Elfie & Project 12-November sketch

Elfie continued his adventures in our house...

He landed on the top of the painting.  I think we found him there last year too (I guess he is running out of hiding places).  :)

It has been really cold here the past few days so...I am thinking warm thoughts while posting my November sketch layout.  I used this layout as a general summer layout of all the various activities we did this summer.  

Here is the november sketch:

I loved this sketch from the moment I saw it and I actually followed it pretty closely.  Here is my layout...

I don't usually use such bright colors, but this layout just called for something different.  The papers and stickers were from Echo Park and I used just a few other odds and ends from my stash.

Here are some detailed shots...I added the year using small stickers on the side of the "summer days" title after I took the picture.

When I printed my photos, I used the print function on iPhoto.  I grouped all the photos I wanted to use into one folder and highlighted all of them to be printed.  Then I chose to print out an index sheet of all of the pictures (which gave me another option to choose the size of the photos).  Once I decided on how many to print per page I just had to click ok and all the pictures printed.  It was actually pretty easy to do on my Mac computer.

I also had a lot of pictures that I took on my phone, so the small size of picture was great to use since the pixel quality isn't always the best when using your phone to take pictures.

That is my November P12 layout.  I already have my December layout completed too.  I used pictures from last Christmas that I had not scrapbooked, which included all of our preparation for Christmas.  So, it will be my first layout during P12 that I actually used pictures from the month of the sketch (even though they are from last year).  :)

I love how the layout turned out, so I will be sharing it soon.  

On to funny news...Hope has developed magical powers tonight.  Somehow she is managing to make the lights on the tree go on and off when she touches the tree.  It is pretty cute!

That is all for tonight!  Have a good one!

Darla

Cutest Baby Mouse!

Tonight was our last rehearsal before the BIG show on Saturday for The Nutcracker.  Is this not the cutest baby mouse EVER!

I was one of the helpers putting on make-up and each person was in charge of a color.  Once I got the hang of it, it wasn't too difficult.

Then after I was done with make-up I was free to go up in the balcony and take some group photos of the rehearsal.

She was having a lot of fun!

On to other news...

On day four Elfie was found still in our tree.  Oooops!  I guess he didn't have anything good to report to Santa that night!  :)

On day five, we found Elfie here...

...among the Christmas village Joe and Hope had set up that night.  Hope made Elfie a note to take with him back to the North Pole when he made his journey home.

On day six, we found him on top of the fridge.

Well, now that we are up to date on Elfie's adventures I can share a few more cards with you.

Have a great night!

Darla

Trimming the Tree 2011

We finally got around to putting up the tree last night.  Joe was working later and Hope just couldn't wait to start putting it up.  She remembered from last year how to follow the directions for the different colors on each level of the tree branches.  She pretty much put up the entire tree on her own with just a little help from me.

Joe finally got home and helped us put the lights on the tree while I fluffed out each branch.

Hope had specific places she wanted each of her favorite ornaments.

Below she is adding to the "candy section" on the tree, where she put all the candy themed ornaments.  Funny kid!

Here she is showing off the candy section along with a few other favorites of hers.  Some of the ornaments are bunched together, but that is just the way she/we wanted it.  :)

And now on the the Elfie updates...

On day 2, we found Elfie here...

...and since we put the tree up last night, we found him on day 3...at the top of the Christmas tree.

As you can see, we have lots of Hope tree ornaments.  I love finding them with Hope's name on them and usually add a few each year.  :)

Well, I need to go get my baby mouse ready for dress rehearsal for the Nutcracker (the show is next Saturday).  I can't wait.

Here is another Christmas card to share with you too...

This is almost identical to one I shared the other day except it has different colors.  Super easy when you have the right pattern papers.

Have a great night!

Darla

Look who is BACK!

Elfie has returned for the 2011 Christmas season!  Yeah!  Look where we found him when we got home from school!

We had been home for quite some time and I asked Hope if she knew who stopped by for a visit last night. She got a strange look on her face and then asked if it was Elfie.  She started running around the house trying to find him and found him on the fireplace mantel perched on her school picture.  She was SO EXCITED and started screaming and laughing. 

Then she went to work making him the card she gave to him telling him how much she loves him.

Now she is making matching crowns for her and Elfie.  Too cute (even though she is supposed to be doing math, writing or reading).  Oh well, she is writing anyway.  :)

We are going to decorate tomorrow night and it is snowing outside right now.

Since we are talking about Christmas, here is another card to share with you!

Stay warm and cozy tonight!

Come back to follow the adventures of Elfie-2011!  Where will we find him next?

Darla

Have you ever...

...considered canceling Christmas?  Well the way Hope is acting tonight, she may get a BIG surprise Christmas morning.  :)  Ok, I could never do it, but really she is being a pill tonight.  Ugh!!!!!

Here is that cute picture of Colin in his dapper little hat.

Isn't he the cutest!  :)

Anyway, I am keeping it short tonight because I want to go finish the book I am reading...The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks.  I love his books and so far I have enjoyed this one.  I think I need to make a trip to half price books again soon to stock up on some Sandra Brown books and see if I can find any of the books by Gregory Maguire, who wrote the book Wicked.  I guess there are a total of four books in the series.

Here are a few more Christmas cards to give you some holiday spirit!

Here's hoping we don't have to cancel Christmas!  Good grief Charlie Brown!

Darla

Thankful...cont.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great day visiting my mother-in-law and part of my husband's family.  Both his brother and sister had to work, so on our way into town we stopped to visit his brother Rick and his sister Kristine got off work just before we left town.  We also stopped quickly to visit Great-Grandma, but she wasn't feeling well today, so we didn't stay very long.  Overall, it was a nice visit and it was good to see everyone (sorry Julie we didn't make it to your store to visit) no matter how long the visit.

