I {Finally!}got some scrapbooking done!  I got the girls' summer pages done, thanks to the use of some JIF pages from scrapgirls.com.  I Love their products!  I probably should've spent more time on the journaling, though.  You may wonder why Hannah has so many more pages than Makenna...simple fact that Hannah likes to pose for photos, and Makenna makes faces and runs away!  I'm hoping she grows out of that soon!  She also inherited her father's bad habit of weird eyes when photographed--you know, eyes half closed or blinking or looking possessed.  Most of her better photos are taken when she's not paying attention to me.  She has these beautiful blue eyes and long lashes...

It's been so long since I've participated in Monday's Multitudes of Blessings, and I really, {Really} need to get back in the habit of writing down my list of gifts.  Posting them here keeps me accountable.

#498-505
Colors of fall
For eyes to see depth of color
husband who makes plans for home improvements
burdens for ministry in the hearts of believers
God changes people
Heat that kicks on when its chilly
Neighbors to celebrate birthdays with
holding dark haired chubby baby girls with dark skin -(Mia, neighbors' granddaughter)

December brag book calendar pages

I realized I never posted this page of the brag book.  I made lots of these for christmas, and can you believe I still have about 4 left to give away!  I so procrastinate on getting siblings addresses!

I also included the December big page calendar that I created, as well as March, since March starts now!

Snow Days

This winter, we have been blessed with an abundance of snow.  Tons and tons.  Tim has had busy weeks of snowplowing and the girls have had fun playing in it.  We've been out a few times to play and go for walks and sled down our snow piles.  We really need something other than the baby sled.  Anyway, this was from the beginning of snow season, taken mostly before thanksgiving.  You can see there are still green leaves on the trees!  We have had this huge pile of snow outside our picture window that makes it difficult to see out our window and backing out of the driveway feels a little dangerous!

Sugar Cookies

AHH, nothing says Christmas like Sugar Cookies, right?  We made some for christmas and Valentine's Day, using 2 different recipes.  I like a moist, thick cookie, so my recipes used sour cream or cream cheese.  They both turned out a little bit different, but tasty.  Here's the recipes:

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

1/2 cup margarine

3 oz cream cheese

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

Cream together butter, cream cheese, and sugar until fluffy.  Beat in egg and vanilla.  Combine dry ingredients.  Chill dough for at least an hour in refridgerator.

Roll out dough to about 1/8" thickness and cut into desired shapes.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 375 for 7-9 minutes in preheated oven, until bottoms are lightly browned and cookies are firm.  Do not overbake!

This is supposed to make 4 dozen cookies.  I made this recipe for Valentine's Day because I didn't have the sour cream needed to make the following recipe.  I didn't get a lot of cookies out of it, between snitching and making super big horse head cookies.

Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 cup white sugar 1 tsp baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, each

1 cup butter 1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs 5 cups flour

1 cup sour cream

Mix ingredients:  sugar, butter, eggs, sour cream creamed together.  Add b. powder, soda, vanilla, salt.  Add flour gradually.  Cover and chill for at least an hour.  Roll out about 1/4" thick and cut into shapes.  Place on lightly greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes.  Makes 5 dozen cookies.  This is my favorite recipe.

Frosting:  8 oz cream cheese

2 Tble evaporated milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/8 tsp salt

4 cups powdered sugar

Beat until well blended.  Frost on cooled cookies.  

