Love Variety Swap Card Round 2

Colors : Black, Bamboo, Col White, Garden Green, Desert Sand

Paper : Creative Basics Silhouette ('08)

Stamps : Soul Mates

Accents : Liquid Glass, black and ivory organdy, black ribbon, cuttlebug swirl embossing, pewter triangle paper clip

My second card for the swap in round two. Liquid glass was added to the love. This card was much quicker than the first one since I wasn't cutting out so many letters and hearts lol. Card size is 6 x 4.25. Kind of an odd size but then most of my cards are :D My favorite part is the stamping inside the scallop circle. I wanted to do something a little more artsy and I think it turned out pretty. I've only made the one so far to get the design out since I didn't sketch this one like I did with the other, but I'm pretty sure these cards will get done quickly.

Love Variety Swap Card Round 1

Colors : Black, Col White, Bamboo, Desert Sand

Papers : Creative Basics Silhouette ('08)

Stamps : Soul Mate, Homestead

Accents : Liquid glass, ribbon, black brad, col white edge anchor, cuttlebug embossing, pop dots

This card I made for one round of a swap that I'm in. The theme is love and the challenge is to use new products in the upcoming Spring catty. Card size is 5x6. I wanted to use these papers with another color like red, but then thought I'd try the regular color scheme out first. My second round cards will probably have a pop of color in them. It's been fun playing with some new product right away. I'm so conservative when it comes to using new papers or embellies that I get. I always try to use up old stuff before playing with my new stuff, in fact some of my summer and fall catty papers still haven't been touched because I keep thinking I need to use up more of my stash first. This swap challenged me to step out of my comfort zone and play with my new papers right off. At first I was a little distressed, but now I'm excited. This was a fun card to make once. Making 11 wore me out and took my spare time between 2 days to make them all but I think the results are worth it as I'm really happy with how they turned out. I hope the other ladies in the swap also like it.

My Treasure

Colors : Baby Pink, Blush, Sweet Leaf, Amethyst, Col White

Papers : Sweet Harmony ('07)

Stamps : Serendipity, Playful Flourishes, Adorable, Doodle Alpha

Accents : Pearl paint, circle windows, liquid glass, stickles (crystal), col white waxy flax, ribbon (unknown), amethyst and garden green brads, col white edge anchors

Uses Imagine's Medley for the basic layout design. My title was different size as well as some of the paper I had left, so I adjusted it to fit what I had. I had wanted to use a pink instead of col white background but it just seemed to fight too much with the peachy color of Audrey's cute shirt and I really wanted her pictures to pop. This was a really quick layout and the details were very fun to do. My favorite part was making all the fun candy details, especially the big corner flowers with the circle windows.

Card or Candy

Colors : Baby Pink, Blush, Amethyst, Sweet Leaf, Col White

Papers : Sweet Harmony ('07)

Stamps : Serendipity, Playful Flourishes, Doodle Alpha, Adorable

Accents : Circle Windows, Edge Anchors, Amethyst brad, Col White waxy flax, ribbon (unknown), stickles, pearl paint, white daisy ink

I made this from an idea that popped into my head while making the last layout. I haven't put it on a card base since I'm still undecided on whether to make it into a card and add a few more embellies or to put it on a layout, size is 4x8. I put some pearl paint on the flowers in the petals and on their tips as well as the amethyst middle. The first pic is with the flash which really makes the paint shine up. The second is more how it looks. Fun to make though a little difficult with the paint at first. I used a very thin layer. I think the paint is more white than clear so if it's too think than the color won't show through. This Serendipity stamp set is just way too cute. I have yet to use the papers though and I'm in baby mode right now (not baby hungry thank goodness!! lol). So I've been trying to do some of Audrey's first year in between playing Wii tennis and watching Heroes along with regular mom duties lol. Doesn't leave much time for creating lately :D. But hopefully Mark will take his stuff back home soon so I won't have so many fun toys to play with lol.

