Bring it on...We're Ready

My Mom's Anniversary is Today!

4x6 layouts 5 more

Here's another set of 5 on my holiday layouts.

Hot Lunch

Zander has been cold lunch (lunch from home) since Kindergarten. He is in the 3rd grade mine you...He shocked me one day when he said he wanted to be hot lunch! They were having Pizza and he said he would TRY IT! So I had to take his picture. Luckily I was there working lunchroom so I ran to get my camera and snapped these real quick. They are the best pictures but I have proof he was hot lunch!

Credit: Papers by Summer Simmons, Oriental handbag...see post a few below for link.

Frame work & ribbons: Shandy Vogt Design

Flowers: Krystal Hartley

My nephew

This my littlest nephew Zayden & my mom's dog Duchess. Paper is from Polkadotpotato.com

The Layout template is from ShandyVogtDesigns.com To see the name of the paper and a link to the source...scroll down a few posts!

more 4x6 layouts

Here are 5 more pages of my 20. I have to post them in clusters of 5 per day. Sorry. But it gives me something to post for you to see each day!

4x6 layouts

Here are a few more of my 20 layouts that I did with our Christmas Season photos for 2007!

Used only Krystal Hartley papers. Used the Frosty Happiness kit....don't you all just love it!!! TELL HER!!! She "MIGHT" just decide they need to be available for sale on her blog!

And added a paper from Scents of the Season

(HINT HINT HINT Shake shake shake....knock knock....anyone listening?! ) LOL

Thank you Hero!

I got these paper packs at Polkadotpotato with my Design Team Gift!

Summer Simmons: Oriental Handbag
and
Summer Simmons: Turquoise Memoirs

and I have bookmarked a few other of her paper packs. I have a feeling they will coordinate nicely with your stuff!

So THANK YOU for my gift! You are too kind. May God Bless You Always!

Still busy busy busy

I thought for sure this would end once the holiday was over????

Got my tree down and most of the decorations put away. I am leaving my little pink tree up for awhile though. I might go all Valentine on it! I still have my lights up outside too. It was too cold yesterday to go out and take them down.

I got my holiday photos scrapped! I did them as 4x6 pages!! I got a really cool album but it's for 4x6 photos so I improvised! I got them uploaded to shutterfly last night just have to figure out what other photos I need in bigger sizes before I order them. I am going to order extras to give to my family too. I used templates by Shannon Jones purchased on PDP and of course Krystal Hartley Paper! (which will not be for sale--sorry) If you beg her, she may change her mind. I think she is silly not to sell it! It's great!

Got most of the gifts put away in the places they belong...most...some stuff I am still at a loss as to where to put it so it sits on my diningroom table or my pew bench.

Believe in the magic

Quick page by Weedsandwildflowersdesigns.com It's a freebie for a day.

Merry Christmas

This was the scene at my Mom's house on Saturday. Lordy....look at those gifts. And they were piled along the other wall that you can't see. Plus all the ones under the tree that were pushed to the back...wow!

Wall hangings

These are the wall hangings I made for my sister for Christmas. They are made out of Styrofoam and 12x12 prints by Krystal Hartley wrapped up with a brown grosgrain ribbon put on with carpet tape!

I truly hope she enjoys these because they were a pain in my butt to do. I thought it was going to be soooo easy...Hhhhaaaa NOPE!

But they turned out great despite the hard work. And the best part...she helped me finish them so she knows what went into making these.

A huge shout out to Krystal for designing the art work for these. I gave her colors and said retro...she delivered. Now my sister knows why I say she is my HERO!

Merry Christmas 2007

Freebie found here: This was a QuickPage. We took this photo today at Josh's work. I was on my way to my Christmas Party for work and I was stopping by to say HI. So we had one of the girls take our photo. We don't have our photo taken together very often. hhhmmm....I smell a new years resolution...

Credits: http://www.weedsandwildflowersdesign.com/

Family First and Forever

Made this to go on the cover of my MIL's 4x4 mini album. Says it all doesn't it!

