Somebody had a birthday!!

My little girlie turned 7!  Wha??  Really??  Wasn't I just pregnant with her??  Wasn't my family just making bets on whether she would arrive on Christmas or New Year's Eve??  Geesh.  The time is sailing by.  Anyway...she had a pretty good day.  She wanted her presents under the tree so she could pretend it was Christmas morning again.  So I wrapped her little presents and stuck them under the tree and seh came out the next morning all kinds of ready to open her gifts.  She was so cute with her sleepy eyes trying to wake up and her hair all tosseed around.  And she finally got some earrings (that Santa didn't bring...darn Santa) and that Holiday Barbie that she wanted!!  Yay!!  I have to say...Holiday Barbie's presentation was pretty cool.   It had these "floating" snowflakes in the box and you know I had to save those!  I actually used one of them for a project...I'll be sharing that in a minute.  Anyway...this Holiday Barbie was standing there on our ottoman and she was looking pretty sassy with the natural light shining on her so I snapped a picture...is that weird??  Now come on...doesn't she look sassy??  {hehe!!}  

Okay...so on to the project that I mentioned.  Sassafras Lass (yummy) is having a little contest.   All you have to do is go to their blog and download a super-cute diorama and create something with it to have the chance to win the uber cute new "Life at the Pole" line.  Well...I had big plans of creating a fabulous shadow box scene but then...life happened and I ended up making a little ornament instead.  I still like it though. :)  I used a really cute snowy paper from Dianne Rigdon's Christmas in Your Heart kit for the background and just cut it to fit and adhered it to a CD.  Then I put my pieces together and fancied them up a bit with some red and Stardust Stickles.  And when I first saw this cute little project, I thought it was just screaming for felt so I cut some little whimsical trees out of a scrap piece of felt and tacked them on.  Then I just used my Cropadile to make the hole and threaded some scrap ribbon through it.  And finally...I added that cute little floating snowflake that I mentioned to the bottom just for fun. 

 It's super simple but I think it cute. ;)  Isn't that just the cutest line of scrappy goodies ever??  

And...I have one more little project to share.  It's a layout that I did for Traci's team featuring...of course, our new puppy!! :)  

She is the hardest dog in the world to photograph!!  As soon as she sees that camera, she comes running.  Typical.  :)  So this is the only decent picture I have of her so far.  Hopefully she'll get accustomed to the camera and I'll be able to get some more soon...hopefully.  So there you have it...that's what we've been up to lately.  How about you??  Anyone else giving the Sassafras Lass contest a try??  I know Leah created something fabulous!  (I got a little peek...hehe!!)  Good luck to everyone that's entering!  Thanks for stopping by!! 

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A Great Big Ball of Christmas Love! :)

Awww...isn't she precious??? That's our family Christmas present!! She's our newest family member...an eight-week old Newfoundland puppy. When I was growing up, we had a malamute/newfoundland mix named Rex and I have always wanted a full-blooded Newfie. They're such a beautiful breed and just a perfect match for a family....so sweet, loving, and loyal. Anyway, I have apparently hinted (okay..whined) about getting a Newfie long enough that DH finally said, "You're not going to be happy until you get one." What he really meant was..."you're not going to shut up until I buy one!" LOL!! So...we went to look at her on Sunday and I knew I would fall in love with her instantly but so did DH. And of course the kids wanted to take her home immediately. But we got everything ready and DH brought her home yesterday. Our house is in shambles...crates and newspapers everywhere but we just love her to death. Her name is Bailey and she is spoiled rotten already. She is currently asleep on hubby's shoes in the kitchen. Aww...a Christmas puppy...what could be cuter???

And I do have a couple hybrid projects to share. I've probably mentioned this before but I just love Dianne Rigdon's Christmas in Your Heart digital kit. So...I've been playing with it some more. We had a few of those giant Hershey bars in our cupboard so I decided to make a wrapper for it. Can you believe that this is the first time I've attempted a candy bar wrapper?? That seems to be one of the first projects that digi scrappers tackle but...I guess I'm just a little slow. :) Here's how it turned out:

It's already been opened and eaten, by the way! {hehe!!} And I did a hybrid layout. I kept it pretty simple. I love this background paper so I just added an extracted photo of my mom pulling Sydney and Maddie on the sled and a heart and some wings for the digital part. I printed it and then added a bunch of stickles for the snow and some stickles on the heart and wings. Then I just added my own little letter stickers topped with some red stickles. Here's how it turned out:

I thought it was pretty cool that Mom, Syd, and Maddie had snow clothes on that went so well with the paper!! :) So that's my little Christmas eve post. I want to wish each and every one of you a blessed and wonderful Christmas day!! I hope you are able to spend it with the ones you love!! Merry Christmas everyone!!