Grow

Colors : Amethyst, Baby Pink, Sweet Leaf, Col White

Papers : Sweet Harmony ('07)

Stamps : Playful Flourishes, Seredipity (leaves) , Solo B

Accents : Big Blooms Pink, Amethyst buttons, ribbon (various), baby pink safety pins, Dimensional Elements simple alpha and ribbon slides, garden green brad

This layout has been sitting on my table unfinished for the past 2 days. All because of Heroes!! My hubby and I don't watch TV, but a friend said we had to see this series and brought over the first season on DVD. Needless to say we are hooked!! We've gone through the first 4 discs (out of 7) in the past 2 days!! All after the girls have gone to bed! Well, I finally finished this layout tonight and it's actually a good thing that it took me awhile because my order arrived today so I got to use the new big blooms and my Seredipity stamp set.

Poem reads :

At first you didn't lift your head, you didn't know to smile.

The time before you knew my voice seemed such a long, long while.

I couldn't wait for you to roll, and then to sit and clap.

And now you're off and crawling, not helpless in my lap.
Why didn't someone tell me, how fast a baby grows?

That every little baby stage soon comes, but sooner goes.
So I'll enjoy the fleeting time before you learn to walk.

And treasure every tiny noise before you learn to talk.
For soon you'll learn to walk then run, and talk and sing a song,

A little girl you will become, the baby will be gone.

So baby Audrey small and sweet, please take a bit more time

To grow into a little girl for while you're small, you're mine.

by Diane Woolley, the last three verses changed by me to fit what I wanted and still have the same theme.

Sally

Colors : Holiday Red, Cranberry, Indian Corn Blue, Dutch Blue, Bamboo, Col White

Papers : Route 66 ('07), Garden B&T ('07)

Stamps : Rustic Flowers, Boutique Alpha, Sans Small Caps and Lowercase, Elegant Alpha (punctuations)

Accents : Liquid Glass, Hemp

My swap page for Sally in the Dr. Suess swap I'm in. This will be my page, the first out of 10 to make :S. At least all the quote, title, and flower stamping is done. Now it's just RSing the rest of the pages, cutting out, and putting together. I think I'm finally getting a better grip on making swap 12x12s. It really is quite the learning curve. Sally was scanned from one of the Cat in the Hat books. I don't remember which since I just scanned a bunch of her then picked out 2 to alter then decide between. She's actually in black and white with the exception of her bow which was red. I used colored pencils to color her in, using my memory of the cartoon and just trying to match her with the page colors a little. The top left flower is pop dotted and the petals are curved so it's a bit more 3D than the picture shows. Still needs one more embellie to meet the swap requirements but I haven't decided what to use yet.

Beautiful You

Colors : Holiday Red, Hollyhock, Sweet Leaf, Desert Sand, Bamboo, Col White

Stamps : Asian Chic?? (old wood style stamps CTMH), Homestead, Solo B (beautiful)

Accents : Beads (Unknown), Hemp, Prisma Glitter, Glue pen, Liquid glass

So I was looking through the new catty... again :D, and I saw some asian type inspired stamps. Well they reminded me of the wood ones I bought when I was first introduced to CTMH. I had gotten 2 stamp sets plus the Asian Chic paper pack and have loved them all (paper is long gone sadly). In fact this is one of the few wood stamps sets that I just couldn't part with. I had a tough time with the hollyhock stamped paper but RSing with wood stamps isn't too bad. I wish they would release these stamps again in acrylix :D They did release 'some' of the stamps from the set the first year they put out acrylix, but not all the pretty flowers or borders :P.

Christmas 06 Done!!

The last layout!! I'm finally done scrapping my 2006 Christmas pics, lol. Total of 10 pages with 43 pictures!! Of course in a couple weeks I'll have this years Christmas pics to scrap lol.

