An early Christmas gift for ME!

My mother-in-law ordered this and decided that I needed to get it early since it should be opened to make sure it was correct, anyway. With the help of my good friend, Sherrill, last weekend James put this up in the living room! I LOVE IT! It finishes off the wall perfectly! The picture doesn't do it much justice, but I tried. If you want to see it in person, gotta come for a visit!!! (OH and I got a GPS yesterday!) My in-laws ROCK! And no, I was not bribed to say that!! Under our name, it says "The love of family is life's greatest blessing". How true that is! Though I've come to realize that 'family' doesn't mean 'blood'. One of my favorite quotes is: "The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof." -Richard David Bach

Another Birthday card & checkbook cover

When I showed these to James, he asked "Have you made a checkbook cover for everyone you know, yet?" What a wise guy! =) They're easy to make and personalized, something I think everyone would like! These are for James's cousin and my friend, Linda. I just got the butterfly stamp set from Stampin' Up! and couldn't wait to use it and she loves cats, which was my reason for doing the cat paper for the checkbook cover (I even bought that sheet of paper especially for that, which I don't do often!)

Christmas Gift for Liz & Shawn

Marge and I made this page as a Christmas gift for my aunt and uncle. They will be married 2 years on December 1st and don't have many wedding photos so I thought this would be something nice for them to display. Liz and her friend, Sherrill, were in town this weekend and I decided to give this to her early because I have no idea what the plans are for Christmas and didn't want to risk it getting broken in the mail. Merry Christmas, in September!

Family Page

This is another old project that I recently stumbled across. It's a scrapbook page that I made for my scrapbook but then loved it so much I made the same one for my aunt, Liz and sister-in-law, Amber and framed theirs. Without even realizing it, I'm posting this on 9-11. Hard to believe that the tragedy hit America 8 years ago today! This post seems pretty fitting; dedicated to family.

End of the School Year Scrapbook

At the end of last school year, Jayne's teacher put together a cute little scrapbook for all of the kids in their classes. (I can't imagine doing this for 24 students!!) James's teacher sent home a CD with all of the pics from the year and Krista wanted the same thing done for him - I offered to take on this task. It was so much fun! The album was a spiral bound 10x7 album from Just a Buck with about 30 pages in it. I had a lot of fun doing this, reliving things that he would talk about and seeing the kids that i would see in his classroom every day that I picked him up. Thought I'd share!

FALL!

We have had the most beautiful weather here the past few days! Nice enough that we have even turned the AC off, which hardly ever happens! My allergies aren't liking it much but I am taking some OTC stuff to help out because I love the cool air! With all of this cooler weather comes thoughts of stew and bonfires and COFFEE, not just for breakfast! In honor of fall, I got out my supplies this afternoon and made a new fall wreath for the front door and an arrangement that sits on the table on the porch. I know it's not fall for like another month, but I'm a rebel!

Wow, it's been almost a month!

Things have been hectic around here and I've had no time and no motivation to accomplish anything scrap book related until this weekend! One of neighbors turned 44 and invited us to her birthday party last night. Here is her card and, you guessed it, a checkbook cover! =)

My mother-in-law's birhtday cards

I found the idea for this card on sizzix.com about 2 months ago. I had no idea what I was in for, though! Each PETAL of the flowers is a separate piece and the die only allows you to punch 4 petals at once. I also added rhinestones and pearls to the center of each of the little flowers. Very time consuming to cut them out but not as bad as I thought to put it all together. She's a scrapbooker, too, so I know she can appreciate the time and effort that went into this one. The other card is just a little 2 3/4 x 4 notecard...I found a nice sentiment online that I wanted to use and just did a simple card with a Prima paper butterfly in one of Marge's favorite colors.

Another birthday card and checkbook cover

A simple, understated 30th birthday card =) The checkbook cover was a little more work. My friend, Chu, loves an anime show called Bleach. I have NO idea what it is so I did my research and found some pictures on the internet. I don't know the characters or anything else about it so I chose one with the whole cast and thought that it turned out pretty well.