Girls at Christmas

A Love worth Fighting For

Valentine's Day with my lover and friend!  Last night, after we put the girls to bed, we watched Fireproof, the movie.  It was AWESOME!!  We rented it from the local video store, and cuddled up on the couch--which we normally sit on opposite ends so we can recline in our comfy chairs.  I think we both cried quite a bit by the time it was over.  Most love stories are about the chase, the falling in love, exciting, passionate part.  This was an enduring love story, of a young couple married about 7 years and literally on the brink of divorce.  Through the husband's persevering and unconditional love--which he must learn about the hard way, the wife forgives her husband and begins to love and trust again.  A marriage is saved, and two young people enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  It has been said that Satan will do everything he can to get people together intimately before marriage and everything he can to keep them apart after they're married.  Marriage is at stake all across our land, and I'm saying here today, that MARRIAGE is worth fighting for.  Listen to this song, A Love Worth Fighting For, by Warren Barfield.  Along these lines, my husband and I just finished up a DVD series by Emerson Eggerich called Love and Respect.  This is an excellent concept, also found in his book by the same name.  Women are called to respect their husbands, and husbands are called to love their wives.  Men and women are entirely different in their approach to relationships, and we need to embrace those differences.  One thing that has become obvious to me lately is that marriage is about so much more than a man and a woman trying to spend their life together.  It's more than making each other happy.  It has a huge vertical dimension to it:  it's about one's relationship with God.  Marriage is a beautiful picture of Christ's relationship to the church, of unconditional love.  It's not about how much our spouse may hurt us or offend us, it's about whether or not we respond in a way that glorifies God.  Because when we can totally focus on pleasing God, on loving him, on finding our joy through him, it spills over into all other relationships.

This is a page I made for my husband for valentine's Day, to share with him my desire to fight through whatever it takes to have the best marriage we can have.  Sometimes we get caught up in the mediocre and the everyday normalcy.  But I want him to know that I still choose him.  I choose us.  It's worth fighting for.

Makenna: Sun Kissed

I've been alternating between creating new designs for cards and scrapbooking. I have a load of pictures I developed a few weeks ago from the summer, and I have about 50 more pics to get developed. So, I'm a little farther behind on my scrapbooking than I would like to be. When I scrapbook, I like to place several pics on each page--at least 3, usually. I'm not sure I ever did just one pic on a page, like I always see done in the magazines. I chose this scrapbook design from my new favorite magazine, Creative Keepsakes. It's a Becky Higgins sketch, which always includes several pictures. I love how these pics show my baby's cute face: check out her beautiful profile, her chubby cheeks, that smooth baby skin, and all those fat-rolls! Since I had so many of Makenna, I decided this sketch might work. The smaller pics are cut 2" square, which is so hard to cut that small! So I cheated on some :) One black and white photo is 4x4, and the picture in the middle of the first page is also 4x4

Card stock base: Lovely Lilas, wheeled with Whimsy Jumbo wheel in Versamark

Designer Paper: Flowers for you, 12x 4.75. It's double sided, you can see this where I folded back one corner

Card Stock: Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red, Certainly Celery

Ink: Basic Brown, Tempting Turquoise, Certainly Celery

Stamps: Build a Flower (SU!), Delight in Life (SU!, retired), some acrylic flowers--doodlies and ABCs

Accessories: brads in flower centers, eyelets (and crop-a-dile) on tag, ribbon, brown journaling marker (SU!)

Princess Scrap Page

I had several pictures of Hannah from September that I wanted to put together. They were mostly various shots of her face--playing outside, at the beach, and so on. I used SU! paper, Flowers for You on the top and cut corner shapes out of it, which I set eyelets and threaded ribbon through. I used Certainly Celery POP paper to make a pocket/envelope, which there are 2 pics coming out of (layered on Certainly Celery. My base paper is Almost Amethyst. I used my round tab punch to punch a tab out of Rose Red, and also to make decorative corners for 2 pictures. (I can post pictures of this technique if you want clarification) I used my Sweet Shapes set to make a accent piece, which I copied from the latest SU! Stampin' Success magazine. I stamped on white, layered on Rose Red, layered on So Saffron, and edged that with DP. I used the tag punch on Certainly Celery to pull out of these layers, which I journaled on. When I stamped on the White layer, I used a dimensional stamping technique with the butterflies: stamp once with Rose Red ink, then slightly off stamp again with So Saffron. I also did this with Certainly Celery, and then stamped again, without reinking, slightly off. This helps create movement and dimension to an image. It's quite easy to do with a solid image, like a butterfly. I'll post more about this technique again. Comment if you have questions. For the title, I used chipboard letters, which I inked with basic brown, or I layered Certainly Celery POP paper on. I do this by tracing the letter, cutting out, and adhering on. Then I sand the edges to smooth them out and give them texture. By inking the letters, I put the chipboard directly on the inkpad and wipe away. Kinda messy!