Colors : Holiday Red, Clover Meadow, Vanilla Cream

Papers : Hollydays ('06)

Stamps : Believe Caps, Simple Stitches (for stitching guide)

Accents : Embroidery floss (DMC), Buttons (various)

I used buttons and stitching again to tie in with the previous layout. It probably would have been a lot faster with a sewing machine but the stitching wouldn't have popped out as much with just thread and I really wanted it to show :D I was going to make a card today or scrap some of the '06 spring pics I still have but thought only one more 2 page layout and I can be done!!! So I caved and did it. Uses Imagine's Personality Presence with more B&T instead of cardstock. Now I only have 2 sheets and some small scraps left of that Hollydays paper!! I'm so proud of myself :D

Hanna Rain - Thinking about you

Colors : Cocoa, Hollyhock, Sweet Leaf, Heavenly Blue, White Daisy

Paper : Groovy Blossoms ('06)

Stamps : Just Because, Rain Rain come this way (Hanna)

Accents : Rhinestones, stickles crystal, silver brads, hollyhock eyelets, heavenly blue organdy, green paper flower (Prima), colored pencils, sponge

I'm really going to miss this paper. I just used the last of my flower b&t scraps from this set. But they definitely went to good use! Dress and umbrella paper pieces from the small floral print, the rest of Hanna is colored in with colored pencils. I really need to get the CTMH ones for better color matching, or just find a better set of pencils. This card was so fun to make!! I mean it was really really fun. I was going through my scraps to make a card with the shopping Hanna set then saw the groovy paper and went that would be so cute with the rain Hanna!! Immediately I set to work. She's so cute!! I don't think I'm going to be able to give her away, lol!

Cozy Christmas

The four posts below are my four favorite layouts that I made at the beginning of the year. I wanted to share since now it's at the end of the year and I thought it would be fun to look back. Now here's the layout I finished today.



Colors : Holiday Red, Clover Meadow, Vanilla Cream, Col White,

Papers : Hollydays ('06)

Stamps : Doodle Alpha, Simple Stitches (as a stitching guide)

Accents : Simple Alpha Dim Elements, Buttons (various), embrodiery floss (DMC),

This is my fav Christmas layout that I've made so far! I pulled out my old buttons that I haven't used in forever and just went to town! I haven't stitched on a layout in so long either. It just added the perfect touch I think. The layout uses Imagine's Proof Preview. The left side pretty much follows the layout instructions but the right is VERY tweaked. I also swapped some of the B&T paper cuts and placements to use up just one sheet of red instead of two. A couple more 2 page layouts and I think I'll finally be done with last year's Christmas pictures!

First Kiss

And the last post from my favorite layouts made at the beginning of this year : This one is my favorite out of all of these because of the precious picture. I made a duplicate of this for my close friend, whose little boy is kissing my girl!!

Colors : Chocolate, Cocoa, Blush, Col. White, Vanilla Cream

Paper : Adorable ('07)

Stamps : Storytime Lowercase, Rustic Alpha, Because I love you, Adorable, Simple Stitches

And this one doesn't have any embellies either. I really had fun with this layout and the chocolate really goes well with the sepia picture. The picture was printed on heavy cardstock in canvas style with the sepia tone. It turned out so fun!

Sophisticated

Colors : Hollyhock, Baby Pink, Black, White Daisy

Papers : Stylin ('05)

Stamps : Totally Chic, Classic Caps, Boutique Alpha, Small Pleasures

Accents : Pink Grosgrain, Black brads, black hinge

I actually bought this paper specifically for these pictures with a layout already in mind. I love the pictures of Caitie wearing my glasses (back before they cracked and I switched back to contacts). This has always been one of my favorites because of the colors and the silly pics of Caitlyn.

Discovery and Out for a Stroll

Colors : Topiary, Hollyhock, White Daisy

Paper : Discover ('06)

Stamps : Beauty Seen, Friendship Blessings, Giggle Caps and Lowercase, Journalling Jots

Accents : Hollyhock Accents, Hollyhock ribbon rounds,

This has always been one of my favorite paper packs. It's easy to love anything I make with these papers. Also made at the beginning of the year.