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Prepare yourself...lots o' layouts!! :)

Okay...I've been promising some new layouts...you guys thought I was lying, didn't you?? :) Well, I finally got around to uploading some!! So let me stop blabbling and here we go!!! I did a couple new projects using Jodie McNally's word art...here's one of Jesse playing in the snow...And here's my Christmas card for this year...I just loved this picture of my kiddos from this summer. They actually looked natural, not those big cheesy smiles...you know the ones I mean. {hehe!}

Ooo...Dianne Rigdon has a gorgeous new Christmas kit over at Scrap Artist called Christmas in Your Heart...love it! I thought it was perfect for this picture of my Dad's tree that he decorates every year...it's SOOOO pretty. It's the first Christmas decoration that go up around here so it definitely signifies the start of the holiday season for us. Anyway...here's my layout:

And I have a few AC Bailey DT projects that I haven't shared yet. I snapped this cute little picture of my nieces adorable red shoes this summer when she took them off to run through the sprinkler. Had to do a layout with that picture, right??

Tired of layouts yet??? Almost done. ;) My son finally got the electric guitar that he's been wanting forever and look...he actually let me take some pictures of him with it!! Can you believe it?? (And he is rockin' that guitar...he's picking it up so quickly!! I'm so proud and impressed!!)

And I haven't forgotten how to play with paper...I did a hybrid layout using some of the new Crate paper Lemon Grass collection. And I have to admit...I am LOVING those puffy Thickers!

And finally...I made a couple new layouts for Traci. She has a fun new kit called "vroom" with lots of fun little cars and cute little papers and for some reason, the first thing I thought of when I saw it was my hubby's first Dodge Ram Quad Cab. {teehee!}

Last one, I promise!!! Traci has some new Christmas-y goodies in the store!! I love that she included orange in her kit!! (And I have to thank my friend and fellow ACB DT member, Becky, for the inspiration on this layout...thank you becky!!!)

*whew!!!* You made it through the whole thing!! Kudos!!! :) So there you have it...just some of the things that I've been up to lately. I hope everyone is having a great time getting ready for the holidays. Thanks for stopping by and letting me overload you with layouts!! Have a great evening!!

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For Him...

I've been away from my blog for quite a bit and I struggled with whether I should make this post or not. But I finally decided that I needed to. On the morning of November 29th, I got a phone call from my dad telling me that one of our family members had passed away. My cousin, Robbie Lyons, died at his home...peacefully. The doctors said that he just went to sleep and felt no pain. But as you can imagine, this has really torn our hearts out. He leaves behind his son, Levi...he loved that boy so much! They were constantly going fishing or to Six Flags...Robbie was a bit of a kid himself. :) He was such a kind soul. He always greeted everyone with a big, genuine smile and a hug. I don't remember a time that I saw him when he didn't have a hug for me. So I just wanted to make a post in honor of him. The picture of Robbie and his family (mother, father, sisters, nieces, nephews) is from our family reunion last year. (Robbie is the one on the right with the curly hair and glasses and his arm around Levi.) He will be missed by all that knew him. I'll be back tomorrow with some layouts to share. Thank you for letting me share a little bit about Robbie!!

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Did someone say...snow??

It's been a while since my last post and yep...we got some snow. Not as much as they were calling for...only about five inches or so. But it has pretty much been snowing every day for a week. And today...we're under a winter weather advisory. It's pouring down but they're only calling for about seven inches. I don't know...if it keeps this up, I'm thinking we might get that and then some. I haven't taken any pictures today because it's snowing so hard that it just looks like fog with a few flakes mixed in so I can't get anything to turn out decent. But I did snap a couple shots from our last snow before it got dark.
That's what it looked like when it started but then we got most of our snow through the night. It sure was pretty.

Okay...enough snowy talk. Those of you that know me know that I'm not much of a card maker...they scare me. But I started playing around with some digital goodies from Dianne Rigdon and I made a couple cards...a digi one, then I printed the digi one and added a few things, and then I made another hybrid one. So I thought I'd share!

