Grandbabies

I owe Brooke & Adam pages for their magnetic frame so I finally made one the other day for them and one for us too. The boys are just too cute in those shirts I bought them. In case you can't read what they have printed on them, they say "My Mummy Rocks" and have a mummy on them. I love this black, orange and white stripped paper.

Yesterday, we got a Halloween card in the mail from the twins, Emma and Lily. They also sent us a collage photo.

 Who's foot is that????

They are so darn cute. Dale and Darla are so lucky.
Of course Darla and Brooke are the real lucky ones. They both get to stay home with their children instead of  having to work and sending the babies to daycare. I know I will always cherish the years I stayed home with Adam and Alex.
Emma & Lily, Jack & Bennett, we hope you all have a great Halloween and we can't wait to see pictures of all of you in your costumes.

Catching up

I am trying to catch up with my scrapbook pages but it is slow going. I really need to do pages for my picture frame and Brooke's but just haven't had time. I have been trying to get ready because my peer evaluator comes tomorrow at school, so we will see how that goes.
I have taken some of my previous 8 x 8 pages for my frame and turn them into 12 x 12 pages for my scrapbook. Here are three of them. I am really pleased with the way my silhouette has been cutting things out since I did the update for the software. It is cutting out things it never would have done before the update.

This farmer Jack page is James's favorite.

I really like this one with the green checked paper and the green poke-a-dotted paper.

The silhouette cut out these detailed hearts and the button borders below.

It never would have cut this out before the update. I am really excited about it now.
It was James's 65th birthday Saturday so for a gift we went to the USF homecoming game. Unfortunately they lost with a little help from the refs but we had a great time and got some sun too.
I also got him a coffee maker.

He is really liking it.

We had great seats on the 40 yard line. I asked the guy behind us to take a picture of us and supposedly he did but when I got home and checked the camera, there was no picture of us. Oh well.

 Here is a picture of the card I made for him.

The Tampa skyline was beautiful and I couldn't miss taking a picture of it.

I put the pictures that Brooke and Adam took on their beach vacation on the pages I made at a make and take at the convention in Jacksonville. They were perfect for the pages. Even their clothes and swim suits color coordinated with the papers on the page.

October

This month for card class we made a calendar. We used a small CD box for the stand and we did three months worth of calendars for 2012. Guess what the secretaries are getting this year for Christmas?

 Here is what they look like from the side. I really like them because they are small and won't take up much space on a desk.

 I made a Halloween card for Jack and Bennett that is different from the ones I am sending everyone else. Since they are going to be little monsters for Halloween, I thought this card was appropriate. I mailed it today in their Halloween box.

 Also in the box is a Halloween can for Jack.

I made this door hanger for Jack & Bennett too.

Lynn and I went to St. Pete to Whim So Doodle last Tuesday for their make and take. We made these cute little Halloween bags. We ate at a little Italian restaurant around the corner. I don't remember the name, but it sure was a really nice place to eat. They had some tables outside and the weather was beautiful so we ate outside. It was like being in Paris again.

Jessica, I thought these boxes might be nice for favors for your wedding if we do them in your colors and put the guest's name on them and fill them with those candied almonds.
This is the Halloween card I made for this year. I really like this stamp.

I made Christmas, boy birthday and girl birthday count downs for Frances and put them in the Halloween box I mailed today. Here are what they look like. This is part of your Christmas gift Frances, I am just sending it early so you can use it for Francois's birthday and for Christmas this year. I will do you an Easter one later. I really think these are so neat. I used my Silhouette to cut out the shapes and the numbers. It is really working so much better since I did the upgrade to Silhouette studio.

Boy Birthday

Girl Birthday

Christmas Countdown

Now it is up to you to buy the little trinkets and candy to put in them!

Francois's birthday is next month so I couldn't leave him out. I made this card & envelope  for him.

It is the first time I used this stamp. I pop-dotted the little stars and glittered them.

Cute As A Bug

Lynn and I took a class last weekend at Violette's. Of course, it was one of  the classes by Florence. She is such a great designer. I took this class so I could put some pictures of Bennett in it since I already did a small album of Jack. The pages in this one are so pretty. Here are a few of them. I can't wait to put pictures on them. This is the cover.

I really love the papers in this album.

