I Think He Gets It!!

I think this post has double meaning...What I meant originally was that Christopher gets the meaning of Valentine's Day, lol..."yo git chiclit" :) LOL! He's in kindergarten, btw.
Since I took the photo with the DIVINE chocolate bar I received from DH for Valentine's Day, it also means DH gets it, heehee. I also received a very cool Silpada necklace I've been wanting. Oh yeah, he gets it!

6 Week Photos

Dh's gorgeous photos of (gorgeous) William at 6 weeks:





Wah, he's getting BIG already!:)

More Paper Pages

Here's a couple of my pages from a February challenge on my local SB list. I have a small collection of sewing related scrapbooking items b/c Mom used to sew a lot of my clothes (almost all of them until around 1st grade) and I have various heritage photos that I also want to talk about the handmade items people are wearing/quilts/etc.


Anyway...This one uses:
Stella Ruby Basic Grey paper, Two Busy Moms paper, MM pocket, sewing pins (metal), sewing machine charm (metal), canvas title from Club Scrap (God I loved that stuff!), buttons, and embroidery floss


This is a MM chipboard sign that I bought around 2 years ago I think. With my procrastination skills it's a wonder it ever got done, lol, and I started it AFTER Valentine's Day if that tells you anything about me;) I noticed the love-related metal items and decided that was a good place to use them. Charms are MM, stickers are EKSuccess, also used wooden flowers and a "wax" seal.

TFL,
Cheri

Sixth Birthday Penguin Party

Jeff thinks I was the mastermind behind the theme, but Christopher LOVES his "Flippers" penguin and came up with the theme. I just HAPPENED to have seen Janet make a reference to Paper Capers where the mom put on an absolutely fabulous, over-the-top penguin party. So we borrowed most of her ideas and came up with one or two of our own:)



First up in the photo above is Flippers himself, the inspiration behind the party. The one and only time I've ever caved in at checkout at the grocery store:) You can see the stuffed animal section of the florist area from checkout... Then of course is Christopher with his igloo cake. He chose Pillsbury Funfetti cake and we filled the center with vanilla ice cream and frosted with marshmallow frosting (otherwise known as 7-minute frosting). The little penguins are made from black olives (tutorial on Paper Capers site linked above). Then there's me patting William to sleep in his "I'm grumpy and no other position will do" pose:) This photo is included to show you that I have penguin pajama pants a la JCPenneys and I WORE THEM to both parties, lol!:)



First up here we have the gorgeous paper snowflakes Mom made for us to hang on the front room window and living room window for decoration at the party. I'm leaving them up through March, I think:) Not that I don't want spring, but they look awfully cool from the street! Mom also lent us the large penguin in the next picture, the (antique) sugar bowl in which we put goldfish crackers (penguins eat fish you know) and also all the snowflake and penguin tablecloths. 3rd photo is the cake

Next row Christopher and Jeff begin assembling one of a few Lego sets received, next two are Michael leaping IN THE AIR in Jeff's photos. The boys at Christopher's classmate party (mostly not posted b/c don't have parents' permission) spent the last 20 minutes or so playing Wii b/c one boy noticed it and asked and we were out of games, lol. Michael is pretending/confused that he is actually playing, not just watching and holding a spare controller. He kept yelling, "I won, I won!" :)

3rd row: Cream cheese igloo...DIVINE! Love it on the Pepperidge Farms Harvest Wheat crackers (OMG the crackers are delicious alone, too!). Recipe also on Paper Capers blog...I used goat, not Feta, though I like it also. Next is our friend's silly son/alien;) And last are some of the many boys playing at the party.

Whew!

Paper Pages

It's hard to believe it was this long ago already, but about a month ago I attended the annual scrapbook retreat that a group of my friends organizes. We go down to a hotel in Des Moines on Friday night and scrap through (with varying breaks for sleeping, eating, and socializing) to noon on Sunday. It's always a blast! They have a different theme each year, this year being pirates. I won the contest for best-dressed pirate (need to have Jeff take a pic of me in full garb...when I get it finished I'll upload the layout with the group picture the organizers took and printed 5 x 7s for us all!) Anyway, these are a sampling of what I accomplished that weekend...

First up is my favorite book Christopher has made. In kindergarten they take paper, fold it in half, and staple on the one edge to make books. Once he figured this out he made about 25 more books at home with various themes. This one was a Halloween book. He had us draw some of the monsters on the inside, but he colored them. My favorite page is the vampire page b/c other than the silent "e" he figured out how to spell vampire all by himself:) The second page of this spread in his album will simply be a photograph of all the pages in the book (4 x 6 pictures lined up on the 12 x 12 background to completely cover it). I will also cut an opening so you can look through the original book too.



I scrapbooked about Christopher's 5th birthday party a LONG time ago, within a few weeks of his birthday last February. I had so many cool pics of his pirate cake (about $40 at Hy-Vee!) that I did a layout just of it... The skull and crossbones is a wooden decor item found in my goodie bag or prize pack from the scrapbook retreat...thanks girls! The reflection on the left in the pic is me standing over the layout to take the pic. Very difficult to take a good pic of a layout with a transparency on it:)



These are all dance and gymnastic pics of my friend Amy's oldest two children...