This is how my digital card ended up...

And then I printed it out and added some Stardust Stickles to the snow and decorations and, of course, I had to add a little star, right?? It's hard to see the sparkle but it's there...I promise!

And then I printed some digital papers from Dianne and cut out some funky little triangles and added some stickles (surprise) and some Dimension pearls for the snow. The journaling spot is from Pink Paislee. Not sure about this one but I still wanted to share it:

I have one more thing to share...I think it's my latest favorite digital layout. I used a bunch of different kits to make this layout even though it looks pretty simple. My daughter just loves this page so that makes it even more special, right?? So here it is:

I just love being able to make something with such a magical and dreamy feel to it. And I had such a good time putting this one together...except for all those little eyelets that I used to make the chains. I wanted to make the LO 100% Dianne Rigdon so I extracted a few eyelets from a journaling mat and put them together and duplicated it to make the chain. That was not so fun. {hehe} So that's what's been going on in my little world...snow and scrapping. Thanks for stopping by!! :)

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We've Been Warned...

Our area is under a winter storm warning from 2 o'clock this afternoon through 6 pm tomorrow evening and the snow has already been pouring down. The kids were so excited when I told them this morning. Of course they're hoping for the first snow day of the year tomorrow. We'll see!!
So, I mentioned in my last post that I had some exciting news to share so I probably should spill it already, right?? Here it is...I am the newest member of the Traci Murphy Designs Creative Team!! I'm a Rockstar!! (hehe...that's what her CT blinkies say...always wanted to be a rockstar!! ) My friend, Leah totally hooked me up with the gig so a big ol' THANK YOU to Leah!! And I'm still on Jodie's team even though my term was supposed to be up at the end of October...she extended it for us through the end of November. I can't believe that it's almost over! It just flew by! I have another LO for her team to share but I have to wait until tomorrow. But...I made my first layouts for Traci and wanted to share those!! My first one was made with Traci's part of the November Collaboration Kit at Funky Playground Designs:

And for the second one, I used the "Wishes and Wonders" kit that she designed with Kathyrn Wilson.

So there you have it...my big debut for Traci's team!! And can you tell I'm lovin' those brushes from Obsidian Dawn?? Sydney just loved seeing herself with those wings. Fun, fun!!I do have a layout that I made for Jodie that I can share...I used the Oscraps Parsian Holiday kit which features Jodie's fabulous word art for this one:

I'll be back later to upload my other layout and hopefully I'll have some pictures of some big, fluffy snow to share, too!! {hehe!} That's all for now...thanks for letting me share!! And thanks for stopping by!!!

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cold. It's just cold.

Ever have one of those days where you just seem to be chilled through for no reason?? It's cold outside but it's not one of those bitter cold days but for some reason, I have been cold all day. I had my fireplace on briefly while the kids were getting ready for school but that's the only time I've actually felt nice and toasty today. Oh well...just wanted to whine a little. {hehe!}

So...I've been doing a little playing with some new, fun digital goodies. I downloaded a really lovely kit from Dianne Rigdon called "In the Gloaming" the other night. I honestly had just planned on downloading it, unzipping it, and heading for bed. But...once I got a good luck at everything...oh dear. I just had to play before I shut my computer down!! So I put together this layout of my niece, Maddie.

(I should mention that the wing brushes were downloaded from Obsidian Dawn.) And, as part of my design team responsibilities at AC Bailey, I used a sketch that fellow DT member, Brandy, whipped up for us to make this card (I made the card digitally using Digital Scrapbook Memories "Family Ties" CD and then printed it out):

And earlier this year, I took part in a photo-a-day challenge and I've been thinking about creating a photobook using some of the pictures that I snapped during that month. Jodie McNally has some really fun photography word art in her store and I thought they would be perfect for the book. So I made this layout and I'm thinking it's probably going to be the cover of the book:

And finally, I bought a wonderful new collaboration kit by Corina Nielsen and Krystal Hartley (what a pairing, right?!) and I just had to make a layout just for me:

I snapped that picture of our yard this summer and I just came across it and decided to put together a LO about it...is that weird?? I'm looking forward to some pretty snowfalls this winter but I always miss my summertime and the green lushness that goes with it.

So that's what I've been up to lately. And...I have some news to share as soon as I get the okay to do so...stay tuned!! (I'm so excited!!) I hope everyone's having a great evening!! Thanks for stopping by!! Ta for now!!

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