Trick-or-treat

Well, while most of America was out Trick-or-Treating...my family is one of the few that {still} go to church on Wednesday nights. I let my girls dress up all day long, and they wore their costumes out for lunch and to Meijers and to church just for the fun of it. We did go next door at 5:00 for a treat, though. Both girls were still napping, and I had to get them up so we could have supper at church. Hannah did NOT wake up well. Seems like that was the reason we didn't do much trick-or-treating her first 2 years either! She was dressed up like a horse--a little difficult to tell, but there's a long mane and tail on the backside, and the hood makes up the horse's head and nose. Makenna was a clown--a very cute clown, I might add! She did not like wearing the hat, but I managed to distract her enough to keep it on for the pics.

Here's a 2-page layout from September's beach days. I started with 2 Pixie Pink 12x12 CS and layered on Designer Paper cut about 3" wide to a wavy design I drew. I added Cool Caribbean to these edges. I used some new acrylic stamps that I bought from Hobby Lobby (My first ever...I like them okay) and I embossed some of them in white EP. WHich I guess is tricky to do on photos, because they tend to melt!

Brother and Sister-in-law

Here's a 2-page layout that I did when the girls were visiting with Tim's family. His sister has one little girl and his brother is not married yet.

I think this is my first layout using brown background. It looks soft and sweet with the patterned paper I used--Flowers for You DP by Stampin' Up!

I used a layout from my Creative Keepsakes magazines. The Pics are all the same size, I think 4x6. The right top corner of the Charles pic is layed out with the paper to be a 6x6 size. I used my ticket corner punch on most of my corners and used my All in a Row stamp to make the zig-zag stitch line around 2 journaling boxes. I used Garden Whimsy stamps for butterflies and ladybugs and snails. I used the crop-a-dile to punch holes and set eye-lets. On the green journaling box, I used the Whimsy Wheel in Versamark ink.

Tonight I'm expecting 3 friends to come to my stamp-a-stack. I'll post pics of what we made over the next 3 days. One of the cards we're making follows Beate's Weekend Challenge for last weekend, so I'll enter that also! I haven't had a stamp-a-stack in a while, and all 3 customers tonight are new to my stamp-a-stacks, so I hope they are satisified and pleased. One friend said she's been counting down the days until today!

Cutie Pie

Honest Opinion, my girls are Cutie Pies! Sometimes I'm just overwhelmed by how much I love them! The other day, I was taking a short walk with Makenna in the backpack while Hannah was taking a nap. I opted to not take the interom walkie-talkie thing because I was going down by the Lake and it was very noisy. Well, I took longer than I thought since I stopped next door for tea, (don't be alarmed, I was never more than a few hundred yards from home) and when I opened the door, there was Hannah, playing with her toys! She just says "Hi, Mama!" This was the first time ever that she climbed out of her bed! (a pack-n-play) She's not a climber! She only was able to do it because it's right next to a futon couch.

I have no weekend plans so far. Last night, my father-in-law came for supper, and he brought KFC with him. we had a good visit--his wife is in Mexico helping at an orphange for a few weeks. Today, my parents invited us to come over for a western round up they're hosting for their church--not sure if we'll go. Tomorrow, my husband is preaching both morning and an evening service, but I'd like to go the farm market/petting farm up north with the girls. I think it's going to be the last nice day, plus they offer hay rides and stuff if you go on the weekends. It'll be a fun picture and memory day if we go.

