JUGS Challenge #13

Well, it is the day after Christmas, and my little girl and I actually slept in! It's almost 9:00 here in West Central Illinois and we've been snoozing for almost 12 hours! I guess we needed to catch up on some sleep. We did have a nice Christmas. It was very hard, but Ava girl had a good time.
We didn't want to skip this week since a lot of people have time off and time to play along. This week Dana is hosting a template challenge sponsored by Kalleigh Ratzlaff Be sure to go to the JUGS blog to read all the details. You get a discount on an order just for playing and a chance to win! Her templates are great so besure to check them out. I chose to make something out of the candy dispeser. Isn't this cute! My little girl just loves hershey kisses so I knew who and what kind of candy I wanted to use. She barely let me take a picture of my creation, she wanted it right away. I covered it with paper from Paper Studio bought at Hobby Lobby. The stamped image is from PTI's 2009 Tag Collection and a little punched out holly from Martha Stewarts punch. Then I added a little glitter for some bling!

The box is pretty tiny so smaller candy like m&ms would probably work better, but if you knew how many hershey kisses we go through you would understand!

Here's another view of the box. It was very easy to assemble and is pretty sturdy. I printed the template first on white cardstock and then on the scrapbook paper This would make cute little teacher gifts or you could dress them up for favors at a shower or wedding!

Be sure to go check out the other gals for all their creations! I'm on a mission to figure out why my blog won't let me copy/paste, but until then, head over to JUGS and show us your creations and be entered for a chance to win.

Merry Christmas

Just wanted to pop by and say Merry Christmas! This was our picture last year visiting Santa. Oh how I miss that little boy. The picture below is what I had for my Christmas cards this year and I worked very hard coming up with a design and I kept trying to tweek it and finally figured out what was missing. It wasn't a ribbon, button, or some bling, it was my little boy. Not many have to go through what we have in the past year and I hope and pray noone else ever does, but it hasn't been easy. Christmas just isn't the same this year. We have everything up, our tree, stockings, and I even had everything bought for my cards, but I just couldn't bring myself to get them made.

I tell you what you miss when you lose a child, it's the everyday things and the big things. I remember at Christmas the kids would come to the top of the steps and wait as I went to get my camera to take their picture as they came down to look in their stocking. I remember Ethan putting the coookies on the platter for Santa last year. I remember playing air hockey most of the morning when there were still a ton of unwrapped presents under the tree. I remember Ethan being thrilled with his new tool bench and Ava being so excited about her new vanity. We even had a puppet show with the kids and Daddy. Santa even found a donkey and a horse puppet. All of this is just a memory now and it still seems so strange and surreal that Ethan isn't here. We are very blessed and so fortunate to have our baby Kale and Ava here, but there is always going to be something missing! That something is my little boy, Ethan. Oh how he could light up a room with his big smile.

For those of you out there worried about the cooking, shopping, wrapping presents, and sending cards.....remember what the true meaning of Christmas is. We have had so much taken away this year and so much given that it is hard to balance our grief ridden hearts with the blessings that we have had too. To all of you....thanks for dropping by and I hope you have a very Merry and Blessed Christmas this year!

JUGS Color Challenge #12

Be sure to check out the other JUGS creations: Kristin, Dana, Lisa, Maria, Mona, Tracey, Pam

It's time again for another JUGS Challenge. This week's challege was a little tough I thought. We used colors that I wouldn't typically put together, but I really like the color combo now that I used it. It's always good to try something new every once in a while. We had company all day yesterday and I had been so busy earlier in the week working on a Christmas present for my husband that I literally through this card together in a few minutes before we had to leave last night. I really don't enjoy making cards under pressure, but sometimes I think I work better when I have a deadline. The colors I used were all from PTI, Rasberry Fizz, Pure Poppy, Kraft, and New Leaf. Now I need to concentrate and work on my Christmas cards. My goal is to mail them Monday so we'll see if that happens! Here's a little update on the home front too. Above is Kale at 1 month. I sat him next to this moose and am hoping to continue to take his picture by this so you can see how big he is getting. I jumped on the scale the other day with him and he is almost 12 lbs....isn't that amazing! He is really a very good baby and only fusses when he has wet/dirty pants or wants to eat. He eats a LOT and lets you know is he is hungry!!!

Monday we went to the mall so we could visit with Santa. Ava girl was so cute. She wasn't scared at all. She decided about a week ago that she wanted a baby doll bed from Santa and she knows exactly what she wants. She proceeded to tell him the shape, what size, and color that she wanted her bed to be. Too bad Santa has been done with Ava for several weeks now. So I spent a good portion of this week trying to find her a bed online that would get here in time. I think I accomplished that, but I had to explain to her that Santa might not get us exactly the bed that she wanted. Here's a picture of Ava and Kale with Santa. I probably won't make it back here before Christmas so here's wishing all of you a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

JUGS Technique Challenge #11

Kristin was the hostess this week for a very cool challenge, chalkboard technique. I have never tried this technique before and I really like it. It makes the images so soft and real looking. What you need to do is use a pigment ink and then take some dobbers or a sponge and apply chalk over your stamped image. It's very easy to do. Then you can wipe away the excess chalk with a swiffer wipe or I didn't have that so I just used a paper towel. It's pretty cool and quick and easy!

