In a Thankful Mood…

The previous week and this weekend have been so wonderful…. although I did not think so while the week was passing by! Like yesterday (Friday), my DH had to leave early for a business trip and so it was just me getting the boys ready for school, which usually is not a big challenge at all. For the most part the boys know what they need to do and with a little prompting they get everything done with plenty of time to spare before we have to leave for school. WELL let me tell ya that yesterday was NOT a day that a LITTLE prompting would do. OH NO. It took momma almost reaching the breaking point for them to even get dressed, let a lone brush teeth, do their ONE CHORE EACH, or even eat breakfast. SO as I am standing at the kitchen sink filling their juice cups and counting/lecturing myself to calm down for the umpteenth time and trying not to freak out at how late we are running, I look out the window and see THE MOST AMAZING sunrise. God’s way of telling me to slow down, enjoy the moments, see the beauty, cherish your children. So I have been trying to really SLOW DOWN and to CHERISH all the wonderful (and not so wonderful) moments with our precious gifts.

So this evening as I am puttering around in my craft room I begin to get ideas for cards, LO’s and wall hangings that are inspired by the sunset that I saw yesterday morning. And the Just Noted kit from Scraptastic is absolutely perfect! It has so many of the same colors as the sunrise AND it is just perfect for the pages that I am seeing in my ever spinning mind

One of the pages that I created tonight is based on this sketch by Heather Landry that is also the 4th September Challenge for the Scraptastic Club.

The colors of the paper and the sketch really clicked for me. I am going to use this LO along with several others that I have already created to document my mom and our family’s  journey through breast cancer. She is an amazing woman who inspires all of us to achieve our dreams, especially when that dream is as simple as wanting to just be able to find the energy to hang out one load of laundry. Mom is a force that cannot be stopped!

 

I also made this card for the 1st Scraptastic September challenge. I used a PageMaps CardMaps sketch and the new Bo Bunny paper. I so LOVE this paper…and I am very much ready for the fall colors to start showing in nature!

 

 

 

 

I hope each and everyone of you can stop and see the beauty and enjoy all the moments. Life is precious and passes to quickly.

Stacey

CROPPED Challenge #5

I can’t believe that the CROPPED Event is coming to a close! It has been such a fun weekend Although I am starting to really miss my little guys and big guy… which is only intensified by the sounds of them goofing off upstairs and/or outside. So I do have to admit that while I have stayed logged into the Ustream the whole time Megan has been On Air, I have not actually been sitting here in front of my laptop…or even in the basement for that matter. I just am not able to stay sitting that long! I blame my mother for that as she is not one to let the moss gather under her feet and has passed that on to me

So this last challenge was to use ONLY PAPER and ADHESIVE. I cannot tell you how super excited I was when it was announced! That is totally how I scrap!!! WHOOHOOO! Until I realized that that is how I USED to scrap. You know, before I started getting all these super fantastically awesome kits that have all these super fantastic embellishments that, looking back at my most recent LO’s, I apparently can’t scrap without! Hmmm…is it panic time? Can I go back to scrapping the “old way”? Yes, yes I can! And this is what I came up with:

I used the Simple Stories 100 days of Summer kit. I absolutely adore Simple Stories.  They truly make preserving memories simple!

I did some fussy cutting with my exacto knife to make the paper act as embellishment and to give the LO some POW/POP factor.

                    

I really like how the cut-outs pull your eyes to the photos.

 

 

The pictures that I used are from throughout our summer of fun and adventure. And since there can be no journaling (because you cannot use anything except paper and adhesive) I will add the journaling later After all the whole reason for scrapbooking (to me) is to preserve not only the memories caught on photos but also the story that is behind all those photos!

Enjoy!

Stacey

CROPPED Event Challenge #4

The challenge is “use at least 7 circle and the color teal”.

I had the perfect piece of background paper for this from a Sraptastic kit along with all the embellies and washi tape. I used stamps from My Creative Time and inks from Megan Elizabeth.

This LO is all about my beautiful mom. She is fighting breast cancer and it has been a HUGE learning experience for all of us. We are not dwelling on the **scary** we are celebrating the miracles. And there have been many!

 

So these pictures are of my mom, dad, and baby brother and sis-in-law. The pictures tell the story but I do plan to add more journaling…after this post! I will share the pictures but the story is ours. Hope you understand

 

 

The super uber cute hat that mom is wearing was given to her by my Grandmother and I LOVE it! I would totally wear it…in fact I am trying to find my own just so I can

This experience has taught all of us to slow down, look around, and really see all the wonder that this world has to offer, and enjoy all the moments!

Stacey

Cropped Event 3rd challenge

this is the subway art that I came up with!

This was a fun challenge to do and I got it done in just ONE HOUR!!! Megan announced the challenge….and then it was supper time and anyone with boys knows that YOU DO NOT MAKE BOYS WAIT FOR FOOD!!! Soooo Daddy to the rescue with Gambino’s pizza! I love that man!

So IF you saw this post before I edited it, you know that it was just a title, pic and the short blurb under the pic. Let me tell ya, uploading this pic was NOT easy! I got the challenge done in plenty of time, so I ran upstairs to refill my cup of coffee, came back down to take the pic with my phone and get it uploaded. BUT my phone was D.E.A.D. I ran back upstairs to get the charger…and I knew right where it was (yeah me!), came back down plugged the phone in, waited…waited…waited some more for it to FINALLY boot up (dang android) then took the pic. Uploaded it to facebook (because I thought that would be easier than posting a blog), copied the URL and added it to the linky. Wheew done with 10 minutes to spare….ummm where did the ustream go? ummm why is this pic to actually loading….UMMM, OH CRUD, it kicked me out and now I can’t find my password to get back in. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Tore the craft room apart trying to find that dang password on a really HUGE sheet of paper, looked at the clock, 1 minute before dead line. Forget the password, gotta get this pic uploaded NOW and I don’t need to password so Title, pic, short blurb…copy URL, paste, type in name, and send. ***big sigh*** made it. And there, sticking out of the notebook that sits right beside my laptop is that dang sheet of paper with my password on it. REALLY??!!?

Okay so even with all the “drama” (all on my end) tonight was fun. Participating in a Cyper-Crop is way better for me. No one will comment on how much coffee I drink (well, okay maybe my DH as I trudge up the stairs to make a 3rd pot of coffee), I have ALL of my tools with me, I can have crazy hair and no make-up on, and best of all no one can SEE how crazy I really get when crafting…and I loose a password…and have too much caffeine in my blood stream…or too little blood in my caffeine stream Ah Well. Tonight was fun. And I will be joining CROPPED 2012 again tomorrow…with a little less caffeine (and drama??).

Stacey