Peter's Smile

I babysat my grandson yesterday so was unable to get into the craft room. Sadly, I do not have a stocked up supply of cards to rely on when this happens. I do, however, have about 10 scrapbook pages I made quite a while ago that I can share with you. Of course, since I have only made about 10, this is one of the first ones I made, like the one I showed you the other day.

This layout is of my son Peter. I am proud of all my kids :o) But Peter did not smile a lot. He is such a serious guy, even back then. His smile always warmed my heart so I made a layout of his smile.

Here is the first page of the layout. Starting when Peter was a baby and as he grew a bit older. What a fun way to greet us in the moring!

Back then, I had very few paper crafting items, which were pretty much from Stampin' UP. I had to handwrite the notes and the title, but have read that this makes scrapbook pages special to the kids when they look back at the memories. I know it would make things special to me if I were to look a pages my grandparents made before they passed away. So, I used my not so great writing.

Here is the 2nd page. He has grown to be a wondeful and couragious man.

All in all, I don't think I would change a thing on this layout. To me, the pictures and memories make it wonderful.

Thank you for stopping by and allowing me to share Peter's smile with you :o)

Hugs,

One Of My First Scrapbook Pages

I just realized the other day that I have absolutely none of my scrapbook pages on my blog. There really are not that many of them right now, but I thought I would start posting some.

This is one of my first scrapbook pages. It is of my daughter and her boyfriend at the time (they are now married with 1 little one). When my son first came home from Iraq, the USMC banquet was not to far off. Because the unit had just returned, the Marines invited their whole families. These are some photos we took just before we all left.

I am not sure where the border stamp came from. It was one of my first stamp purchases which I bought at the local big box craft store. When I saw the date, I realized that I have been stamping for 5 years, not 3 or 4 like I thought, lol. Time sure does go by when you are having fun {wink}

I added glitter to the letters on top and hand wrote the names. Those keys are so cute, I wonder what I did with the rest of the package, lol

There really were not a lot of different photos to choose from. So for the center, I just used one that was closer up than the other. As you can see, James is not thrilled about having his photo taken, we barely got a tiny smile out of him. He has gotten much better and shows his handsome smile all the time now. Soon I will make a page of their wedding and you will surely see it then!

I can hardly believe the few embellishments I had. When I started, I had one drawer in my dinning room, ha ha ha Now I have a whole room that is getting smaller with every purchase!

Hugs,

Searching Saturday on Sunday: Links for Printables

Yesterday I shared one of my hybrid cards with you and promised to share some links. This, by no means, is a complete list. If you know of any other sites, leave me a comment or send me an email. I will add it to the list giving you credit for letting me know :o)

Most, if not all, of these site offer freebies too. So if you want to see if you like making some cards or scrapbook page this way, you can try several companies out.

Mail Order PLUS instant downloads:

Charmed Cards & Crafts

Clip Crop Crafts

Papertole ~~~ Has much more than papertole items

Top Topper Shop

Instant Downloads:

The Cutting Cafe

Scrapbooking Mad

SAM Cards

Printable Haven

My Grafico

Lisa's Paper Craft Disigns

Lily Pickle

Computer Scrapbook

Crafty Designs

Cards 2 Craft

Card Making World (printable craftshop)

Busy Bee Clipart ~~~still fairly new, so in the proccess of add more items

Backing Papers Direct

Aimee Asher Inc.

Paper Shapez

Crafts U Print~~~has some great paper craft tutorials

D.A.I.S.I.E Company

Free Sites:

All Free Printables

Free Craft Downloads

Jersgirls

Have fun checking out the sites! Hugs, Sandy O

Comments from before moving to blogger

added a translator in my blog! XDThanks for the visit! Posted by: Chiara Handmade May 04, 2010 at 05:07 AM thank you for the link!!!very useful!!!Have a nice dayChiara

Comments before moving to Blogger added a translator in my blog! XD Thanks for the visit! Posted by: Chiara Handmade | May 04, 2010 at 05:07 AM thank you for the link!!! very useful!!! Have a nice day Chiara

Happy E-Mails

The other day I received an email from Digital Stamp Oasis informing me that I was chosen to be part of their new design team. I was and still am very excited. The term is from Feb. 1st until Apr. 1st.