Hoopla

Here are the rules:1. List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas2. Please refer to it as a 'hoopla' and not the dreaded 'm'-word3. You have to specifically tag people when you're done. None of this "if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged" stuff is allowed...then nobody ends up actually doing it. The number of people who you tag is really up to you -- but the more, the merrier to get this 'hoopla' circulating through the blogosphere.4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it and I'd like to get as many people involved as possible.

I was tagged by Izzy to list the 12 random things about myself that have to do with Christmas.

1. I love Christmas.
2. Our tree rotates.
3. My favorite movie is A Christmas Story. I can recite it word for word.
4. We eat Coney Dogs every Christmas eve.
5. We have a leg lamp like the one in A Christmas Story. Josh's mom made it for us and it sits front and center in our picture window.
6. We get a new ornament from my MIL every year and we have to find it on her tree on Christmas morning.
7. I have no color scheme to my tree. It's just a collection of US.
8. I get stressed out over the holidays trying to be in two or five places at once. I finally decided this year that I was committing to ONE event per day. No more 2 or 3 houses per day.
9. I get my Step Dad a hotdog item every Christmas as a joke. It's a long story as to why I do it but it's so fun to go out and try and find a new never before seen gift! This year is going to be great!!
10. We take pictures of the kids putting out reindeer food every Christmas Eve.
11. Santa fills our stockings and puts gifts under the tree!
12. I still believe!!!

I am tagging: Sonja, Krystal, Betsey

and I my sister can chime in on the comment sections since she is not a blogger!

Adopt a child

I am not sure if I shared this story yet. So if you have heard it, it's worth reading again!

Zander asked if he got 2 less presents this year if he could adopt a child for Christmas. After drying my eyes, I said of course. So off we went shopping. We got a boy age 5! Same age as his brother. So that should be easy.

We got him boots, clothes, and a Superman Blanket! It was so fun shopping for him! We have no clue who he is...but to our new friend, MERRY CHRISTMAS LITTLE MAN!!!!

Here is the gift we gave. Zander helped every step of the way. Picking it out & Wrapping it!

SO PROUD OF YOU SON! YOU DID A GREAT THING, BUDDY!

THANK YOU SHELL

The boys got a package in the mail yesterday from San Jose!! I took it straight up to the school and let them see it while still in school! Yes, I interrupted students learning to share this gift. But it is also a learning experience for the students too. They get to look up the state of CA & NZ too! So it's all good!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Another Gift

Made this one up for MIL to sit on her desk at the school. Printed off my layouts on a 4x6 photo paper at home and then just cut them down. I will eventually make four more for her to put on the back side of this but for now this will have to do!! Running out of time! LOL

Been Busy

This is what I have been doing while not blogging. I had to have the kids all get together to get photos taken and then I had to figure out what size I needed and get them printed in put in this frame. I am giving this to my MIL. The photo is a tad blurry. Sorry about that. I am having issues with my camera right now. And don't have enough time to shoot it again. Those black letters are about and inch thick and made of foam. So it has a 3D effect to it.

Now I am off to finish up my sister's gifts.

Snow

YIPPEEE!!! It's finally snowing here in Michigan!!! It started last night and it's now 2:15pm and it's STILL coming down! I smell a snow day!!!

I took these pictures out the front door to show the progress.

Credits: All Krystal Hartley goodies. Mixture of her kits & elements. You can't go wrong buying her stuff. It all works together so nicely! I have used stuff from A Family Thing, Jan's Happy Place, Frosty Happiness, Baby it's cold outside, and Scents of Season. So see...nothing was made to go together but it works so great!

Teacher's Gift

I was in a new little store here in town that is geared towards school/teacher supplies and saw this little dry erase board. My mind starting reeling and was so excited to get this and make something. I had visions of flowers in the corner with stazon flourishes up the side but opted for the easy route! shhh....

So this is what I came up with. It took me all of 15 min to make this. I had a hard time trying to figure out how to get the eraser attached. So I finally ended just gluing the ribbon around the edges and tying it to the board. I punched the holes with my crop a dile at 1" measurements along the bottom. Slipped ribbon thru them and then tied some ribbon at the top to hang it.

I got the board for $2.15 and the eraser was $1.25. Had the ribbon so that was no cost. Pen included with the board!