Official

William is now official: He has his birth certificate, social security card, and I finally (a couple weeks ago) got his birth announcement finished and sent out (pretty much grandparents, great-grandparents, and aunt/uncle only, please don't be offended if you didn't get one!)



I copied this idea from tiny prints and added the "all boys" from my scrapbooking stash...Mindy Terasawa. The dog in the photo is Michael's favorite stuffed animal in the whole wide world. His name is "Little Mouth", so dubbed by Jeff b/c the embroidered mouth has come undone. Michael put him in the car seat with William for a nice nap when William was only a few days old.



I finished this one a couple weeks ago for the Jen Wilson Designs challenge that week: journal a conversation between you and someone, include a framed photo of you and the person (I chose the unusual photo treatment b/c the windows behind us were totally blown out, ie white and very distracting)), repeat everything else on the layout twice, including the title, choose a repetitive design (eg. the background I chose has a repeated pattern).

JWD A Little Love papers
JWD Project 52: Repeat After Me title
JWD Grunged Detail Starters
JWD Hand Coloured (and Glittered) Bloom Starters
Katie Pertiet frame (from free Scrapbooks Etc. kit)
AL Libretto font
Journaling (from a letter from my grandmother): Grandma’s letter to us shortly after William’s birth (and yes, that ’s Michael in the photo): Just imagine if you didn’t have an automatic washer and dryer, disposable diapers, or an indoor bathroom, and milked cows and raised chickens. Ha!I am totally appreciative of modern conveniences, believe you me!But some things never change. . .Grandma said her 3 children acted up the minute she got on the phone. Yeah, that happens ALL the time! Phones ARE cordless now though. . .

Well we spent our weekend celebrating Christopher's 6th birthday (actually the 19th). 8 kindergartners, 1 pre-K, 1 2nd grader, a 3 year-old brother, a baby brother...OMG was our house full! Christopher chose a penguin theme, and as soon as I wade through about 300 RAW photos (don't hold your breath; it'll take awhile), I'll post some pics from the parties. Oh yeah, we had the children's party in the early afternoon and the grandparent/aunt/uncle/cousins/friends of ours party in the early evening. Whew! TG Grandma stayed overnight; b/c Mommy, Daddy, and William SLEPT IN this morning to make up for it!

Thank Goodness for Challenges

If it weren't for challenges on various boards and groups, William wouldn't have nearly this many scrapbook pages yet:)



Jen Wilson Designs is having the most awesome challenges again, and for HUGE prizes if all 12 of your challenge layouts are on time. This one had to be a timeline, include something denoting time (eg. a clock), and have the color blue somewhere on it.
Photos by DH and Kristina Botts
JWD Spoon Dipped Solids (blue)
JWD Time Flies (clocks)
JWD Flourished Swirls (bottom right swirl)
JWD Paper Date Starter
JWD Urban Bohemian (W)
JWD Rough Beginnings word art
Anna Aspnes Make Your Own Timeline
AL Uncle Charles font
Katie Pertiet sanded overlay (subtle grunge at edges)



For this one, we had a sketch to follow, had to include one photo "straight out of camera" and another that had been edited/manipulated, journaling, decorative edge, big title, and the subject matter had to be "addiction."
Journaling: They say mothers can be addicted (in a sense) to their babies. I’d agree with that. I crave the quiet moments with you (not a lot of those in our loud, busy household), I love the feeling of your tiny body in my arms, or the warmth of you snuggled up on my shoulder, your beautiful baby scent, the sweet sounds you make while nursing, and the earnestness of your adorable little face as you look into my eyes.
JWD Academy Elementary Solids
JWD Rekindle (Adore)
JWD Nostalgia No. 1 (this is a moment to remember)
JWD Laundry Line rough remnants, William paper, messy mended circle
JWD Cowabunga frame
JWD Grunge Edges
JWD Beginnings Photo Masked Starter
Brandie Valenzuela Grungelle brush set
Melissa Renfro Sparkle Curls
Amanda Sok Clipped Flowers
Misty Cato Date Bits 8



This one was a scraplift challenge at scrapgirls.com...I scraplifted TysMommy
I just love her page!
Keri Schueller Vintage Nursery dots paper
Thao Cosgrove Stitched Framery Emb templates
Brandy Hackman Sassy's Pumpkin and Hopsack (squares paper)
Syndee Nuckles Alpha Beads Emb Templates (string)
Amanda Sok Alluring Autumn (brown paper) and Frosted Glass 6401 style
Thao Cosgrove GraphX brush set
Ariadna Wiczling Feather (tan paper)
Cheryl Barber Stitching & Holes 4101 style
Matura, Amienne fonts
The challenge was to change something or add something to the scraplift:
Since I chose the more graphic patterned paper up top, I chose a more graphic brush below. I played around with it b/c didn't want the graphic look too strong, so lowered the opacity and added Amanda Sok's Frosted Glass style to soften it.

TFL,
Cheri