Make It Monday

OK, my blocks that I showed you last week are done... well, mostly done since I want to add a few more coats of Mod Podge to really seal them and so the kids can play with them.

Here they are!

the bottom pic is a name we are thinking of for our little dude due in January... shhhhh! LOL

credits:
Alphabet Soup for Boys by Zoe Pearn
Alphabet Soup for Girls by Zoe Pearn
Alphabet Soup for Boys: The Collection by Zoe Pearn
Alphabet Soup for Girls: The Collection by Zoe Pearn
DJB Skritch Skratch by Darcy Baldwin
School Days alpha by Zoe Pearn
kite template from Go Outside! by Penny Springmann
owl (recolored) and branch from Falling For Her by Traci Reed and Melissa Bennett
Paper Clips: Leila's Alpha templates by Libby Weifenbach

I've had several people ask me how I made them... well actually more like tell me they want a set, lol... but really they are super super easy. I wasn't planning on doing a tutorial but I'll just share some quick instructions, so there won't be in progress pics unfortunately. Feel free to send me a message if you have any questions though.

OK, first I bought my supplies:
-the main kits I used were the first two listed above - Alphabet Soup for Boys and Alphabet Soup for Girls (there are some 2 x 2 tiles in there and I used all of them and then used one as a template to create the rest of the letters
-5 - 2" x 2" wooden blocks
-sand paper
-paint
-white cardstock
-Mod Podge (I used Matte, though you can use Glossy if you prefer)
-sponge brush

OK, here we go...
1) sand the edges of your blocks
2) paint all sides of your blocks... making sure the edges are well coated since that's the part that will show, let dry
3) create the tiles... I used one of the 2x2 tiles in the kit and then shrunk it down to 1.75"x1.75", and then I created a template and then used that as a guide and had to make 3 pages worth of tiles to complete the alpha and additional tiles to cover all sides of the blocks.
4) print at "high" quality on white cardstock (I use double sided matte presentation paper)
5) cut them out
6) paste using Mod Podge to the sides of the blocks (I wanted to make sure that I was able to spell each of the kids' names so I did those letters first and then randomly placed the rest of them)
7) let dry
8) coat all sides of the blocks with Mod Podge... you only have to do it once if you're using them for display, but since I don't mind my kids playing with them I plan of doing several more coats.

Work In Progress Wednesday

Well, last week was a bit busy for me prepping for the worship and prayer concert at our church so I didn't get to update all the stuff we're getting done on the house. So, here we go!

First, Labor Day weekend was a really nice sale on Behr paint at Home Depot so after spending the weekend playing with the samples we got and then going back for more samples, we finally decided on a color for the family room, kitchen/dining room, living room and hallway. It was really hard to decide because well we don't really have any furniture to base our color choice off of. With the open floor plan we thought it was best to pick just one color and we can't wait to cover up the nasty burnt orange, mustard yellow and hunter green from the previous homeowner! Here is the color we picked... I'm soooo excited about it.
and we are sooooo close to having the driveway finished... Mark had sealed the driveway but it still has some cracks in it so we're going to have someone come out and do another coat just because it wasn't as easy has Mark thought to only have it 1/4" thick to prevent the cracking and he was afraid all his hard work would be destroyed by the winter weather if we didn't get it done before it got too cold. Here are some pics of Mark working hard to finish up the driveway!

Before:
and in progress

and while Mark was doing the driveway Moriah sat in the garage painting her table she made at the Kids workshop at Home Depot
and a phone picture of Isaac making his football stand from earlier that morning, we even brought his football along with us
and then came Labor Day and Mark ended up Laboring more than he had planned... which I guess is the case with plumbing... our bathroom faucet always struggled to drain since we moved in and we had changed the faucet but never installed the new drain that went with the faucet so thinking it would just be a matter of cleaning out the trap ended up being much more... we had to put in the new drain and of course that never goes as planned either because Mark had to go to the hardware store twice to get a few extra things to make it all fit back together...

Wanna see the old nasty drain?
no wonder it took so long for water to drain from the sink, EWWWWWWW!

Not sure I'll have much to report next week since we have another busy weekend ahead of us, but maybe I'll find something new to report :)

Happy Hump Day!