I know it's Christmas time not Halloween! Our school colors are Orange and Black. Hence the color combo.

AWESOME!

This was such an awesome time!!! WOW! The kids loved it, I loved it, and Josh loved it too! I would do it again next year in a heart beat. Worth the 2 hour drive one way to go to a movie that's for sure! The kids just keep talking about how it looked like they were actually riding that train at times!! Ahh...we did good....

Polar Express

Going to see this tomorrow!!!


Taken from website:

Our IMAX motion picture projection system, invented and developed by Imax Corporation, is the finest motion picture projection system in the world. Images of unsurpassed size, clarity, and impact, enhanced by a superb specially-designed six-channel, multi-speaker sound system, are projected onto our giant rectangular screen which is eight stories wide (84 feet) and six stories tall (62 feet). Our IMAX Theatre is the largest IMAX Theatre in the State of Michigan having the capability to show both 2D and 3D IMAX films. Seating capacity is 440 for 2D, 410 for 3D, and is fully handicapped accessible in accordance with ADA regulations.


I am SOOOOO EXCITED!!! I can't begin to tell you how awesome this is going to be! I hope I can sleep tonight!! It feels great to be so excited about something. I am totally in the holiday mood. This has been a great season this year. I love Christmas!

Quick Pursuits

Had to show off my Quick Pursuits by Krystal Hartley. Took me all of 2 minutes to do this page. Longest part was waiting for Photoshop to open! LOL

Gift Card

Sorry...I have to keep sharing these. This is my last one I needed to make. So I won't bore you much longer with them! LOL But you have to admit they are super cute and functional!

I am thinking about taking these into the school today and seeing if anyone would like any. $1 for each sound ok?? I am not going to have to do much other than print them off. I am not going to personalize. Just leave the area for the name blank so they can write it in themselves. Can I even do this?? Not sure? I never know what is OK to do with Digi kit stuff. Not sure if I can profit from it or not? If not, speak up. Please.

Credits: Freebies by scrap@luizagaray.com include: Pink/green dot paper, Striped paper, Glitter Frame, Glitter Flake, Button.

Krystal Hartley items: Green paper, Circle Stitches, Clear Flower, Heart with wings, Pink paper, Blue Paper.

More Gift Card Holders

Here's a few more that I made for my Craft-challenged Sister.

Credits:

Top: All items are Shandy Vogt kit called vintage florals.

Middle & Bottom: All items are Krystal Hartley. Mixture of her items. She can be found on PolkaDotPotato.com

Another Hybrid Gift card holder

Totally Addicted....UGH! LOL

Hybrid Gift card holder

I just HAD to do this NOW! I saw this a week ago or so and with being sick and busy I just didn't get to it. Then I forgot where I saw it when I wanted to do it. So I made a point to do one NOW!

Credits: All paper is from Krystal Hartley's Frosty Happiness kit

TEMPLATE BY KAREN MAGGIE of www.scrapbookgraphics.com

You can find the post about the template with directions HERE

Pink Tree

William loves PINK and when he saw this tree at Kohls he made a comment about getting a pink tree sometime. Well, it was on sale one day while shopping with my sister Amy Jo and I just HAD to get it for him (ME). So I had my sister climbing thru the van on the way home putting it together as we were going down the road. I told her to Plug It In!!! And she asks how...well with a Octopus outlet for the DVD players of course! LOL So here we are driving down the road with a LIT CHRISTMAS TREE in my van!! It was a funny sight. So we had it up and lit when the kids got out of school and walked to the van. I opened the automatic door and to their surprise, there was a PINK LIT TREE!!!

I had to have aqua ornaments to put on it. I just LOVE this tree!

Stiverson Boys

Out takes from an impromptu shoot yesterday. There is always one of them who is NOT in the MOOD. But it sure makes for some great memories either way! Real boys love flowers on their layouts!

Credits: Template by ShandyVogtDesigns.

All other items by Krystal Hartley.

This color combination is just so eye catching. I am totally in love with color combo so you all might get sick of seeing me use it! THANK YOU KRYSTAL for designing such smoking stuff! Can you all see why I call her my hero!!?! Stop by her blog and tell her how much you love her stuff! We all need some love during this time of year~!