Turtle Spotting

We rented a paddle boat on Town Lake for a fun outing with the boys this weekend.  We paddled west along the bank seeing lots of turtle families.  Sammy started out freaked out and crying but he was able to adjust and have fun.  We were really relieved since he's been scared by a wide variety of things lately. 

We all had a great time but let me share a word to the wimpy: paddling back against the wind was really hard!  We kept getting stuck and pushed backwards.  Kayaks were sailing along next to us with no trouble but our big paddle boat was not very easy to get back to the dock!

Afterward, what else but burgers at Sandy's on Barton Springs?

Teacher Gifts

(click on any row to see photo larger)

This is a set of four cards - I've made two identical sets to be end-of-year gifts for Sammy's two pre-school teachers.  The cards are huge compared to what I usually make - 6x8inches - though they don't require extra postage.  They are the size of a large Christmas card, so they look really nice.

For the blue one, I wanted something masculine since it's sometimes hard to find or make handmade cards for guys.   I guess we just get all girly with our crafting!  The strip of lattice paper is silver paper that was embossed with the Stampin' Up Square Lattice Embossing Folder.  The sentiment is embossed in beautiful silver and then punched out with the Decorative Label punch.  The white frame is hand cut around the negative from the same punch, then attached with dimensional adhesive so that it stands up from the card.  Such a good idea and I got it from Britta, a college girl with great stamping videos.

The other three cards are made with a Top Note cut out of vellum paper and a punched bird.  For the orange card, I left the vellum smooth for a more graphic look.  For the pink and green cards, on the other hand, I wanted more of the distressed look so I dampened the vellum, crumpled it into a little ball, then smoothed it out again (thanks to Cheryl's technique lesson during her class teaching this layout, the subdued version).  It feels a little scary the first time you totally crumple up your little paper you are planning to use, but it turns out to be a super easy technique! 

I made a few of the pink ones for myself and I'll be using them to safely mail some 5x7 photos since they are not only large but really sturdy and the envelopes are nice and stiff too.  

How can kindergarten be almost over?  These guys - prizes from the school treasure box - will probably continue to be favorites, though. 

Scrapbook Layout: Enchanted Rock

This is the layout detailing our Spring Break day trip to Enchanted Rock.  I know it doesn't show, but the background paper has glitter embedded in the polka dots and the striped paper has glitter in some of the stripes.  The copper paper in the matting of the large photo and the little leaves is really nice and metallic!  It came from Michaels and it's really pretty. 

I originally had this layout designed with the two striped paper strips even with one another but it just seemed so boring.  I was unhappy with not having any "art" in it.  I had to add the white torn pieces, stamping, and the copper wire and beads.  Then it was artsy enough for me to call it done!

McKinney Falls State Park

Looking for a little day hike in the Austin area? McKinney Falls State Park is perfect for hikes, picnics and swimming.  There are also some cool activities at their nature center.  We started at the nature center, walked through the rock overhang and down to the falls.  Sammy was able to walk all the way there and back!  Doesn't he look big? 

Here was something creepy (April, skip this paragraph) - there are these fuzzy areas on the ceiling of the rock overhang.  I walked under them without thinking much about them until Zack asked James about them.  Even looking closer it seemed to be some kind of loose moss.  James held the boys up and then touched the edge of one clump.  It spread out and started pulsing, hundreds of spiders moving up and down in a loose rhythm.  We had to really look to see they were just daddy long legs, but it was nonetheless a little icky.  I just took a deep breath and walked right underneath like the boy-mom I'm supposed to be!

Overall, check out the park, it was really pleasant.

Peeking Through the Stacks

I never tire of photos of these two boys with their books.

Card: Wonderful Mother

This card is for my own mom! (I think she should have gotten it in the mail by today so hopefully she won't see it here first...) The most fun item on this card was the die cut leaves.  They were cut out of plain vanilla paper, but then stamped and inked in several colors of green and embossed with gold embossing powder.  The other fun thing was the row of small punched shapes from the Itty Bitty Punch Pack. Even though these shapes are small I like the effect when they are combined in a row or a group!

Cards: Happy Mother's Day!

These are the Mothers Day cards I made for my two grandmothers - both pretty impressive ladies!

I used the same cardbase, strip of scallop punched pink paper and stamped image for each. The cardbase is black cardstock embossed with the Stampin Up! Elegant Lines embossing folder. The stamped image (from retired SU! set Eastern Influences) is stamped in black and colored with colored pencils but for one card I mounted the stamped rectangle on silver paper and for the other I cut it out and mounted it on a strip with decorative label ends.

I learned something that Julie says she tried to explain to me but it went so far over my head I didn't even know this is what she was telling me!  But, it's simple to do:

To make a decorative end on a paper strip like this, stick just the end of the strip into the punch from the underside of the punch instead of slipping it in slit as you would to punch the whole shape.  Position your strip to square up the edge of the image with the edge of the strip and punch!  (This will give you the inverse shape from the shape you would get by slipping the paper in the normal slit and just punching the edge).  If my explanation doesn't make sense, just try it both ways and it will become clear right away!

Project: Recovered Kitchen Chairs

This was at the top of my list of projects for while my mom was here for a recent visit. As is so often the case when Mom is doing all the work, it was really easy!  Well, I helped.  In a tangential capacity.  I think I could do it again myself now.

I didn't remember how we (probably she) did these the last time, so I was interested to see that the seat juts unscrews from underneath, revealing a later of wood seat, a layer of foam, a fabric cover over the foam and then the top fabric.  We added another layer of foam for a more comfortable seat, tracing the old foam and cutting the new out with scissors.  The new cover was stacked with both pieces of foam and the wooden seat.  The cover fabric just wraps around and staples underneath so there is no precision measuring required.  We used a staple gun from the underside of the seat to staple it snugly on, then screwed it back onto the chair.  Ta-da!  And easy.

