Grateful Mini

Hi Friends!
Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving, got to do some Black Friday shopping, and are starting to pull out your Christmas decorations! I'm still on vacation enjoying my break from real life. =) We are headed back next week and once we're over jet lag, I should be back to posting regularly.

Yesterday I had a mini album go up on the Pebbles blog featuring the last little bits of the Fresh Goods line that I still had. I love making minis that use up scraps!

For this album, I decided to share some things that I am thankful for this year. I have a lot of blank pages in the back so as something else comes up, I can add it in. I dated it with 2011 so I can make one of these each year and continue to document the things I am thankful for year 'round.
Thanks for stopping by!

All is quiet, but not so calm...

So I just wanted to pop in and apologize for being quiet this last week. I worked on the quilt I talked about in the last post- but halfway through quilting it I noticed I had a serious tension problem and now I have to take all that free-motion quilting OUT. So, since I have no patience for that at the moment, the quilt is going back on the shelf for a while.
And, I've been working on a few projects but my printer ran out of photo black in the middle of a mini album.... and my local American store has been completely out of this ink for months now. I tried going to a German electronics store but I guess Euro and American inks aren't recognized together in my printer as being compatible. Talk about a pain!
Thursday we leave for vacation- a looooooong 11.5 hour flight from Frankfurt to San Francisco and then from there to Boise. We've been missing our families a lot lately so this is a much needed trip- but there will be lots of alcohol consumed on the plane, I assure you. I can already imagine Luke kicking the seat in front of him, not wanting to sit still, and screaming at the top of his lungs because he's cranky... Okay, so maybe it won't be THAT bad but prepare for the worst and then be surprised, I guess! I'm going to take a few supplies with me so I can have a few posts here and there (hopefully).
And with that, I'll leave you with Luke as Luke Skywalker for Halloween this weekend... =)

Punkin' Patch!

This year we visited a local pumpkin festival- complete with corn maze, pumpkin brats, and the best part- pumpkin soup! Mmmmmm. We had a lot of fun checking out the local vendors, enjoying some beer, and letting Luke run around all the pumpkins. He just loved that he could pick them up (or at least try!).

 I tried to pull as much out of my stash as possible- I'm really up to my ears in stuff I've had for over a year so I'm trying to sneak things on here and there. All the patterned paper is old- the only new things I brought out here were the alphas and the Studio Calico tag.

I took a cue from the Pebbles butterflies from the Fresh Goods line and use three layers to build my little pumpkin. I used corrugated sheets from a very old 7 Gypsies ephemera pack, inked up the raised portions and the edges, sandwiched the orange paper in between them, and then sewed down the center. Easy and dimensional!
And while we're on the subject of fall activities, I forgot to post this page I did for Pebbles last week!

I used a few different lines for this page. I hand-stitched the leaves in the background and then built the page around them. I'm starting to hand-stitch a lot more lately- I love that I can keep my hands busy while still be out with the family, rather than alone in my scrap room.

Today I'm working on that quilt I started way back when.... Hopefully I'll have progress to share with you tomorrow! Thanks for visiting!

Little Yellow Bicycle - Cycling Team

I have a post over at Little Yellow Bicycle today! I was chosen to be part of their cycling team and man, was I excited! I got to play with one of their latest collections, Head of the Class. I used the line to create a page, some lunch box notes, and a card.

I had so much fun with this line and can definitely see reaching for it a lot- not only is it great for back to school, but also boys- those primaries are great!
For more projects from this line be sure to head over to Little Yellow Bicycle and check out what the other gals did!

Thank You - Memoir

Hello friends! Just a quick post today to share some cards I made with Studio Calico's Memoir line (and a bit of alphas from Autumn Press). I finally got this order in and needed to start cutting right away and this is what came out.

I needed some thank you cards to send out for family and these were quick and easy. Now if actually mailing them were as easy...
Be sure to check out the Pebbles blog today, I have a fall themed page up over there!

Too fast...

My son is growing like a weed. It's hard to really notice until I sit down and look through past photos, or realize that everything in his drawers is suddenly too small for him. It IS easy to see how much he is learning though, like when I listened in on his "pre-naptime talk" to himself and heard him successfully count to 8. He's only been 2 for a month and I know that all these changes will just keep on coming at a rapid pace. Still, it's hard as I want him to stay my little guy forever, but it is also exciting to watch him grow and learn- and be proud of himself for his accomplishments.

I found this photo the other day and knew I wanted to enlarge it on a page. I also thought it would be fun to do the title ON it, so I cropped it with that in mind. I did something similar on this page: Road Trip. I think I'll be doing this more often as I really like the look!
I'm also working on Christmas blocks for a quilt that I've had sitting around for a  year now. I kept meaning to get it together this summer, but it's summer- so why would I be inspired to do anything Christmasy that early? =)  I'm paying for it now though- if I don't get it done in the next two weeks it will likely sit another year- we're going on vacation for the month of November and I know I won't have time to do it with the hustle and bustle of December.

So far I have 3/12 blocks finished and it takes me about an hour and a half per block. Better get crackin!

Another quick page!

I'm really on a roll this week- I've managed a page a day, just like I planned. This weekend I'm hoping to move onto some cards. I need to send out thank you's for my birthday presents! =)
This is the page I whipped up last night, using Pebble's Fresh Goods line.

You can just barely tell but I used a Studio Calico stamp behind the title- it's the confetti stamp from a couple months ago. I used champagne Versamark and it gives it a really cool but subtle shine. I needed something there because there was no texture in the cardstock I used and I think it was the perfect solution! I also embossed my thickers- love that they were "nekkid" so I didn't have to worry about finding the right font/color combo, I could just make them whatever I wanted!
Thanks for coming by, enjoy your weekend!