James & Jayne's birthday cards

The Haubner twins will be 5 on July 13th and are counting down the days! I've had their presents for a long time but just now got the time to work on their cards. It was nice having Hannah here - she likes working the Sizzix machine and was such a big help with these cards! This was a 2 night project because we didn't have enough steam to finish them on Monday night but we got them assembled and completed yesterday. Mark 2 more things off my list! YAY!

Helping the Haubners with scrapbook pages...

On Monday, Krista (my "boss" - hard for me to think of her that way!) asked me if would mind helping the kids each make a scrapbook page for a birthday party they were going to that night. DUH! =) She made copies of pictures of the kids with the birthday girl and wanted those on there and then gave us a ladybug stamp to use, since that was the theme of the party. Jayne had already done hers, I think she's a scrapper in the making, but decided that it needed a few extra embellishments so she worked on it with us. James is not really into crafts much though he has recently started to color a lot so he colored a picture and we cut it out to make that the main part of his page - seemed fitting. He also likes to use the craft punches, so he punched out the shapes for his page. Jenna pooped out and was asleep before we even got started on this so Jayne colored a picture and she and I put her page together. It was so much fun! I'm excited that Jayne is getting into this - she loves making cards and things for people!

Another Checkbook Cover

This one was a little harder to do and required a lot of help from my computer-savvy husband to make it happen. My friend, Kathy, owns an online business and I wanted to use her logo to make her check book cover. The logo was too big to just photo shop so it took James quite a while to get it just right. She's into south west type things and I wasn't able to find any stickers or even nice photos online that I could copy and I think this turned out better anyway.

Love notes?!

For some reason, Jayne (one of the 4 year old twins that I watch) decided that she wanted to make a picture for my husband. She worked long and hard on it at the little table in their play room and wouldn't let me even have a peek before it was finished! She also has a brother named James so she called in to me, asking how to spell "Fischer" because she wanted to put James' name on it but didn't want her brother stealing it! *laughs* She also told me to be sure to tell James to take this picture to work and hang it up, which he proudly did. He then decided to draw her a picture in return and had me bring it to her. She was so proud of it that she had to clear everything off of her white board and hang it up there (I have no idea where it is today, though). Am I passing love notes back and forth between Jayne and my husband?! =) I thought it was so cute. As you know, I just have to share:

Misty's Birthday present

Well, part of it, at least. =) I made this tote bag for her - just an iron on and a canvas tote bag from Michael's.....

A productive 4th of July

With no plans and nothing really to do (who wants to clean the house?!), Hannah and I came to the basement to do a little scrapping. To my surprise, she even jumped in and made a birthday card and a book mark for herself! I've been trying to convert her.... *laughs* My accomplishments were a birthday card for my sister in law and I made Hannah a cover for a planner for next year, since she doesn't have a check book...yet. We've had iTunes playing in the background and have had a fun girls' night! The first picture is the card that I made and then the planner cover and the other ones are Hannah's things. Oh and I forgot to mention that we've been to Archiver's since she's been in Cincinnati! She seemed to enjoy herself =)

New Baby card

One of my REALLY good friends, Kathy, is getting a Labradoodle puppy some time in the very near future (she is a rescue and had a broken leg, so Kathy can't get her until that is all taken care of). You know I'm a sucker for furbabies anyway, so I decided that I'd make her a card to have ready when she finally gets Sierra! Below is a picture of the card that I made AND a picture of Sierra....

Misty's Birthday Card

My best friend of 26 years (YIKES) is having a birthday on Saturday. She has finally caught up with me! =) She sent me a text message today thanking me for the card, so I know that it's safe to post this now. She LOVES Marilyn Monroe so I decided that's what I'd use for my inspiration for her card. I specifically looked online for a black and white pic of her and found one quickly that I really liked! Now, here's a little secret - the picture printed fine but when I was cutting it out, there was a small bit of white left at the top..as I was trying to trim it with my paper cutter, the paper started to rip. I was upset but was able to compose myself enough to step back and look at it. I decided that I'd just run with it and distressed the whole thing! I thought that it gave it more of a vintage look this way, anyway, which was kind of what I was going for. It's on red cardstock that I stamped with Versamark, which has become one of my favorite products. HAPPY 31st, MISTY!!! XOXOXO

My scrap booking buddy

Yes, this really is where Moo sits while I'm working on my projects. If she's not ON the table then she's in my shirt or zipped up in my jacket. She's MY dog and feels the need to be, literally, everywhere I am. I DO realize I have an illness with this 4-legged cutie. =) Also, this is how messy my table is 99.9% of the time. It's hard to scrap without making a mess and I have an even harder time cleaning it up!

