Flying Along!

So...for those of you who are following along, here is the next round of pages (in no particular order) of the BIG album. I had to come to the realization that I am going to have to have two volumes. I, in fact, started the second volume tonight. Vol. I holds 40 pages and will burst at the binding if I ask any more of it. I am LOVING this project. It is going faster than I anticipated.

My first few pages were started exactly one week ago tonight and I'm already done with 44 pages total. WHEW!! But that's me...once I get started on something I am like a train at full steam ahead until it is done. I've been doing roughly 6-8 pages each night. I've just completed 4 tonight and I'm done for the night.

I'm going to enjoy a glass of wine and dinner with my darling husband. But before I do I just have to say that this project has not only been fun and very interesting. But tonight I realized that I feel more connected to our (my husband's) family by doing this project. We've been together a LONG time (16+ years to be exact) so I've been around for a lot.

There have been a lot of stories, parties, laughter and tears. (mostly the first 3 thankfully!!) But there are still lots of memories that I wasn't around for and have heard so much about through the years. This album has helped me learn more about those stories. But I have also learned so much more about his fabulous Grandmother, his wonderful Mother and Father - who have always treated me like their own, his Aunts and Uncle - who have always included me, laughed with me and shared their stories. And to my Sister-In-Law who helped me put everything in chronological order last weekend - I thank you. I thank you for being my sister and for ALWAYS laughing with me.

Wish Me Luck!!

My fabulous husband's Grandmother's 95th birthday is coming up next month. There is going to be a wonderful party thrown in her honor at her home in Baltimore that we're all going to. My father-in-law has been very hard at work on a wonderful slide show of her entire life and I've been asked to create an album of the photos in the slide show. I am VERY honored to be able to do this for her.

I've been sent money from various sources to fund this project and it's going well. However, when I first said yes I was under the impression that there would be somewhere around 50 photos. Which is totally doable by November. I now have approximately 170 photos in my possession. This woman has lead an amazing life. Full of adventure, family, education, fun, and laughter. And I have photos dating back to the 20's to prove it!!

I am not scrapbooking all 170 photos...but it's pretty close. I was originally going to go with a flowery vintage feel using greens, corals and taupes...but with the enormity of the project I opted for a less 'fussy' color scheme.

So I'm going with red, silver/gray, black and white. I'm keeping my embellishments simple and classic. I've decided that each page will have the same 'signature' touch using some designer paper and the SU! scallop punch, pierced on each petal with a corresponding DP center punched out using SU!'s 1 1/4" punch.

I've got a few pages done and photographed as well as the laughable stack of photos ;) But for me, getting the first few pages done is the hardest part...now I'm in the groove!

I will have this done for the party on 11/17.

3 Year Thank Yous!

The party was awesome, the kids were SO well behaved (all of them) and my girl LOVED all of the wonderful gifts that friends and family gave her. I've been working fast and furiously to get these done and out. I HATE having outstanding TY notes to send. It keeps me up at night...seriously. I feel bad until they're done. So...why did I pick such a layered card?? I don't know...I wanted them to be special. And I LOVE how they came out. I cannot take credit for the design in ANY way however. It was one of the projects that we did at the SU! Regionals in Philly last month. I loved it and went right for it when I was trying to figure out what to do for her TY notes. I totally changed the colors tho...I used More Mustard, Purely Pomegranate and Cameo Coral. They're 3 of my favorites and worked well b/c I was going for a 'fallish' look. I really wanted to tie ribbon or twine in the buttons in the middle but I just didn't have the nrg!

Anyway - I'm heading downstairs to chill with my DH on our 11th anniversary eve...and to write out these notes to get them in the mail TOMORROW!

Happy Friday!

xoxoxo

Where Does The Time Go?

Seriously now? I really don't know how it all flies by...but it does. It seems that I get in certain grooves and other things fall by the wayside. I stamp religiously, post, stamp, post and then I get distracted by...life I guess? And I realize how much I'm jonesing for time to create. We've had A LOT going on here the last few weeks. Pre-school for the first time, birthday parties, lots of teething, visits with friends, holidays, stamp club, card club, etc, etc.

I'm working on my time management...I promise.

But today and this weekends event is my 11 YEAR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!! (it's today actually) It's amazing to me that it's been 11 years. My DH and I and 2 of our closest friends (who btw are celebrating their 1 year anniversary) are going out to dinner at the Capital Grille tomorrow night! I cannot wait!!

I hope that everyone is having a creative day and I PROMISE to get some good crafting in to show you fun stuff soon!!

XOXOXO

Happy Birthday My Darling Girl

So I cannot believe that my daughter is going to be 3. We're having her birthday party at home on Saturday! As horribly disfunctional as my my Mother was, she always managed to pull it together long enough to produce amazing parties for me at home. (as well as Halloween costumes) As I got older I'd have some friends go rollerskating, bowling or whatever but we always ended up back at my house for cake and ice cream. I'm trying to keep that 'at home' party tradition alive in my house. The only *extravagant* thing we're doing is renting a bouncy house...which is only $100 so I think it'll be well worth it!! I invited a few of her little friends and some of our friends and the 3 family members that my husband and I have in the area and that's it! A few snacks and some drink and we'll call it a party!

So...in lieu of traditional goodie bags I've decided to give each child a full size can of play-doh as well as 2 play-doh cutters. I was going to wrap the can in fun paper and then tie the cutters around with ribbon. However, the can is not uniform from top to bottom. It's 7.5 around the top and 7.25 around the bottom. Must be for shipping purposes or something but whatever it's for it is not helpful as far as wrapping in paper. The paper would just wrinkle up. So I scrapped that idea and went for a 'topper' instead. I have a circle punch that fit perfectly in the top of the can so I snagged some SU! jumbo eyelets from my friend and SU! demo Sarah. I used my Crop-O-Dile to set the eyelet and I just used whatever DP scraps I had lying around. I used the SU! Wasabi double stitched ribbon (it just ties SO well!) through the eyelet to tie on 2 cutters per can. I used my oval scallop punch with a little detail from my white gel pen to create the 'thank you' element on the front of the can. I used my large glue dots to adhere both the toppers and front piece.

I love how these came out!

Sorry that the photos are not touched up...I *still* don't have any photo editing software on my new computer yet.

Hope you're all having a creative day!

Happy Birthday Sarah!!

Today is my most darling friend Sarah's birthday!! YAY!! We all decided when we had kids to stop giving gifts to each other for birthdays and in lieu would give them to the kiddies.

But I couldn't help myself and I dropped off a small bag of crafting goodies to her house earlier today and made this card just for her.

Basic Instructions:

Cardstock: SU! Kraft, misc DP from Michael's
Ink: SU! Purely Pomegranate
Stamps: SU's Wing It, Short and Sweet (little cupcake is on the inside)
Embellishments: Making Memories silver brads, SU! grosgrain ribbon in Chocolate and Olive and Crate Paper ribbon, pop dots behind heart and wings, dazzling diamonds glitter applied with clear gel glue (kind of like elmer's)