This is actually the stamp company that I purchased my very first digital stamp from. You can see the card I made with this image on my blog post here.

They carry the cutest squirrel images as well as some rabbit, bird and butterfly images in the "cute" style. They also have a couple of new sketch images.

Since I needed to make a birthday card for my nephew who turns 17 this week, I decided to use the  "At Sea" image:

If you click on the photos, you will see the details of the image much better. She even has some men working on deck, LOL

I also made this for the Stampin' B's challenge this week to make something Nautical.

Now that is a sample of a sketch image. How about a sample of a "cute" image? 

Meet "Susie watering flowers". Isn't she adorable? Seeing how happy she is watering her flowers, I decided use her image for the cover of a chipboard scrapbook. In it I will add photos of flowers as they appear in my gardens this spring.

 I also think she is a great image to use for a little girls first scrapbook cover or a name plaque for a little girls bedroom door.

Hmmm...my mind is reeling with ideas for this adorable image of Susie as well as the other fantastic images I get to play with these next 2 months.

When you get a moment, check out the Digital Stamp Oasis Store and see all the current adorable images. I have a link directly to the store in my right side bar. HINT: I have noticed that the available images change. That means that some images may only be offered for a short time. I am not sure what exactly that means other than if you like an image...don't wait!!!

Have a wonderful Sunday and I will see you again on Monday!

Hugs, Sandy O

Explosion Box and Contests Last Day

CONTEST: WOW, last night before going to bed, I checked my stats.  Now...I have had some weird things happen with numbers, but this just floored me.  At 11:25 PM EST there were EXACTLY 16,000 views. Not one more, not one less. Isn't that weird, LOL.  I certainly did not expect it to end that way. I figured that sometime during the day, the stats would change from 15,xxx to 16, xxx. I would then post that the contest would end that night so that day would be the last chance to get in on it. 

Since it ended so strangely, today will be the last day to get in on the drawing. I will have the winner drawn by Random.org tonight at 11:00 PM EST, and post the winner immediately after.

EXPLOSION BOX: One of my SIL's likes to scrap book, but is not really big on embellishing her pages.  She likes it to be done and over with, very impatient she is, LOL. I decided that for her birthday, I would make her an explosion box. Now she can just add photos and journaling, have dressed up pages and a cute small scrap book in which she can put loads of pictures in.

    

 

This is the Parisian Breeze cover weight specialty paper which is new to Stampin' Up this catalog. I love the color combination, print, texture and weight of this paper. There simply is nothing I don't like about it. I decided to use the cover weight for this box to make it sturdier in order to with stand being around her grand children, LOL

There are so many pages on the inside I am just going to add thumb nails here.  To see any of the photos full size just click on it. 

Before I load all the photos, I would like to explain one thing. Apparently there are at least 2 ways to make these. I followed the directions for one way, which I will show you here:

With this pattern, you leave the outer corner squares intact only scoring them diagonally so that they will fold in. This is good if you would like extra space to add smaller photos, journaling or some extra embellishments.

The other way is to cut off the 4 outer squares, here they are the scored dotted ones.

For this box, especially using the heavier paper, I should have used the second pattern. Like this, the box does not explode open when the cover is taken off. Nor is it easy to close due to the weight of the paper.

Due to time constraints (we were late for her party, LOL....but not to worry, they expect it from me {{{sigh}}}I am, not matter how hard I try...consistently late, but will leave that for another post.) So will be cutting them off the next time we get together, which happens to be this weekend.

Ooooooo Kayyyyyy...Teehehehe.....onto the fun stuff! One word of caution...again due to the time constraints, I only took really quick photos, so I apologize ahead of time for the poor quality of some of them.