Sisters

Colors : Baby Pink, Blush, Sweet Leaf, Col White

Papers : Cocoa Cafe ('05), Winter Cozy B&T ('07)

Stamps : Boutique Alpha

I was looking back at some of the layouts that I did at the beginning of this year and picked out a few of my favorites to post :D This layout is one of my most favorites and not just because the pictures are so cute! It doesn't have a single embelly, the flowers are cut out of the B&T to use as accents, yet it is still one of my favorite layouts ever. I just love the way it flows, the colors and how simple it is which really gives these fun pictures the show.

Classic Christmas

Colors : Honey, Clover Meadow, Holiday Red

Paper : Hollydays ('06)

Stamps : Tis the Season to be Pretty (Hanna), Adorable Backgrounds, Solo T (for the planter pot)

Accents : bigger rhinestones, gold brads, gold ribbon, liquid glass, gold stickles, galaxy gold ink

Wow this is just one of those cards that the picture really doesn't do it any justice. The green background is stamped with galaxy gold. You can barely see it in the pic but in real life it's nice and shimmery. The star has glitter on though you can't tell and my gold glitter looks horrid on the tree in this pic, lol. It's actually very glittery instead of looking like a smudge lol. Skirt was pieced from Hollydays and the light yellow background is the last of my yellow stripe b&t, the back side. Pot is also piece from the B&T then drawn on with a white gel pen. The ornaments and pot have liquid glass on them.

A slanted pic to try and show the shimmer. It's such a fun card in person :D

Sisterhood of Blogging Stampers - 2

Your Elf Name Is...

Buddy Twinkle Wink

What's" Your Elf Name?

I've seen these around and thought they were so funny :D So after perusing Scrappernic's blog I finally broke down and got my silly little elf name!

As for the SBS4 update our group is now full!! I'm pretty excited. We've got ladies from all over plus two of my fellow CTMH ladies Nicole and Sparkle. I'm still making rounds to visit all my sister's blogs to see all their great work. I forgot to post some tidbits about myself on my first post for my fellow sisters so here goes.

My name is Marjorie and I've been married to my wonderfully charming hubby Paul for 6 years. We have two gorgeous and silly girls ages 4 and 2 that keep me constantly running around. I'm a SAHM and whenever I get the chance (which is usally after the kids go to bed :D) I love to scrapbook and make cards. I became a CTMH consultant last fall after being a customer for 3 years. And while I haven't done much with the business side of CTMH I've loved all the perks that come with being a consultant :D I've been scrapping seriously for the past four and a half years but had been introduced to scrapping and started casually creating nearly eleven years ago.

I also love to read (fantasy and romance) and write (some poetry and fiction stories though nothing is finished lol), cross stitch, sew (nothing complicated though!), and ORGANIZE (this one drives my hubby crazy). I'm slowly starting to enjoy cooking, mostly because it tastes so much better, and I've always liked baking. I play the piano, guitar and flute though currently I don't have a guitar or flute anymore. Still have my piano though, which is my first choice anyway :D. I love to sing and my hubby says I have a pretty voice though sometimes I think he's just being nice, lol.

My daughters love to sing with me and dance (of course they also like to pretend I'm a pony!), and I love taking pictures of them! Sometimes I think I take way to many because I keep getting farther and farther behind on my scrapping! I've really enjoyed blogging so far and have become addicted to posting ;D so I'm on the computer at least daily now as compared to maybe once a week back before I started posting lol. So there's some stuff about me, it's starting to turn into a novel here so I'll stop typing lol.

Deck the Halls Hanna!

Colors : Heavenly Blue, Chocolate, Bamboo, White Daisy

Paper : Just Chillin' ('06)

Stamps : Tis the Season to be Pretty (Hanna), Joy

Accents : Chocolate grosgrain, Chocolate mini brads and bigger brad, Breeze waxy flax, stickles crystal

Another card for Gabby's challenge : http://confessionsofastamper.blogspot.com/ And I finally used my new hanna stamp!! Love her!! Her clothes and the ornaments are paper pieced from the patterned paper in Just Chillin'. Stickles on the Joy and across the white stripe of the ornament she's holding. I really like how this one turned out!