I am very far behind with my scrapbooking so I'm making an attempt to take these challenges and create scrapbook pages. I really like how these pages turned out. As anyone knows that follows my blog, I LOVE to take pictures of my kiddos. I'm so glad that I do because since we lost our son it is so nice to have our photographs to look back upon.

Here is my stamped image using SU's set, Inspired By Nature. I haven't used this set a ton, but everything I've made with it I just love. Last Christmas I made some coasters for my sister-in-law for Christmas on some tiles I bought at Lowes (that's an idea for a challenge)! I added a little bling with some glitter on the centers of my flowers. This is just a close up of the title I used for this page. I wanted this page to be very formal looking and I think I accomplished that with my paper and my choice of text. Only 2 more months before Kale is this age. Do you see the similarities of my kids??Here's page 2 and I added some journaling just by typing in word. I like to use text boxes for all of my journaling. I decided to try stamping the flowers on my text and I love how it turned out. It. I added some pieces of bracket cut paper that was embossed with my cuttlebug just to add some accents to my pages. The background paper.....well, I had it all glued down before I looked at where I got it from so your guess is as good as mine. It's been in my scrapbook now for over 3 years so I'm guessing it isn't something new!
Here's a closeup of my journaling. I may be behind on my scrapbooking, but I do journal quite often in just a word document. I have one for all 3 of my kids and I'll update it about once a month or more often when they are little like Kale. Again, I'm so glad I have this as it helps to keep my memories of Ethan.

Of course, last, but definitely not least, here are Kale and Ava. I was attempting to get some picture so Kale under the tree and Ava wanted to hold him and be in the picture too....aren't they cute. Yes, I'm biased, but that is what Moms are for!!! That's it for me today. Be sure to go to the JUGS site and check out the other girls creations and link up your own for a chance to be CHIC of the week! I really am looking at all of your creations, but not very often right now do I have 2 hands to type on the computer. I'm usually holding one of my kids so I'll get some comments out to you soon.....the little ones only stay little for a short time so I'm getting all of the cuddling time I can get!!! Have a great weekend. We have a cookie exchange to go to today and then a birthday party for my friend's little girl tonight. It should be fun!!!

"I'm BACK" for JUST US GIRLS Week 10 Sketch Challenge!

So I've been MIA for a while, but had a "few" little things on my platter, and still do! I wanted to get back into the swing of things so I got the JUGS sketch sometime yesterday and literally got 10 minutes to sit down with the sketch, cut, stamp, and make my card, not bad for only 10 minutes work! See you can make a card quickly if you need to!

The sketch is drawn up in blues and that got me my color scheme. I've really been into sparkles and silver lately so you might be seeing a lot more "bling" from me! I used one of PTI's sets, Star Prings. The swirls around the edges are from an SU set called Season of Joy. I can honestly say that I have used that set over and over again. I just love the swirl in it.

I was going to add brads at the top and bottom corners and then spotted there was a tiny star in the set so I thought that would be perfect. The blue is called Enchanted Evening from PTI. I love this blue. Then I used silver paper from PTI as well. The sparkle on my star is from Martha Stewart. Last year Wal-Mart had all of their Christmas stuff at half off after the holidays so I stocked up and am so glad I did. Her glitter is top notch!

I actually got this posted pretty early this morning. Weekends are my days off as my husband gets up with our new baby to feed him. As long as I can get a day off to catch up on sleep I do pretty good. Kale sleeps pretty good and gets up every 3 hours to eat. Ava doesn't even wake up in the middle of the night when he cries....thankfully!

I have a ton of stuff that I'm trying to get finished up before Christmas. The main stuff is finished, decorations, shopping, wrapping, now I just need to wrap up some loose ends. I'll be sharing with you soon a new website that we are creating. You'll get all of the details soon.....hopefully!

Thought I would share a picture of my little guy too. Kale turned 3 weeks old yesterday and I thought I would get a cute little picture. He wanted nothing to do with getting his picture taken. I took this one in Daddy's arms, but when I went to move him onto a blanket all he did was cry. He's so cute though even when he is sleeping!

Hope all of you have a great weekend. Our little guy gets baptized Sunday so we are very excited and blessed.

Be sure to stop by and see all of the girls creations:

Dana

Kristin

Mona

Lisa

Maria

Tracey

Pam

Some new Digis (a little late!)

Aren't these new digis from Pink Cat Studio adorable! I finally am back after having our little one and I'm a day late posting.....I'll get back into the swing of things soon, I hope! I remembered I forgot to do this and had to get it uploaded, even though it is only 3:30 in the morning (Kale was awake so I am too :-) Be sure to check out all of the other gals too!

Kale's Announcment

Thought I would share Kale's baby announcement. He is truly a blessing to our family. He's a great little baby and is such a cuddler which I just love. Kale is doing great at night and is eating about every 3 hours and goes back to sleep in between....that is if I don't fall asleep with him in my arms! We are so thankful to have him.