The 4 inner most pages (as seen above)

     

The 4 back side of the above pages:

   

This shows the middle layer, inside pages. The following are close-ups:

   

 

 

The following are the opposite sides of the above 4 pages:

 

Last, there are 4 pages on the back of the "box" paper (where the squares I will be cutting off are, but the embellished pages are not visible) Here they are:

 

I will be adding these to my scrap book album, but not today, LOL. I will let you know when they are posted with the recipes.  until then...if you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to shoot me over an email! I WILL get back to you.

Well...tomorrow is the big day! See you then....Hugs, Sandy O

Christmas 2009 is coming fast!!

HA HA HA...It sounds so far away right now doesn't it! I know that in January 2008 it was months away, teehehe. THEN..there is was!! Just kind of snuck up on me Just... Like... That! And....I was not ready for it.  I had 6 cards designed with all the paper cut out, sitting in 6 manila envelopes ready to be put together.  Sounds like it should have been no problem.

Than IT happened....Yup!!! The ice storm of the century, LOL, not one had been like it in all of 2000!!! TEEHEHE...We have lived in this house for 18 years...WOW...18 years!!! I just surprised myself, hahaha....and only once did we loose power for more than a couple of hours.  We were out of the house for 5 days, about a decade ago.  December 2008 we were out of the house for 7 days...and just about everyone else I knew was out too.  Were do you go with 3 dogs, especially when practically half the state was in the same situation. 

The Lord was good and kept my daughter and SIL in the light.  Neighborhoods around them were in the dark, but it seemed to have missed them.  PHEW...we did not have to live in the jeep for a week with the 3 dogs.  Her land lord was so very kind to let us stay there, even though he has a strict NO PETS rule! I mean strict...not even a Guinea pig or bird.  A gold fish is OK, but that is it. 

Aaaaaanyway...I was only able to get so much done in preparation for Christmas that week.  Which happened to be the 2nd week of December! When the holidays had past, I still had 3 of my manila envelopes full of cut card stock ready to be made. 

This year I WILL be prepared! For the Christmas card challenge group I joined, I chose to do at least 5 cards a month (Paul has a biiiiiig family!) This month I pulled out one of these envelopes and made 8.  The recipe can be found in the card gallery and as always, you can click on the picture for a better view of the details and bling.

I love this image.  Whenever I see a cardinal in my yard I feel like the Lord is blessing me.  Though there are plenty here in NH, my yard does not seem to be a favorite hang out for them.  We do have a family of them that comes in the warmer weather. The babies are sooooo bright and pretty.  Watching the "parents" train them is so much fun.  But the peeks at them are few.

January is over, and we are one month closer to Christmas already.  SEE....went by fast didn't it! For the month of February, I am going to challenge myself to make one scrap book layout a week. When I first started doing scrap books, I went right to the biggie...12 x 12". When I do something I tend to go all out! {{{sigh}}} when will I learn, teehehe

I have to admit that I have a hard time doing them. Sometimes a 2 page 12 x 12" layout seems over whelming. Sometimes there still isn't enough room for all the embellishments I want to add. Moderation is the key in everything! At 45 you would think I would have that down by now.  NOPE!!! Not me, LOL.

I would love you to join me in this months challenge>>>to make one scrap book layout a week<<< Any size!

I am so glad you stop by and visit me here...but I am getting lonely doing all the talking, LOL.  I love the comments that are left. I love them so much, I WANT more, LOL!!!! So leave me comments, lets get to know each other :o)

Hmmm....one blog I visit has a question of the day.  I love visiting that blog and leaving my answer as well as reading all the other ones.  Hmmmm....I don't want to COPY the idea...well, actually I would love to...but it seems so..you know...unoriginal, LOL.  I'll be putting my thinking cap on and seeing what I can come up with that is ORIGINAL. If you have any ideas, leave it in a comment, teeheheh

See you on Monday :o) Till then...HUGS, Sandy O