Sisterhood of Blogging Stampers

So I was looking at Gabby's site and found http://sisterhoodofthebloggingstampers.blogspot.com/ . They were starting another group of blogging sisters and I thought this was just something I have to do! I love getting new inspiration from forums and blogs out there and it's even nicer to be apart of a group of sisters. The links to my fellow blogging sisters' sites are on the left under my SBS4 badge. They've got some great blogs going so check them out!

Merry Christmas Trees

Colors : Sweet Leaf, Olive, Honey, Col. White

Stamps : Legendary Moments, Glistening Snow, Ho Ho Ho, Make it a Simple Christmas

Accents : Cream Organdy, Stickles crystal, garden green brads, pop dots

I just got my Legendary Moments set back!! :D I had lent it out to a friend for the last week or so and got it back today! And it was perfect timing since I saw the inspiration for this card tonight and immediately thought of this stamp set. Inspiration, colors, and sketch from the SCS card sketch challenge for last week. Tried something new and used stickles on my garden green brads. I think it turned out pretty. This was another funny sized card. I don't even have the measurements because I just eyeballed all my cuts while I was making it, even the card base.

O Holy Night

Colors : Chocolate, Heavenly Blue, Crystal Blue, Galaxy Gold

Stamps : Bethlehem, Snow Friends, Glistening Snow

Accents : Glue stamp pad, gold glitter (stampendous), Stickles Gold, Cuttlebug Embossing (Swirl)

Alright I wasn't going to do this but I couldn't help myself!! Another card using Gabby's sketch and starting with her color challenge. I was going to add just a touch of gold and then it turned into gold here and gold there and soon my galaxy gold stamp pad was all over the place!! The card is more shimmery in real life.

Morning Glories!!

I found out my camera takes both XD and SD cards. I thought I had to have an XD card (which doesn't fit into a computer slot) and I bought and XD card, but I'm going to be taking it back to exchange for an SD since I do have a computer slot for that and it's so much easier than plugging your camera in via the USB port, not to mention much faster to upload directly from the card to the computer when you just use the SD. I already made sure that the SD works in the camera (I had an old small spare one that I use in my MiniDV). Here's a couple pics I took of my girls in my very dim! livingroom this morning. This is on auto everything. I am so happy with this camera!!

Audrey and her crazy morning hair!!



Caitlyn being her sweet little self :D She saw Audrey on the LCD and went 'Wow! Caitie's picture too!' her way of saying she wants a picture of her too. I took about 6-8 pics of each girl with about a 75% of the photos coming out nice and clear. This was also in fairly fast succession. About a picture every 5-10 seconds (camera still on auto, not on continuous shooting). I'm very happy with the results especially since even my 35mm didn't even take pictures this nice. The background is nice and clear instead of darkened out like usual when taking pics inside our home.

My artwork also comes out with truer, more vibrant colors. But I will still be using my MiniDV for my artwork because of file size. File size for my new camera per pic is usually around 1.45MB and file size for my MiniDV is only around 140KB. Big difference when it comes to upload and download times!! And I won't be making photo prints of my art. I love my new clearer, more color true pictures but I'll sacrifice some quality for the smaller size for posted artwork. Besides I haven't quite figured out how to get the focus light to not show up in the picture when using the lighting setting for taking my artwork pics. I know if I play around with a little more I'll figure it out. For sure this is a rockin' camera!

What a day!

This post is for Monday :P It's just way late (past 12am!)

So today started out pretty badly. It was Caitlyn's first day and the morning was just awful for us. Not only did Caitie wake up in the middle of the night, she stayed up for nearly three hours!! Needless to say when I had to wake her up this morning not only was I grumpy from staying up with her to try to coax her back to sleep, but she was really grumpy as well. She whined, fought, and cried all through breakfast, getting ready and even doing her hair. I did get first day of school pics but the first couple might be a little teary :S Plus she didn't want to pose for pictures since she was in a bad mood. She did look super cute though even with the tears!

