these at a large scale stamp camp!!! They take entirely too long!!! I think it was the cutting that got everyone. They "frame" is really quite simple to make. Of course you can find a great tutorial for these Diorama Cards on SCS.

For this, I used Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue and Almost Amethyst, just like Beate's toot. Stamping was done with my all time favorite stamp set, Natural Beauty. I don't know why that is my favorite. I can't decide if it is because of the images, or because it was given to me at my first Regional as a demo. I love to watercolor these images. Watercolor Wonder Crayons and an aquapainter is all you need. Well...at least that is my medium of choice.

Cute as a Bug!!

That's my little Lauren. I can't believe how chunky she was!! Double chin and all!! She is so tall and thin right now, you wouldn't believe it was the same person!

For this layout I used one of the SCS Scrapbook Sketch Challenges. Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, and Yo-Yo Yellow were used, as well as retired DS paper, from the Sweet collection. I had the ladybug left over from Lauren's first birthday invite, seen here. I only wish I would have done the title a little different, but oh well. Can't change that now. Can you tell I'm still having fun with mom's Cricut?!? I hate to see it go!! The Joyful one is fixing that problem for me though!!

Back to work tomorrow!! It will not be a fun day. Monday's are always rough, not to mention that we are short staffed right now, and I have to work by myself !! Maybe there weren't very many babies born this weekend! A girl can dream right?!?