Sammy faces on...

Sammy showing what it feels like to be home sick today:

Sammy showing what it's like to watch Sesame Street during normally non-TV time:

I should be worried that he can put on these faces at will, right??

The Funky Chicken Coop Tour is Saturday!

It's that time again! Check out the FREE and very interesting Funky Chicken Coop Tour of Austin, held all over Austin on the Saturday before Easter.  It's self-guided so see a couple in your area or travel around to all of it.  We went last year and the year before - it's always great!

Wow, that's quite a prize pack!

**Please tell me the photos worked this time?  I'm getting so tired of uploading them only to find that I can see them but others can't!

A little while back I won a weekly giveaway from Write.Click.Scrapbook. I really like the blog there, or "the inspiration collective", as they call it. There is a different author every week, who posts each day on a themed subject - it may be about mini books one week, or journaling or taking better photos, or incorporating art techniques. Always different perspectives and a lot of talented scrapbookers showing their work. The giveaways are on Thursdays if you are interested in entering.

I was thrilled to win, but I will say the packs they showed did not do my prize pack justice!!

From this photo, you see four packs of Basic Grey paper, but not how rich the packs are.  I had to spread them all out and take pictures of all the sheets!  Also, when I got my packs there were FIVE instead of four, plus a bunch of 3D embellishments!  The girl who was mailing them was out of town and they came later than I expected, so maybe she threw in some extra goodies because of that?  The last pack was missing the alphas and stickers, but the 3D stuff I wasn't expecting matches it.  Whatever the reason, I say Lucky Me!

Also, I guess I've never actually purchased Basic Grey before (how could that be? It's soooo beautiful!) so I didn't know how really lovely the paper quality is or how sturdy the cardstock stickers are.  There are 18 pages of patterned cardstock per pack.  They are double sided with great designs front and back.  And each set comes with TWO designs of matching alphas and a full sheet of coordinating cardstock stickers with a really nice matte finish (no old-school "sticker" look here).  If Basic Grey thought they were going two make a new convert with their giveaway, they were right!

It's Finished!

Just in time for Sammy's third birthday, I finished his first year baby book!  This is the title page.  I've always really loved his eyes in this picture.

I did learn something doing this layout.  I stamped that lower area of damask looking background in Versamark, then tried to emboss over it with Chocolate Chip pigment ink and clear embossing powder.  But the powder stuck to the Versamark.  So, I dried the Versamark ink with a heat tool and repeated my effort.  Still the embossing powder stuck to the Versamark.  So, I left it OVERNIGHT after drying it with the eat tool and repeated.  STILL it stuck to the Versamark!  I had to just brush off as much powder as possible with the heat tool and call the rest an "effect".  I don't mind it, but I was surprised!

More Pink Poodles

I really did make more of them. Hee hee. James likes the black ones even better. Julie still likes the original. I just think they are funny!

It's a Challenge, all right!

This past Christmas, we had several family members sharing some papercrafting supplies - especially anything of which we had extra or were tired. This patterned paper belonged to  my Mother-In-Law and I just couldn't resist saying it should go straight out to Goodwill. "Too silly! Ridiculous!" I said. "Are you EVER going to find a use for pink poodle paper?" I said.

My own mother commented that since the other side of my family has a quilting challenge (quilt one, quilt two, and quilt three) maybe we should have a papercrafting challenge. Funny, because she's much more of a quilter. Maybe she was joking but the idea took hold. We all had an entire year to come up with some card using this crazy paper. My sister already did hers so I thought I'd better go ahead and try to figure something out.

I can't believe that I actually like what I came up with! I like it so much I made another. And saved some bits to make still more. I mean, who would have thought a cute card could evolve out of these pink poodles??  I might just owe my Mother In Law an apology, hee hee!

 

 

Oh, and here's Julie's creation!!

San Antonio Zoo

Here's another great springtime activity!  We like to go down to San Antonio and spend the day at the zoo there.  This time Zack declared that he didn't want to go (he had a museum picked out instead) but Sammy was so keen on going that we decided it would be the best plan.  That and the fact that we usually go in the summer and we really wanted to try it when it wasn't crazy hot instead. 

As you can see from that first picture, taken in the first ten minutes, it didn't take long for Zack to get on board!  We had a great time and it WAS a beautiful time of year to be there.  Afterward we rode the zoo train and then got on the road to head back to Austin.  We could see immediately that traffic was terrible so we did an about face and had a mid-afternoon dinner on the Riverwalk instead.  We sat outside, right on the water, with no waiting - that makes a trip to San Antonio complete!

Scrapbook Layout: Waiting

This was one of the later pages to go into Sammy's baby album, though it's at the beginning of the book.  When we had these photos taken, I mainly wanted to get some pregnant photos I didn't completely hate and capture how sweet Zack had been taking care of me when I didn't feel well.  Looking at them three years later, I'm pretty happy we did!  One thing I really like is that they are in our home.  I didn't think that would matter to me much, but it really does.  That painting in the background of my picture is this giant green abstract scene that I saw randomly and James got me for my birthday.  I love love love it.  And in the family one, we are in Zack's new room that had just barely been finished - I painted the silhouette of an oak tree on the wall (there are also two deer on the wall that don't show - it's his Walking in the Woods room).  Something about the setting brings out the ideas I had about what I wanted to capture, which is really cool.