Things went a little better on the way to school. She was happy to get to wear her new backpack and new jacket and when we got to the school she was really excited. The classroom was cute and though Caitlyn seemed to have a hard time initially with the new routine, she also seemed to be quite happy to be there. I have another little one at home and needed to take my hubby to the college for class (it's tough only having one car sometimes), so I didn't get to stay too long. Which was fine because by the time I left she was already doing her one on one lessons with one of the teachers.

After dropping my hubby off at school I got to visit my upline and get... THE NEW CATTY!!! And oh my gosh do I love it! I didn't get much time to look through though since by the time I left my upline's house it was time for Audrey and I to go pick up Caitie from preschool. She apparently had a great time in class but when I came to pick her up she was also very excited to come back home. The day was much better by now and only got better as it continued on. The girls played so well today and Caitlyn was in a much better mood.

Then the mail came and I got an even bigger surprise. My mom sent us a large gift card for my birthday, Caitie's b-day and Christmas! She had already sent us a box with presents for everyone so this was an extra surprise. So not only did I get the new catty but we got this as well. It felt like Christmas already!! Then I tell my hubby about it and the amount was large enough so that I could get a new camera (something I've wanted for a long time!) and he lets me go out to Target to pick one out.

So, can you guess what my early Christmas present was? Yup, a camera!! I got a Fugi FinePix S700 and so far am loving it. It's my first digital camera and I am so happy with it right now. The real test will be tomorrow when I try it out on my girls but so far the pics I've been taking just of my hubby and his sister (plus various things in the house and outside tonight) have turned out great! The auto works wonderfully on it's own but the camera also has so many settings I must have taken at least 200+ pictures tonight just to play around with settings. Plus the lag time is so much shorter than all the other cameras I played with (a huge plus when trying to take pictures of kids).

Our Christmas tree using a pretty setting (I don't remember which one lol. I should really write them down! I was just cycling through to see different effects.)

And our nativity on auto :D or at least a part of it. It's just a little cheapy one that we've had for years, but it works. One day I'd love to get a really nice nativity set (one day when my kids are grown and moved out, lol!)

So I didn't make anything today, just took pics, cleaned house, played with my girls, and ogled the catty!

Snow Princess

Colors : Watermelon, Bubblegum, Orchard Bouquet, Black, White Daisy

Stamps : Glistening Snow, Princess, Snow Friends, Ho Ho Ho, Seasonal Thoughts

Accents : Rhinestones, Stickles Crystal, Liquid Glass, Black Organdy, White Daisy ink, cuttlebug embossing (snowflake), pop dots

I feel so bad. I totally forgot that tomorrow we are celebrating Caitie's birthday (it's not until next Saturday but this is when family was available). So I've been frantically trying to put this together before I go to bed since I KNOW I won't get the chance to tomorrow before the party. The liquid glass and stickles are even still wet in the photo because I'm pretty sure I'll forget to take a picture if I wait until tomorrow when it's dry. I used the same sketch as the last card. I wasn't really feeling very creative with a design and decided the sketch was so cute that it doesn't hurt to use it again in almost the exact same way lol. Lots of fun glitter on this one. I think I did a little better controlling the stickles but I from now on it'll probably be a strictly 'big coverage' glitter item. Detail glitter I think I'm still better off with the prisma and a glue pen. I glittered her crown, buttons, the i in princess, and all the way around the outside rim of the P circle. Liquid glass was put on the heart in her crown, the heart she's holding, and on the center P. I embossed white daisy CS then sponged lightly over with bubblegum to make the snowflakes pop. It was a lot of fun to make this card since the colors are so non traditional for snow. And I LOVED making the crown for the little snow girl (I added eyelashes so that she was a girl instead of a snow man).

Winter Wonder

Colors : Heavenly Blue, Crystal Blue, Chocolate, White Daisy

Stamps : Winter Wonder, Snowfriends, Newly Fallen Snow, Tis the Season to be Pretty (Hannastamps)

Accents : Heavenly Blue Organdy, Rhinestone, Crystal Stickles, Cuttlebug Embossing (snowflakes), Sanding, Edge Distressing, Pop Dots,

This card was made for http://confessionsofastamper.blogspot.com/ and her blog candy challenge. She already used the Hanna stamp I wanted to use to make my card so I tried to some up with something different. I might make another card entry with my new hannastamp anyway though!