Today's ramblings

We had another OB appt today and things are looking great... this little boy is quite the troublemaker always hiding from the doppler and taking forever to get a heartbeat count. I've officially reached my max weight that I wanted to reach this pregnancy. It's just that eating food is the only way I don't feel nauseous. Plus, I've been having to drink juice and Gatorade because of the fact that I've had major heartburn from drinking water. Water really? Yes, water is the culprit to my heartburn this pregnancy. I also haven't done really much exercising since vacation and so I'm not really doing my best at avoiding the 70lb weight gain I had with Isaac. It's kind of depressing me but I don't know which is worse... eating to feel better and gaining a bunch of weight, or just being miserable. I mean, I know how to take it off and it came off pretty easy with Isaac, I'm just afraid it's going to be even harder after my 3rd pregnancy. Anyways, I came home and Mark had built the kids a tent and they were all playing in the tent in the living room. It was so cute and they were so bummed when he had to go back to work.

Otherwise, not much else is going on... I'm dealing with some funk issues again. It's just that time of year anniversaries of a lot of really sad things and it just makes me so sad thinking about them and the families dealing with the pain. Obviously one of them is 9/11, I don't think I'll ever forget that day in 2001. 9/12 was the 1 year anniversary of a friend's death and that was really hard too. His family was and still is really heavy on my heart. Really in the next couple months there are anniversaries for deaths and it's just hard thinking of those left behind. In about a month is the anniversary of our first miscarriage and we'll be remembering all of our losses on 10/15 for Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. Which reminds me that I need to find our candles.

Anyways, enough of the somber news, I'm excited that Fall is almost here, while it is emotionally a very hard season for me... it still is my most favorite season. I'm looking forward to apple picking and the changing colors and the cooler weather and of course the yummy food. YAY!

Make It Monday

I've gotta little tease for you. This is what I'm working on right now and I'm going to be finishing it up on Friday night at Archivers while hanging out with some of my scrapping/stamping/card making friends. We usually try to get together every few months and I just love the time together. Next Monday I'll post the finished project. Last night we went to Michaels and I picked up some of these.

This morning I sanded the edges and painted them with some of my leftover Behr samples. I really only needed to paint the edges since the rest of the blocks will be covered up. During naptimes and the evenings I'll be working on the rest and hopefully have them printed out and ready to go on Friday night.

And of course I had to share with you my little elves...

I also plan on doing some card making too if I have some time.

Scrappin' Saturday

Once again I took advantage of my mojo and had a blast working on some scrapbook pages for the portfolio challenges at Sweet Shoppe Designs and also for my creative teams and even tried my hand at "hybrid". I was a little nervous with the hybrid project but it was super easy and I can see myself doing more hybrid in the future.

I made bookmarks for each of us... this was so much fun and helped to use up some of the mini-kits in my unused kits folder.

bookmark tempates from Zoe Pearn's blog by Keely~B
1) Smart and Pretty by Jenn Barrette (2010 QA, vol 3)
Suzy Q alpha by CD Muckosky
2) My Way or the Highway by Misty Cato (retired, 2010 summer sampler)
3) This Little Piggy by Lliella Designs (2010 QA, vol 3)
4) It's a Guy Thing by Dani Mogstad and Shawna Clingerman
Extras:
M chipboard sticker
Color Box chalk inkpad
random ribbon from around the house

this next one was to only scrap in the corners of the pages

Memories by Sweet Shoppe Designs (Donna Downey blog freebie)
small and mighty alpha by Zoe Pearn (newsletter freebie)
guess whooo alpha by Shawna Clingerman (retired)
Hugantic Frames by Shawna Clingerman
Skritch Skratch by Darcy Baldwin and Zoe Pearn
boosters no.2 by Jaclyn Bernardo

this one was a Topsy Turvy Titlework and also was featured on the Gallery Standouts blog.

It's A Guy Thing by Dani Mogstad and Shawna Clingerman
template by Janet Phillips from 2010 quarterly assortment, vol 3
Tacky Caramel Alpha by Darcy Baldwin (retired)
Don't Leave Home Without It alpha by Lauren Grier
DJB Coffee Shoppe Buzzed by Darcy Baldwin and Shawna Clingerman
My Date Is Bubbly by Lauren Grier

and this one was to be inspired by one of the prompts on the Sunday Scribblings blog, I chose "wait"

Take Out Tuesday template 9/7 from SSD blog by Libby Weifenbach
Brotherly Love by Kristin Cronin-Barrow and Meg Mullins
DJB Coffee Shoppe Espresso and Buzzed by Darcy Baldwin and Shawna Clingerman

and well this one was to scrap a page about football... I was excited to finally scrap these pics of Mark and Moriah the year the Indianapolis Colts won the Super Bowl over the Chicago Bears.