Last funny thing that Hannah did yesterday. I can tell that watching Dora the Explorer is paying off on her Spanish skills. She's in bed for the night and calling out to me, "MOMMY! Help me! Ayudame`! Ayudame`!" I was cracking up laughing!!

12x12 layout pages: idea came from Creative Keepsakes layout. The lg pics are cut 5x3.5 and the smaller ones are 2x2. I used Cutie Pie DP and cut the strips into 1" strips. I used Rose Red and So Saffron for the background colors. On So Saffron page, I used basic black to layer the pics on. I thought it made them pop a bit more. I used Pick a Petal stamps for accents in Rose Red, Certainly Celery and So Saffron. I used Word Window to punch tabs in Certainly Celery, and a strip of blue ribbon for accent. I wish I could get better pictures of my layouts. I don't use flash, and then they aren't crisp. I use flash and I get a glare. I position them in different ways by a window to get sunlight, and have the same problem--either too much background light that makes it hard to see, or get too much glare. I'll keep working on it.

Girls and Grandparents

Here's a simple page I did from Labor Day weekend camping with my husband's parents up by Mackinac Bridge. I copied the layout from one I'd recently seen in Creative Keepsakes,

and decided to keep it simple. For the base, I chose Bashful Blue--not the true color, though. It was from a STampin' up package I'd had a while, and it seems to be a different shade than it should be. It doesn't match the way it should. Oh well! I used Cutie Pie designer paper and traced out a circle from a bowl, and then cut it in half. I used one side on the bottom, and then flipped it over to use the other side of the circle on the top. I used Regal Rose POP paper to cover my chipboard letter P and flower, and then stamped the rest of my word (retty and circle) on Certainly Celber POP. I also used a strip of Cutie Pie paper to go all the way across both pages to create a continuing line to bring the pics all together. The hardest part here was to cut my picture in the middle in half! I hope when it's in the book that it doesn't look funny.

Restful Monday

Some people dread Mondays. Back to the usual...work...school...life. I actually enjoy Mondays, because they are lazy days for me. I try to not put much into my schedule that takes me out of the house. Usually weekends are tiresome for the girls, so I make sure they can get good naps in on Monday. This weekend I have the priveledge to go shopping with the teen girls from church WITHOUT any babies!!! YIPPEE! Husband stayed home with both girls so that he wouldn't have to drive (I was the only adult, and we couldn't all fit into one mini-van if I had the baby, too.) We went to the Birch Run outlets that has about 140 stores. We found great sales at Aeropostale, Gap, Old Navy, Children's Place, and Bath and Body and more!! I spent 13 hours away from Makenna--the most up to this point had been 2. She and daddy did just fine, and so did Hannah.

Here is a card I did for a get-well card for my neighbor that's letting me stay in their extra home. I used my new DS paper Flowers for You, Lovely Lilac, Certainly Celery, and Pretty in Pink cardstock (with a white card base, cut 4x4). I used the whimsy jumbo wheel on the Lilac paper in versamark ink and used the circle punches ( 1 3/8 and 1 1/4) to layer circles. I used the word window punch to create tabs on the left and also for the Praying for You sentiment on the bottom. This sentiment is from the So many Sayings Hostess set. The butterfly comes from the Garden Whimsy set.

The scrapbook layout is 12x12 and background paper comes from a dollar store. I've had it for a long time. I used the doodle friends in red for interest on white paper; I filled in some to the shapes using my pastel chalks and blender pens. The red flower blue ladybugs and blue butterfly come from Garden Whimsy. I used ballet blue and real red ink and bashful blue and brilliant blue cardstock (also white and black). I used ribbon and chipboard for accents. When I use chipboard, I usually cover it with paper by tracing around the shape onto paper, cutting the shape out and glueing it on with SNAIL. Then I sand down the edges a bit to add distressing and smoothness.