This just in....

I don't know if this is "blog worthy" or not, but I just made a discovery. Sunscreen takes off paint! I spray painted a basket this morning black and the paint would not come off my hands for anything. So I just accepted the fact that I would have pitch black hands for a day or two... Then I was smothering Todd in sunscreen (waterbabies 45 to be exact!) and I noticed that he was getting warpaint-like smears across his face! Voila! I ran inside to use some more to wash my hands and they are now pretty clean... then I finished covering the boys in sunscreen so they can play outside. But I don't know where the sun went, because it has since turned grim.

It is a housecleaning day for me, so I don't know if I will have any stamping projects to show... but who knows, I just might sneak in some stamping while the kiddies are napping!!! Have a great day.

I was your teacher!!!!

Tonight I shed some tears... some for the joy of a group of students making it through their high school education to graduation... and some at the thought that, "if THEY are graduating, that makes me just that much older!!!" And to think that Scotty will be starting kindergarten in just over a year, and 12 years after that he will be graduating... Oh it's going too fast!

My first "kids" graduated tonight. When I moved away from home/family in '99 I came here to teach a grade 5 class of 26 kids. They were an awesome class. Tonight they graduated. Utterly unbelievable. Only 10 of my original kids were in this class, although, the class was obviously a lot bigger than that!! Some left when they were done elementary school for other schools, and some moved away.

After the ceremony, I was invited back to Jesse's house (one of the grads) for scrumptious cake and refreshments with his family and friends. Imagine the old grade 5 teacher being included in that! Thanks guys! Here I am with Jesse... he sure wasn't this tall in grade 5 :) Congratulations all the Grads

of 2007!!!!

It Finally Arrived!!

I have been waiting DAYS for this..... the new SU! catalogue finally found itself to my mailbox... BUT, if you ordered a catty, don't come rushing to my house tonight because I only got my one copy, not my boxes of catalogues. I hope they come tomorrow!

So, alas, I have no stamping to show you, because I have been perusing the pages and making my wish list... it is growing with every trip through this new baby!!!!

Isn't it beautiful? The inside is even better!!!!

He loved the card!

We just got home tonight from a fun trip to the Island to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday. Here's the card I made him. Us "kids" all went together on a reciprocating saw for him... he was pretty excited about it.

Here's a slidshow of some of our weekend highlights!

Elise and Hunter

Here are some cute pics from Saturday when we met baby Hunter.

Double Dad Day!!

Today is my Dad's 60th birthday... I will add some celebratory pictures later.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!

The "Double Dad Day" is that it is Steve's dad's birthday today too! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! We hope you have a very special day!

This was such a fun thing to discover when Steve and I were dating... I had said, "It's my dad's birthday today." He said, "Hey it's my dad's birthday too!" What are the chances?? I think it is pretty cool that our dads share a birthday.

Hilda, if you're reading this... Happy birthday to you too!!!! Anybody else celebrating today??

Another Card Sketch

Here's a new sketch for you to try out if you'd like! And a sample that I made using it... I did the map first and the card second!

Same Sketch... different card

I made up another card for yesterday's sketch....

Going out in Style

Stampin' Up! put out their Retiring Accessories list this morning. Click on the link to take a look at what is on its way out. The retiring accessories are available while quantities last.

This list might be a bit of a shock, but here is a note that Stampin' Up! sent its Demonstrators explaining that some of the products will still be available but in different configurations or in different packaging:
In addition to discontinued items, many years we also have a number of items that are being offered in a different quantity or assortment in the upcoming catalogue. This year, we're offering the following items differently in the Fall-Winter Collection 2007:
* Select individual colour packs of 12" x 12" card stock
* Confetti White & Kraft Tiny Takeout boxes & tags
* Select embossing powder colours
* Select 1/4" grosgrain ribbon colours
* Corner Rounder punch
These items appear on the retired list and will be retired in their current quantity or assortment, but you will be able to purchase these or similar items in a different configuration, quantity, or assortment in the Fall-Winter Collection 2007.

And remember that the Retiring stamps and wheels are only available until June 30th.

With all of this talk of Retiring, let me remind you that it means that just around the corner is the brand new Stampin' Up! Fall/Winter Collections 2007 (catalogue). I am so excited to see what new and beautiful products Stampin' Up! comes out with!!!

Our Little Model!!!

Last Friday Elise got to be in her first photo shoot... she is destined for big things! A model at only 10 months old! Ok, so Mally bibs saw her chubby cheeks and asked her to be the model for the piggy bib and the ice cream sundae bib! Jason from Revival Arts was doing the photography. Here is one of his photos of Elise.

We got to pick one of the bibs that she modeled and we picked the piggy bib. We were also given a gift certificate to Milestone's to enjoy a dinner on them for bringing Elise out for pictures. What a fun time! The picture above shows the back of the piggy bib, and here is the front of it:

Mally bibs has started making greeting cards, too. Here is the sundae card that we received. This is also the same picture that was on the other bib that Elise modeled.

Mally bibs are quality leather bibs that are durable, washable, reversible, comfortable and adorable!! Plus, they don't stain! For a peek at all the cuties that were modeling at the shoot, check out the Revival Arts Blog HERE!