I was having a hard time with the stickles, it's my first time using them. The pick was taken while it was still wet even, lol. This was a fun card to make! I like how all the layers came together and the stamping on the textured white cardstock. The card ended up being a weird size since I didn't start out with a set size, 5 3/4 x 5 1/4. I also spent way to much time trying to cut out all those little snowflakes above the snowman lol. But all in all I've very happy with the result. I'm going to have to use these colors together again!

Thanks for your comments

It's funny. I started this blog on a whim, just for fun really and I didn't expect to ever get comments on my blog. Now when I get an email update from a comment left on my blog I get all excited! It's like 'Yay! Someone read my blog and actually liked it enough to post a comment!' The post before the last one, 'Getting ready to go to school now' was probably one of most personal posts on my blog so far. I was so surprised to get comments on that because there wasn't any artwork, just a picture of my daughter and a bit of what was going on in my life (albeit an important bit). It was so touching to get supportive comments on that post, so thank you the kittens' mother and scrappernic for sending online hugs and support my way. It really means a lot!

Christmas Morning

Colors : Clover Meadow, Honey, Holiday Red, Col White

Papers : Hollydays ('06)

Stamps : No Peeking, Make it A Simple Christmas, Floral Delights (photo corners), Giggle Lowercase

Accents : Pop dots

I finally finished that layout I started yesterday. It's not one of my better layouts but I think that's just because I'm not really feeling the title. My favorite part is the paper pieced presents.

Here's the title on the right page. It's alright. I like the tag and I like the morning. I'm just not really liking them together?

Well, whatever. I like the layout as a whole. Maybe the title will grow on me :D

Getting ready for school now

For the past two and a half weeks we've been taking Caitie into the local school district preschool to be tested for developmental delays. While we knew she was behind other kids we didn't realize just how far behind she is. She has 'severe' developmental delays in speech/communication and cognitive development. She also has some signs of autism. I've worried off an on about her development for just over a year now and had hoped as well as assumed that this was just something she'd outgrow and that she'd catch up to the other kids her age soon enough.

Like most mothers I want my child to succeed and I would hope life to be easier for her than it was for me. I would like her to be better and do better than I did and yet here she is already struggling with just saying a complete sentence or relaying a single thought. On average other children her age have 100% understandable speech. Caitlyn's is at less than 30%. It's both easy and hard for me to believe that she's so far behind. She has such a difficult time communicating to me and it's frustrating for everyone, especially her. But she is so sweet and silly. Caitie loves to draw and sing, and she's so affectionate and strives to be good. She's so bright and loves to be funny that many times it's hard for me to think of her as 'behind' or to even believe that she might have something like autism. At the same time I look at it and go 'yeah that makes sense' because of all the difficulties she has communicating with us and sometimes even understanding us.

I can't even descibe the overwhelming feeling of relief I felt when the teachers explained to me that her delays were not because of anything we as parents had or had not done for her. I know that many days I wonder if I'm a good mom, if I'm doing enough for my girls, if I'm teaching them enough or spending enough time with them, reading to them enough or playing with them as much as I need to. My hubby constantly tells me I'm a good mother, but sometimes I wonder if I really am. Especially when Caitie started falling behind. Then I was constantly thinking that it was something that I just wasn't doing. I bought flash cards and preschool books. I drew shapes and showed her letters. I read her more books and none of it seemed to get her to 'catch up' to the other kids. When they told me it wasn't me, I almost cried right there in front of all three special ed teachers.