MVP by Dani Mogstad (retired)
Worn Cluster - Take Out Tuesday from Sweet Shoppe Blog by Penny Springmann
DJB Coffee Shoppe Espresso by Darcy Baldwin and Shawna Clingerman

this next challenge is to create 2 pages using the same template but to flip or spin the template for the second page...

Don't Rain On My Parade by Dani Mogstad and MandaBean (retired)
Boosters no.2 by Jaclyn Bernardo

and the second page uses Melissa's new release for today and a re-release from Darcy

Grins and Giggles by Melissa Bennett
DJB Rebecca Print by Darcy Baldwin
Boosters no.2 by Jac Bernardo

this one is probably my fave for the week and it was to scrap a page about a life lesson you've learned and uses a re-release from Darcy.

Family Tree by Penny Springmann
DJB Jewel by Darcy Baldwin
Skritch Skratch by Darcy Baldwin and Zoe Pearn
Teeny Type Alpha by Zoe Pearn
Paper Stackers: Rounded by Jac Bernardo

Journaling reads:
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in life is that it’s really short. I never realized it until I had you kids and watching you grow up into bigger kids. It really seems like yesterday when you were born and that infant stage is just so short. I know it doesn’t exactly feel like it when we’re in the middle of each phase of life but that first year goes by too fast. I try to get as many cuddles in as I can because I know that one day you’ll want to be totally independent and won’t want me giving you kisses and hugs all the time, especially in public. I know there will be a day that you’ll be leaving the house on your own and becoming the grown up you’re supposed to be. For now I’m going to keep you close and love on you as much as you’ll let me. I also want you to be able to be a kid as long as possible. One day you will have to grow up and do adult things but for now you just enjoy being a kid, ok? If you could just let mama love on you for a few more years, that would make me really happy too, ok? XOXO

and this one was a prompt to scrap "Teacher"

At The Bus Stop by Lauren Grier
template by Cindy Schneider from 2010 Quarterly Assortment, vol 3
Layered Up In You: Frames 2 by Lauren Grier
Don't Leave Home Without It alpha by Lauren Grier
Skritch Skratch by Darcy Baldwin and Zoe Pearn

this one is Traci's new release which is a collab with MandaBean and it also fits the portfolio prompt to use a series of at least 3 pics

Conversations w/ kids by Traci Reed and MandaBean
Inspired by Lydia template by Darcy Baldwin
Bad Sewing Machine - Kinda Kleen by Traci Reed

and this one is another collab from Eva and Flergs, a seriously gorgeous fall kit and I used the portfolio prompt to use an apple in the layout.

Leaf It To Me by Eva Kipler and Flergs
Skritch Skratch by Darcy Baldwin and Zoe Pearn
Paper Stackers: Horizontal by Jac Bernardo

and last but certainly not least this is a gorgeous new kit from Penny...

True Beauty by Penny Springmann
DJB Brittany Script by Darcy Baldwin

Scrappin' Saturday

Well baby seems to have given me back my mojo... here are the pages I created this week.

First there were a couple new releases from Darcy and Jac.

Inspired by Lydia templates by Darcy Baldwin

Au Naturale by Traci Reed and Melissa Bennett
DJB Brittany Script by Darcy Baldwin

Punky Preppy Grab Bag by Jaclyn Bernardo and Sir Scrapalot

also on the 1st Sweet Shoppe Designs revealed the new portfolio challenges and I decided to get going on some of them because I'm sooooo in love with the prompts this month!
the first one I did was to create a 2 page layout
Lean On Me by Kristin Cronin-Barrow and Shawna Clingerman
Art and Soul: Neutrals alpha by Julie Billingsley
DJB Woke Up Late by Darcy Baldwin
template by Cindy Schneider (retired)

then the next one I worked on was the Digiscrap Rewind which was to re-create an old layout to make it better. I really liked when I did this orignally for CathyZ's Design your Life workshop but really wanted to turn it into one 12 x 12 page... I'm sooo in love with it now.
re-created my original layout