Baby Ella

Our neigbours had a baby girl a week and a half ago. Tonight, I took them dinner and made this little bitty book for her. She is such a sweet little baby... it is so hard to believe they start out so small and quiet (well, at least Ella was quiet while I was visiting because she was fast asleep!!)

Happy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!! Especially to my dad, Steve's dad, and of course..... the ultimate dad - Steve! He is such a great dad to our kids, and I love seeing them all play together.

For Father's Day the kids and I took Steve his present in bed... (chocolates, a work light, coffee beans) and I made him another layout for the ongoing scrapbook I am making for him - it started as a gift for our 4th anniversary, and now for every occasion I make him another layout or two... this time around I only got one made up. The boys love to sit on his knee and look through it with him at all the pics of Steve growing up and they say, "Dad, tell me a story about when you were a boy!" This LO is a bit busy, but I just wanted it to have lots of pics! The kids each made a card today, plus the boys made shirt cards for Steve in Sunday School.

Here is a mini shirt card I made Steve... the card itself is 3X3" I used the new square rhinestone brads from the upcoming SU! catalogue!

Scott's card
Todd's card
Elise's card

Smart little guy!

Ok, I know this is 2 kid posts in a row.... but look what Scotty did yesterday! I am totally a bragging mom today... this puzzle has 100 pieces! He asked for help a couple times, but I mainly just took pictures!!! I bought it for Scott on our "date" on Thursday night. We went to drop off some stamping orders, then to the Dollar store, IGA, the Drugstore and finally the Co-op. Sounds like fun, eh? Well, Scotty had a blast, and his favourite thing of the day was getting to pick out a puzzle for himself and one for Todd. (Todd was not quite as successful with his puzzle and it quickly went back into the box!!!).

New Dress

When Elise was born, my friend Tricia made her this adorable outfit. She fits it now! Yesterday I put it on her and she acted like a little princess, very willing to do some cute poses so mommy could take MORE pictures!!

Better?

Same card as below.... can you tell what I did differently? I like this better.

Grad Card

My cousin Maren has just graduated from Nursing, and I just sat down to make a card for her. She is the sweetest person, and will make the absolute best nurse! I would love to have her for my nurse if I was in the hospital. She loves pink... so here's what I came up with. I used the "Pick a Petal" set along with one of the new word sets from the SU! preview brochure, and the celery patterned paper from the Palette 'o prints. Finally, I popped the centre of the flower up and added a rhinestone brad (also from the new catalogue). I can't wait for the new catalogue to come out in a couple weeks. I have had a couple days now to play with my new supplies from the preview brochure and love all the stuff I got!

8 1/2 X 11 pages

Here are the other two pages that I submitted to the SU! Artisan Awards contest.

found the card!

Remember this card? Well, I told you that if I found the original where I got my inspiration from that I would give credit where credit is due... I found it! Click on this link to see the original! Thanks Amy Fandrei for your inspiration!

Stamper's Club Projects

Last night I had my Friday Stamper's Club here for our last time together. I can't believe how fast the last 9 months of this club seemed to go... Time flies when you're having fun and stamping up a storm! In the Fall I will start a new club and some of the same people will be in it, but there will be new people too.

We did two projects. First a Father's Day card using Good Things Grow and Expressive Flexible Phrases, along with 3 of the retiring In Colors.

Secondly, we made Brag Books for Father's Day gifts... my dad got to open his this morning at coffee break and the boys loved looking through it with Papa! The idea for this little book came from Kerry. Thanks for the inspiration Kerry!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is Steve's parents' 40th anniversary! Congratulations and Happy Anniversary mom and dad! Wishing you a very happy year and many more to come. Thanks for all you do for us.

This picture is from Halloween '04 - I can't believe how little the boys are! Not even a thought of Elise yet, but in this picture Todd sure looks like Elise does now!.... We will be having family pics with Steve's whole side done soon and I can post some updates then!

Black and White by Louise

I was just surfing blogs and yahoo groups, etc... way too late, as usual, and came across this fun page done by my sis of the 2 of us...... I love what you did on this page Louise. I am going to keep this idea in mind for a future project!

RAK

I don't have any stamping to share today, but I will tomorrow night after my stamper's club meets. Here is a super cute card from Jill. I love this little guy! The inside says "Friends rain or shine." It's maybe hard to make out in the picture, but she has used pearl ex to add a shimmer to the image, and there are dimensionals behind the black paper to pop the image off the page. Thanks Jill!

Elise!

I took this today while I was making E a bottle... she found some tomatoes on the counter, and started playing with them. She was so proud of herself!!

Don't forget about my blog treats giveaway... scroll down to my May 31st post for all the details and the comment has to be on that post, not this one!

Just the Girls!

Last night was my scrapbooking night and we made a double 12X12 page layout called "Just the Girls."

The technique we used was stitching, and this is the most attention my sewing machine has seen in years!

This is the pagemap that I made and we based our layout on

Here is the layout using Regal Rose, and SU! Rebecca Designer paper. The pictures are from Kelowna Non-Regionals October 2005...

Chipboard flower accent

Proof! I used a sewing machine!

Clear button accent with some DP behind it.

Daisy and 1/4" circle punches