the very proud big sister!

Today my little sister is graduating from high school. Today she is embarking on the next chapter of her life. Today I am going to give her a huge hug and probably cry my eyes out.

I love my sissy! We are 14 years apart (as I know I've said here before), and I have been looking forward to her getting older and catching up to me. Cuz of course I'm perpetually 29 and she will eventually be the same age as me. :) Right?!

My mom and I co-made a GRAD mini album for her. I did my part and then shipped it off to my mom to add her touches. I can't show the whole thing because there are lots of pictures of her friends in it, and I did not get their permission to show them on the blog, so I am just sharing with you a page with Ashley on it. She won't mind. She's been here before and loves when I make her "famous."


This is my favorite page in the whole album. I love the colors and I love that picture of my sissy.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! I'm excited to come back from the party this weekend... I'm sure to have a ton of pictures to scrap!

gotta keep cool ... so cool!

Hi there, and happy Friday! I have to share with you another page using the My Paper Tree House June kit. And another picture from the Slip N Slide day this past Memorial Day weekend. My son just had so much fun posing for me while he played in the water. Gotta love that boy!


I love using the corrugated alphas in reverse type like this.


More of the ripped apart Primas. So sorry Prima lovers. The petals were of no use to me at this time. LOL!


I have to tell you that I wish I had about 3 more sheets of the paper with the lemons on it. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to ration it! :)

Hopefully you can still grab some of your very own by getting your hands on one of the My Paper Tree House June kits.

sketchy thursdays splatter

The latest Sketchy Thursdays sketch is ready for you to play along with us. And Heidi has made this one fun! She put splatter and distressing into the sketch, so I took her literally. I rarely paint on my sketches, but this was so fun to make.


The pictures are from the day before Nate turned four. Brad and I both had off from work and spoiled him with a day off of school. We went to see the new Shrek movie, and before we left for the day, I had Nate pose for his birthday pictures.


This page is made with the June kit from My Paper Tree House. It is full of Jillibean Soup goodness. If you are a Jillibean Soup fan, then this is the kit for you!

Scoot on over to Sketchy Thursdays and see what we have for you this week. Heidi has done it again with another awesome sketch, and I believe you may want to win some iCopic markers, perhaps?! Just a thought.... :)

slip, slide and more paper tree house

Of all the pages I made with June kit from My Paper Tree House, this one is my favorite!! I love the pictures, I love the layout, and I love the colors in this kit. The whole thing just makes me grin from ear to ear. And I hope this kit will do the same for you!


These pictures were taken this past Memorial Day weekend. It was really hot here (well, hot for Rochester), and we haven't opened our pool yet, so we had to find another way to keep cool. Nate was given a Slip N Slide last year and we finally cracked the box open.

He had so much fun with this, it was too funny! He would walk down the yellow slide and then just kind of fall into the bottom pool area. Ha ha!!


For all of the Prima lovers out there... avert your eyes. I'm about to give my tip for this page.

Yes... sometimes all you need is the center of the flowers. I made these flowers by tearing the petals off of the Prima flowers that are in the kit and layering them with a 1 inch scallop cut of the lemon paper. So sorry... but ripping apart the Primas had a wonderful effect. :)


Thanks for stopping by here today! Lots to show you from the My Paper Tree House June kit, so stop on back tomorrow!

a tree house and some poetry

I'm so excited to share with you today! The brand new DT for the brand new My Paper Tree House has been gettin' antsy waiting to share our brand new creations with you (see the theme—brand new?!). The first kit for My Paper Tree House is officially released and ready for you to stop on by.

Make sure to check out what the rest of the DT made with the kit, and I will also be back over the course of the week and sharing work with you. (Pssst: The card I made and shared here last week was also made with My Paper Tree House's June kit. I sneaked it in there under the radar!)


I am also the GDT for Challenge #17 at Scrap That Poetry. The poem is The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. This picture that I took of my son on his birthday was perfect for this poem.

Yep, I'm the mom that PUT her son in a tree on purpose rather than scream at him to get outta the tree. I'm sure my neighbors (who were outside at the time) thought I was nuts.

I'm not nuts... I'm a scrapbooker! I need a bumper sticker made!


