Update from Texas...

We made it to Texas and all your positive thoughts helped because Kat was an absolute angel even with an extra 5 hours layover in Houston after they ran over our plane with the baggage truck!?!? But that is a story for another day...LOL!

I am posting real quick because this is the last week of the SketchThisCards three-week challenge and I needed to post my card for this week.

One of my favorite things about Midland (besides my wonderful family) is a fantastic little stamp store which I hit shortly after arriving. This card features some of my new stamps as well as some old Foofala papers. :) I changed my design slightly from the sketch and made the lower right flower element more of a background piece with the damask stamp. I have loved participating in this challenge and hope to use more of Janelle's sketches soon. If you haven't checked out the blog, I urge you to do so.

For our friends and family that keep up with these things, Ben received orders from the Air Force this week. Come next June, we will be moving to Scott AFB in St. Louis, Illinois. This has been moved back from our original move date of December because Ben will be deploying for 120 days starting in January. That is definitely a better move date so that Jacob can finish out the school year although it isn't going to be fun to spend the spring without Ben. I also have to figure out how I am going to keep Kat out of the craft/scrapbook/stamp side of her bedroom all throughout the spring as she is learning to crawl and walk. We were planning to be in a 4 bedroom by the time that she got to that...it should be fun! LOL!!!

We are still going to be in Texas for the next week, so I will probably be scarce around the net, but I will be back in a week!

smiles,
Christi

Going to Texas...

This will probably be my last blog post for a couple of weeks. The kids and I are going on vacation to visit my family in Texas. We haven't been back there in 2 years so we are really looking forward to the family time. What we are not looking forward to is 5 hours on an airplane with a screaming baby so think positive thoughts for us (and all the people who are flying with us) today.


Unfortunately, I have not had the time to concentrate on my weekly featured products like I had hoped this week, but I did get my SketchThisCard done for the week using them. The sketch for this week featured a double flower so I pulled out my scallop oval punch and created the bottom flower layer with 4 of the pink pp ovals and 2 of the daisy ovals from the Basic Grey Phoebe paper pack. Over this I layered a gorgeous prima flower with a bit of bling for the center. I added a touch of whimsy with the butterfly from the Nature stamp set that has been watercolored to add a bit more color to its center and a fun little cut-out frame. All the patterned paper elements have been edged with brown ink.

I still have ideas brewing for my featured products from this week so when I get back, I hope to create a couple more items before I move on to my next product grouping.
smiles,
Christi

Final Cropper's Cottage DT Upload...

These are my final projects for Cropper's Cottage. Shannon put together our kits this month and I received a beautiful collection of Rhonna Farrer and Prima products. Thank you Shannon!!!

The journaling on this says: "There is a very short period of time in a girl's life where ruffles on your butt look really cute. This is that time for Kat. June, 2007"


This layout is a photo of Kat at 11 days old.


And I think that the message board from the Cottage has finally found it's permanent home http://myscrappinspace.whsites.net/phpBB2/index.php . Please come over and visit with us!!!
smiles,
Christi

Our little bird-- weekly personal challenge #1

This is the first project that I have done using this week's featured products...Basic Grey Phoebe papers and Autumn Leaves Nature stamps. I created this layout using one of Valerie's wonderful sketches (sketch #16).

The layout is called Our Little Bird and the journaling says:
Kat gags on a pacifier...
Kat gags on a bottle...
Kat hasn't figured out how to get her fingers to her mouth.
But when Kat is sleepy, she wants something to suck on.
Anything...
She becomes our little bird- mouth open-
latching onto anything in front of her.
June-July 2007

In other news, I am VERY sad to say that the Cropper's Cottage is closing. After spending the last 2 years on the DT and the last 3 on the message board and shopping in the store, this leaves me personally feeling a bit lost, but I support Shannon and this very difficult decision. She has been an amazing store owner and friend. Shannon has the entire store on sale for 50% off so go over for some retail therapy and help her clear out some inventory...