Then came the part where they told me she's eligible for the free preschooling services which will target her communication and cognitive delays. She'll even meet with a speech therapist at least once a month all at no cost to us which is an absolute Godsend. Preschool is completely unaffordable for us let alone having her see a speech therapist. I was, and still am, so happy that my dear little Caitie is able to get the help she needs from such patient and enthusiastic teachers (they even played with her during different parts of the meeting so that she wouldn't be bored). They relayed to me their goals and had high hopes for her. Caitie doesn't start Kindergarten until fall '09 so she has a little while to catch up. I'm so happy that we were able to get her tested now and have this help available for her before she starts Kindergarten. She loves to learn and I think she'll really like preschool. I pray that this will help her and that she'll be able to reach the goals that are set. In the meanwhile I'll just keep doing what I can and enjoy my silly little Caitie while she's still small.

On a side note I haven't had the chance to finish scrapping from earlier since I've been trying to relay the info to family that was worried about her and fill out the paperwork for her enrollment between regular mom duties. She gets to start school on Monday so it's push push push to get things done and have her prepared with all the stuff she'll need by then. I'm excited for her and I'm so glad we got to this early.

My Chaotic Corner of the World

I've noticed that a lot of ladies post pics of their scrap spaces. I don't have a scrap room or even a real stationary corner since I scrap on my dining table, lol. So all my stuff is pretty much easy to move and is actually stored elsewhere (basically anywhere up high out of my tot's reach or in the closet). All my stamps are in photo boxes (they can hold 25 in a box and are very cheap) and most all of my other scrap stuff gets put into my Crop in Style XXL, which when packed right can actually hold everything I have except the stamps and my cuttle bug machine (yes that includes all my paper, punches, inks, embossing heater and powders, we are talking everything. When I get to scrap then I claim a couple extra baskets, that just hang around to keep whatever in, to hold embellies I've been using a lot so that I have easier access to them while I'm crafting. I also keep my inks out when I'm scrapping instead of in the Crop in Style. Everything is quite tidy when my scrap stuff is put away, but when I get the chance to create WATCH OUT!

The left end of the table while I'm working :P Yeah, I'm a messy scrapper. My creativity thrives on clutter! (this was taken today while I'm in the middle of my next set of scrap pages which will get posted sometime tonight after I finish :D) Just thought I'd take a break and document my little bit of chaos which 'sometimes' gets cleaned up before dinner lol.

The mini table behind where I sit. I keep the inks there and just kind of toss whatever I'm not currently using back there as well lol. The mini Christmas tree is taking up half the table so I have to be a bit more careful with the mess than usual.
The floor behind where I sit. I like to keep most all my stamps where I can see them because if I don't see it, it doesn't get used!! And I'm lazy and don't want to keep getting up to see if such and such stamp set works with what I'm doing. I want it all right there around me lol!

My big XXL Crop in Style sits next to me holding all my papers, adhesive, along with everything else so that I have easy access to it while it does double duty and blocks my tots from getting into what I'm working on (well it actually only stops them when they aren't determined to play with my stuff, lol). So all that is what my hubby sees and probably my girls too, but this is what I see because I'm focused on just the tiny section of this mess that contains the pieces I'm working on.
Anyway, there's my fun little break in the middle of the day. Just thought I'd share :D

Nativity

Colors : Clover Meadow, Holiday Red, Honey, Col White

Paper : Hollydays ('06)

Stamps : Bethelehem, Homestead Alpha, Sans Small Lowercase

Accents : Liquid Glass, Mini Sparkle, yellow organdy, pop dots,

I'm still debating whether or not I want to color in the town. I'll see in the morning, it's late right now and I'm tired. The stars were fun, I added a sparkle with liquid glass then put liquid glass on the rest of the star to make it a little more shiny.

I'm so glad this scripture fit perfectly in that spot. I needed some sort of embelly there and this went just right with the bottom Bethlehem border.


More fun techniques. I love doing this with words or single letters.

This layout was actually quite a challenge. There wasn't anything in either Cherish or Imagine that really 'fit' with the pictures I had and I didn't want to cut them down very much. Imagine's In the Groove gave a great starting point for me though and enough room to expand the photos I didn't want to cut down. I used the basic layout but then did my own photo mats and placement to fit the photos I had. Bethlehem is also one of my favorite Christmas stamps so it was a treat to finally get to use it in a layout!