Well, I hope to see you over at Scrap That Poetry. And it would be awesome if you checked out My Paper Tree House. Nana has some great things cookin' over there, and I am so lucky to be a part of this first Design Team!! Such inspiration over there!!

shoes and blooms

I have been itching to share this one with you, as I have been in on the big secret that Julie was keeping over at These Are A Few of My Favorite Things. And wow, do you have to check it out over there!! It is the one year anniversary celebration for the challenge AAANNNNDDDD.... we've been pubbed by Scrap Street Magazine! Check out the issue here.

There are going to be 27 winners for this challenge. 27!!! And... I'm sponsoring one of the prizes! One lucky winner will receive $10 worth of Button Blooms or Mixed Media Blooms from my shop. Yippee!!


So what's the challenge, you ask? We want to see Your Favorite Shoes! Oh my... SHOES!! I love shoes! I really wish I had a larger budget to spend on shoes, but I get by and make sure the ones I do purchase are great ones!


The shoes in this picture are my girly-girl shoes. I Photoshopped the picture a bit so it's hard to tell that they are a wonderful champagne color. I muted the colors in the photo and put a wash on it so that it would go with the Victorian look I was going for.


These flowers can often be found for sale in my Etsy shop, but they usually go fast, so if you see them there and want them, I'd scoop them up fast. They are made with a combination of vintage french language papers and sewing pattern paper. So lush and pretty!! The perfect feminine touch!

I hope to see you playing along with These Are a Few of My Favorite Things. As I said, there will be 27 winners, so your odds are pretty good at winning something. And you have until June 14 to complete and post your entry for the challenge, so no excuses! Let's see those favorite shoes!!!


Supplies: Webster's Pages (pp), Studio Calico, My Mind's Eye and Dear Lizzy (rub-ons), Design by Diana Etsy shop (flowers), jewelery, vintage lace, Prima (pearls)

who's that girl, dreams and goals

Many of you know that I'm on the DT for Who's That Girl—an up-and-coming, all-about-me challenge blog run by the fabulous Jessica Bree.

Challenge #10 for you is Goals & Dreams - Make a list of things you hope to accomplish one day. Places to visit, things to see and do. Please include at least 5 items.


I went a bit further and realized that most of my dreams or goals include my husband, so I changed this to Who's That Couple?! LOL. A realignment of what my dreams are for my hubby and I. Always good to write these down from time to time.

My Top 5 are:
1. Live a long, happy life together
2. Raise a darling son.
3. Laugh everyday
4. Grow together.
5. Always be there for each other.

These are all biggies for us. We hope that we get as much time together in this life as possible. Our son just rocks... he is the center of us. We laugh as much as possible. Brad does a great job of putting humor in our life, he can just be so silly.

We try to grow together, and in the times where we were growing in opposite directions, we were able to meet again in the middle. In the bigger picture, he is totally there for me. And he reminds me everyday that he has my back on any decision I make no matter what.


This was the last of my four pages for Scrapbook Circle's June kit. And of course I still have a ton of supplies left, I always do with these kits—they're awesome! I'm going to get to working on a few more things to share with you!

Thanks for stopping by!

some sunshine for you

Hi there! Hope you have a marvelous weekend planned and that there may be some sunshine where you are. I don't have any big plans for this Memorial Day weekend, just hanging with my family and getting some creating done.

This card is made with the new Echo Park Paper Sweet Summertime collection. You can get is as an add-on kit with FREE shipping when you get the June kit from Scrapbook Circle. And trust me, if you like to work with bold and bright colors, this is the collection for you! I just love it, and I highly recommend it!

Scoop yours up today over at Scrapbook Circle!

Tuesday Trigger on a Friday

Happy Friday everyone! It's Memorial Day weekend here in the U.S., so it's a bit of a holiday weekend. Or in my case, three and a half days to create! :)

Today I'm playing along with Cath and the Moxie Fab blog's current Tuesday Trigger, which is awesome this week. I love the colors, the linear look and feel, and the tiny little embellies. So cute! I had about a dozen ideas and ended up going with the card above.

Tuesday Trigger challenge

Now that you've seen the Tuesday Trigger, why not jump on in and play along? Thanks for stopping by today!! Enjoy the weekend!!

Supplies: This card was made using the My Paper Tree House June kit.