But because we are such a good group over there, we are in the process of relocating the message board. For right now, it is located here, but it looks like that will not be our permanent home. Stay tuned for further details...I hope that you will come join us wherever we finally end up.
smiles,
Christi

How do you know....

How do you know you are too obsessed with taking your newborn daughter's photo? When said newborn daughter poops all over the couch and you are okay with it because that look of concentration resulted in some great photos. LOL! (luckily for me she was on the futon and not the good couch!)

Final Project- This week's personal challenge...

This is my final project using this week's personal challenge products, MM Fresh Anthology papers and Purple Onion Designs Adornment stamp set:

This card was done based off a sketch found on this cool new blog that I found...Sketch This:Cards. They are running a contest for the next 3 weeks so go check it out!

For this card, I used one of the stamps from the stamp set to create the black and white paper. I was trying to create a damask look with it. The thank you tag was done with a stamp from Inky Antics and is coming out of one of the hand dyed tags that are also part of the Fresh Anthology embellishment line...as is that gorgeous scalloped eyelet.

I have had so much fun with this personal challenge this week that I have decided to do it again. Next week's products will be Basic Grey's Phoebe paper line and Rhonna Farrer's Nature stamps.
smiles,
Christi

Personal Challenge- Project #4

For today's project, I decided to scraplift a gorgeous layout. Unfortunately, I don't know who the original artist is to credit, but the original layout is on page 71 of the August issue of Creating Keepsakes, in the Deja Views, Sharon Ann ad. I just loved the way that she designed the layout and thought it would work perfectly with my featured products from this week...


We had a good 4th yesterday and took some time to take some family photos since we were all dressed in our red, white and blue:

Chatting with the Bunnies...

In just the past few days, Kat has started cooing (trying to talk) and smiling at us. I can't believe that she is already old enough to be doing these things!?!

This morning, I put her down in her Moses Basket. It has a black and white toile liner that is covered with bunnies and she just loves to look at it. Well, this morning I was watching her and she was laying in there just having the best time with her bunnies. She was chatting with them and just smiling. It was so darn cute!

I have to admit that I am a bit jealous of the bunnies. I never get that many smiles from her!
smiles,
Christi

Personal challenge- Project #3...

This is a card that I made using the products from my personal challenge for this week (Purple Onion Ornamentals stamp set and MM Fresh Anthology papers). The design of the card was inspired by an ad posted for the ad challenge over on the veggie site- pub area. I love using ads for inspiration and this is a great one...I may have to use it again for a layout!

The sentiment stamp is from Cats Life Press.

I am thinking that I will do one or two more projects using these products and then I already have my next set of products picked out and can't wait to get started on those projects. I am really enjoying this extra little challenge!

I hope that you have fun, creative plans for today!
smiles,
Christi

Personal challenge- Project #2...

This is my second layout using the Purple Onion stamp set, Ornamentals, and the Making Memories Fresh Anthology papers (available from the Cropper's Cottage!) The photo is simply me enjoying an after bath snuggle with Kat. The idea for cutting the tips of the petals off the Heidi Swapp florals came from Annie. She posted a gorgeous layout using this technique last week and I simply had to try it. Thanks, Annie, for the inspiration!!!

Now I am off to start my next project!
smiles,
Christi

A Personal Challenge...

I spent 5 years as a Close To My Heart consultant and one of my favorite things about doing that was creating demo boards. To create a demo board, I would take one stamp set and one color scheme and create several different projects using those products. This week, I am challenging myself to get back to those creative roots.

For this week, I am focusing on one stamp set, Ornamentals from Purple Onion Designs:

And one paper set, Fresh Anthology from Making Memories (you can get this from The Cropper's Cottage.) I hope to do 3-4 projects using these within this week.

This is my first project. It's a layout showing the large contrast between Jacob and Kat's hands and feet.