Winnie the Pooh "page"

For those of you that know me, having a baby has been one of my main concerns for nearly 3 1/2 years now. About a year ago, we got the nursery done...well, we moved my scrapbook stuff out of the spare room, took down the extra bed, put up Winnie the Pooh border and moved some baby furniture in there. Last weekend, my wonderful husband painted in there under the border and I just love it! It "freshened it up" for me, which was what I needed. Anyway, I found a wonderful poem ("Children Are..." by Meiji Stewart) on a poster at Old Tyme Pottery but didn't like the colors so I decided to make my own version of it. Not exactly scrap booking but for someone like me who doesn't know TOO much about computers and editing programs, I worked a really long time on it but am so pleased with how it turned out! Needless to say, it's already hanging on the wall where there just happened to be a nail with nothing on it....

3x3 Notecard Tote

This was my accomplishment for today. It's a cute little "tote" that holds 3x3 notecards that can be used for gifts or something small. I even thought this would be cute to do in Christmas themed paper and make gift tags to put in it! What a cute gift! I got this idea from Splitcoaststampers.com - http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/notecardtote/

Framed Page for Hannah

I have some old pics on my computer of things that I've made in the past and will be adding them to my blog from time to time. This is a 12x12 page that I made for my 15 year old cousin, Hannah and framed it. I found the saying in a magazine and the plaque was like $24 - I KNEW I could make it for cheaper and of course it turned out so much cuter! =)I just used different letter stickers, nothing too complicated. She loved it and I'm hoping that she always remembers these words of wisdom "NO boy is worth crying over and the one that is won't make you cry"

Another Birhday card

I'm slowly getting things finished that are on my "to-do" list. June is such a busy month with birthdays!!

Birthday Cake!

Here are the awesome cakes that my hubby made for me! He's the best! I love green and SHAMROCKS! I bought the cake pan forever ago and had St. Patrick's Day plates and napkins that I got on clearance at the end of the season =)

Sunday evening scrap time

Marge and I started the off, like we do A LOT of Sundays, at Archiver's and Michael's. Can't say there was much going on, but it did get me in the mood to do some scrappin' which was good. Sad thing is, I had to come home and take a nap before I could get started! What is is about shopping that is so exhausting??

Tonight I made a birthday card, which turned out way better than I thought it would, thankyouverymuch. It was one of those where I started it and about halfway through, I thought I should trash it and start over but in the end, it all came together. It's funny how, sometimes, the simplest things can take the most time to make! I mean, there's nothing ultra fancy about this card. Sometimes you've got it, sometimes you don't. I also made her a check book cover for her birthday, which is June 10th. I wanted to get these things done so I could give them to her this weekend.

My Birthday!

My actual birthday is tomorrow but we celebrated last night. A group of 12 of us went to O'Charley's and then back to our house for cake and ice cream. James made my cake(s)..Marge took pics for me, I'll post them when she passes them on to me. My wonderful in-laws got me a new camera and some scrapbooking supplies. YAY! My friend/sister Gerri (she and her husband, Mark and their beautiful baby, Colin - our Godson partied with us) is taking me on a "romantic getaway to South Bend, Indiana (www.theblueheronguesthouse.com/home.htm) to a B&B and an art show this weekend! Not really my birthday present, but it's a long story and a "convenient" excuse =) THEN, my best friend Teri made me these adorable note cards!!! I just had to share....

Father-in-law's Birthday Card

Nothing fancy, but another card....

An Anniversary card and Wedding card that I "found" on my camera

Somehow these got saved to the internal memory of my camera (I HATE this camera...can't wait for my birthday - only 16 more days!).