Here is a cute picture of Colin.  The battery on my camera died and I have an even cuter picture of him in his dapper hat.  I will try to share it tomorrow.  Aren't those the cutest eyes!  The puppy is what we got him for his birthday.  It plays music and he was dancing with it.  It was fun seeing him start to take some of his first steps.

Hope was busy making cards for everyone during our visit and she had a lot of fun playing with Colin.

And I was thankful that I still have the touch.  I rocked Colin to sleep.  He was so good today.

I have so many things to be thankful for this past year.

Tomorrow Hope and I are going to see the new Muppet Movie.  I can't wait.  I loved watching The Muppet Show when I was Hope's age.  I remember being sick one time and I slept through the show and when i woke up I was mad mom didn't wake me up.  Funny how I remember that!  We listened to the Muppet Channel on Sirius radio on the way home.  My favorite song was "Rainbow Connection".

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Darla

Thankful!

I am so very thankful for so many things in my life! My family, friends, job, church...I am so grateful each and every one of you are in my life and everything you do for me.

There are lots of little things I am thankful for in my life too...

Hope has been playing with my old legos again and we have spent lots of hours this week building.  I still love building with legos.  See that "vintage" castle.  :)  That was one of my favorite sets.  You can also see the train tracks too.  We keep forgetting to stop and get batteries so we can make the train run on the tracks.  It is pretty cool.

Hope also has the Toy Story lego train too.  Both trains are sitting on the table inside the tracks.  Fun stuff! I just wish they made more "girl" friendly legos, like a partner brand like Barbie sets like they do for Star Wars, etc.  :)  That would be fun too.

Anyway, tonight Hope and I made oatmeal cookies.  They turned out  PERFECT and oh so yummy!

While we baked cookies, we listened to some of her favorite songs on my iPhone, which includes:  Kung Fu Fighting, All I want to do (by Sugarland) and a few Taylor Swift songs.

I am thankful that Hope loves to sing.  On veteran's day, her class learned the song "Grand Old Flag" and she has been singing it over and over again!  Love it!  I keep trying to get her to let me record it, but no luck so far.  

Here is a quick card to share...

May you have visions on deals on Black Friday, but you won't see me out there!  Too crazy for me!  :)

Anyway, have a great Thanksgiving!

Darla

What's Up?

Not much to report here.  Just working, getting Hope to dance, scrapbooking, working out, getting Hope to gymnastics, Christmas shopping...you know the normal stuff.  Have you started Christmas shopping?  I have.  :)

Since there isn't much going on, keeping it short and sweet!  Here are two similar Christmas cards to get you in the mood.  :)  The papers were from Bo-Bunny (from a few years ago).

Well, have a merry evening.  :)

Darla

Football!

Oh my!  I am not a huge fan of watching lots of football, but this weekend I did my share of following a few games.  Friday night, the Cyclones upset the #2 team to shake up the BCS standings.  That was an exciting ending!  Then another exciting game with the Hawkeyes and my alma mater team at UNI also won and took a share of the conference title!  Way to go Panthers!

Anyway, between all those games, a long dance rehearsal for the Nutcracker (for Hope) and just trying to rest up I am exhausted!  So I am going to keep it short tonight (just like the work week)!  Oh yeah!

Here are a few more baby cards I made using the Simple Stories baby line.

Have a great night and will be back soon!

Darla

Happy Birthday Colin!

A year ago yesterday, my nephew Colin was born.  He was almost 8 weeks early and was delivered early because his mom had developed eclampsia (had moved beyond pre-eclampsia).  It was pretty serious for both of them.  Here is a picture of him a few days after he was born, in the NICU.

This was one of then first times Kristine got to hold him.

 Luckily I can report that both are healthy one year later.  So I wanted to celebrate Colin's first birthday, which was actually yesterday!

Look at this big BOY!

Isn't he CUTE!!!!!  I can't wait to see him next week and see all his new "tricks".

Speaking of babies...I have another gift album for a co-worker that had a beautiful baby girl on Wednesday.  Welcome to the world Grace Mae.  Isn't that name beautiful.

Sorry for the badly lit pictures, but I wanted to share this tonight and forgot to get pictures when it was still daylight out.  Oh well, you get the idea.

I used the Simple Stories baby line.

This is the inside cover, where they can put a picture of the baby.  The rest of the album is the Fancy Pants Brag book with pocket pages, photo sleeves and journal pages.

 I used almost every little scrap I had to make this project.  I made those papers go a LONG way for projects, layouts, cards, etc.  Check back over the next few days to see more baby projects I made using these papers.

Well, that is it for now.  Everyone enjoy your weekend.

Darla

Project 12-October Layout

Today I am going to share my layout using the October 2011 Project 12 sketch.

It is titled Dancing Queen.  These were pictures of Hope dancing with Just for Kix a few years ago.  They had several performances throughout the year, which included during the half time show of the D-League pro-basketball team here in town and a dance at a local mall.  Then at the end of the year they did one dance at a small recital.  She had a lot of fun.

Here are some detail shots of the layout...

...and heer is the Project 12 sketch the layout was based on.

I didn't have much journaling, so I used that area for a larger title.  The space looked kind of bare, so I ended up adding another photo under the title too.  And to include the small details, I used small letter stickers right on the photos to describe where each performance was happening.

Everything on the layout was from My Minds Eye, with the exception of the letter stickers, which were from Pink Paislee.

Speaking of dance, we are getting into performance week with the Nutcracker.  This coming weekend she has a long rehearsal.  I am helping out at this rehearsal, so I am sure by the time Saturday is done I am going to be tired!  :)  It will all be worth it because I know she is having fun.

Well, that is it for tonight!  Have a good one!

Darla