Still Crazy by Penny Springmann
Still Crazy add-on by Penny Springmann (from 2010 Quarterly Assortment, volume 2)
All Worn Out: Photograph and Paper Overlays 2 by Penny Springmann
All Worn Out: Photograph and Paper Overlays 4 by Penny Springmann
Bad Sewing Machine: Doodle Me Straight by Traci Reed
DJB Poppyseed by Darcy Baldwin
DJB Another Mandy by Darcy Baldwin

then yesterday came the blog bonus challenge which was to create a page using mostly ScrapKitchen Designs products and I used a new release from Jac.
Eco Chic by ScrapKitchen Designs (retired)
Word Jumbles: Moments by Penny Springmann
Sturdy Solids by Shawna Clingerman
Boosters no.2 by Jaclyn Bernardo

and then we've got the new releases from Traci and Eva... I'm loving these two kits that they collaborated on.
Celebrating Him by Traci Reed and Eva Kipler

Celebrating Him add-on by Traci Reed - part of the 2010 Quarterly Assortment, vol 3
DJB Tweenybopper by Darcy Baldwin

Lift of Cutie Pie by Laurie (LibbysMommy)
Celebrate Her by Eva Kipler and Traci Reed
Celebrate Her add-on by Eva Kipler - part of 2010 SSD Quarterly Assortment, vol 3
Skritch Skratch by Darcy Baldwin and Zoe Pearn

and Melissa's gorgeous new Fall Kit also using a new release from Jac
Autumn Glory by Melissa Bennett
Bliss by Lauren Reid
Boosters no.2 by Jaclyn Bernardo

and last but definitely not least, I'm excited to tell you that I have been invited to join the creative team of one of my many fave designers. She was the first designer I was introduced to almost a year ago and I'm just so excited and honored to be joining her team. Needless to say it was a great week being invited to 2 new teams, Darcy and Penny. I'm still in shock and delighted to join these teams that I would consider to be two of my dream teams.
Your Song by Penny Springmann
"it" alpha from Still Crazy by Penny Springmann
Inspired by Lydia templates by Darcy Baldwin
DJB Coffee Shoppe Espresso by Darcy Baldwin

Work In Progress Wednesday

Weeeeeee! We got so much done over the weekend! Mark's Sister, Brother-in-law and nieces came for the day on Saturday and we accomplished soooo much! They arrived at 7AM and got right to work making breakfast. After a yummy breakfast the guys went outside and got to work. I had to take a quick before photo before missing it. I think I was still in my pjs, lol.
and then they got right to work getting all the screws out... hmmm, this is going to take a very long time! We had wanted to salvage the boards to make the steps out of, but there were a MILLION screws and they weren't exactly coming out very easily. So, start thinking Tim Allen grunt and power tools... they brought out the saws and it probably was a good idea they did.

they look totally amused, don't they? tee hee... OK, at least one of them is.

ah! That's better!

ummm.... I'm not quite sure how this deck was still standing! No wonder it had a great bounce to it and no wonder it had so many screws in it... I'm pretty sure the screws were the only thing keeping the deck from falling apart, lol
after lunch came the job of taking out the posts, which is another funny, roll your eyes story.
and here is our after photo... we are hoping to put in the tile patio next spring and are looking forward to starting to work on the inside of the house again.
The deck wasn't the only thing taken care of this weekend. I took advantage of the babysitters and cleaned up the family room moving some of the furniture into the office and clearing up everything on the floor. After the guys were done with the deck they brought my craft table (old dining room table) out of the garage and set it up, which means I can pull out my sewing machine and start working on some other projects again. They also brought our bed frame which is still in the box from IKEA and laid it flat on the floor... we're a little worried it might be a little warped so hopefully this will straighten it out before I'm ready to paint it and get it set up. I'm so excited that the kids can go down to the family room and it be safe. Although, we haven't moved any of the furniture or TV down there so we're still using the living room as our family room. Mark's Sister also did some weeding in our front yard which we totally needed and she helped out a bit with the deck too. I'm so thankful for all the hard work they did.

For dinner we decided to treat everyone to one of our favorite Chicago joints! It was totally a hit with them and they were excited to find out there is one only about an hour away from them. We LOVE Portillos and were so excited to treat them to something that totally is all "Chicago". Afterwards Riah and Mark went over to their hotel and had fun playing in the kiddie pool. Riah was exhausted to say the least after such a fun filled day with her cousins.