Scrapping With A Friend

Sunday was Lynn's birthday and she chose to spend part of her day with me scrapping. What a good friend! We had such fun and it really is nice to scrap with a friend instead of by myself. We both had a page to finish from our Jacksonville trip.

I had bought the companion set for the five pages we did in our class so I worked on them. Now I have 5 2-page spreads.

Sorry, I left them in the plastic bag when I took the pictures so they have some glare to them.

I also put some pictures of Jack in an album I had made about a year ago in a class at Violettes. The album is so cute.

I did a birthday count down that we had gotten the directions and papers for in one of the classes we took in Jacksonville. It turned out so cute. You hide a small toy or candy in the muffin tins behind each cover which are held on by magnets. Then you do a count down to the child's birthday. I am going to make some Christmas and Easter ones too and see if I can sell them to some of the young teachers at school that have small children. It really turned out nice.

Last Monday was Chelsea's birthday, so of course, Grandma had to send her a card. The stamps I used are Stamps by Judith. I just love her stuff. Lynn and I actually met her two years ago in Atlanta and had a long conversation with her.

We go to card class next week. Hobby Lobby is supposed to open in Lakeland in November. It is not too far from Violettes so I know we will have to make a stop there too once in awhile. I love Hobby Lobby. Brooke calls it "Micheal's on Steroids" I agree. I think that is the perfect description.

Jacksonville Scrapbook Convention

Last Thursday afternoon Lynn & I left for Jacksonville for the CK scrapbooking convention. We haven't be to a CK one before but it was great. It was at the Hyatt on the St. John's River. We decided to splurge and stay there. They had a convention rate but we used a senior rate and got the room for even less. They even upgraded us to a river-side room. What a view. It was just beautiful day and night.

Sally wanted to go but she had to go to a family reunion with her husband. We met up with her sister, Sue, who lives in Jacksonville and who went with us the summer before last when we went to the convention in Atlanta. We went out to dinner Friday night with her to a really nice seafood restaurant. We met up with Florence, one of the instructors from Violettes in Lakeland at the convention too. 
Lynn & I had both signed up for classes at the convention. I took 6 in all. 3 were from Tami Potter. I love her pages and the system she invented. I have done a few pages and cards with her method, but wanted to learn some of the tricks to make them more successful. It was really fun meeting her too.
 Here are the pages we did in the classes. This one was done with stamping the squares.

Use your imagination and pretend they have pictures inserted in the solid sections. I am going to use this one with the waterlilies to showcase some of the pictures I took in Monet's garden this summer.

I need some pictures of Jack or Francois in one of those bouncy ball places for these pages. Hint, Hint!
You can go to her design blog, http://tamipotter.typepad.com/design_each_moment/ and see lots of examples of her work.
I also took a Scrapping with Sketches class. This was probably my least favorite. I really went to learn more about using sketches but sadly, we didn't spend a lot of time on that. These are the pages we did. They will look a lot better when pictures and mountings are added.

Another class I took was called Quick & Classy with Mind's Eye. I love their paper and the class was good. We finished 4 of the 5 pages in an hour. Then I bought the companion set from their booth so I will have 5 double-page spreads when I finish them. Here are 4 of the pages we did.

 We all took the class Gifts Galore With Food. We made a cute party favor with M & M's, a fake mug for giving packaged hot chocolate, a basket, and a treat box. We also have sheets of ideas for many more things including a count down to your birthday thing that is really cute, especially for kids.

Of course we did lots and lots and lots of shopping. There weren't as many booths as were in Atlanta, but that didn't stop us. Here are some of the flowers I bought.

I bought lots of ribbons, copic markers, and of course I went to the brad and eyelet booth. That place is addictive. A few years ago I dropped $65. in that booth just on brads and eyelets. I controlled myself this time and only spent $35 in their booth. I bought train brads, gingerbread men brads, sea shell brads, fish brads, and several more. You can visit their website and see all they have to offer.
http://www.eyeletoutlet.com/
Here are some of the cute pages in a packet of 48 pages of paper that I bought. Aren't they adorable.

We also did lots of make and takes. Their make and takes were much better than we usually see at conventions. I did at least 7 or 8 of them. Here are some pictures of a few.
This first one is my favorite I think. Now all I need are some pictures of Sasha dressed in pink to match the pages.

 Now I need some really cute Halloween pictures of Jack and Bennett this year. Hint, Hint.

I did one make and take at a booth and bought 3 kits to make more. They will be something special (a surprise so I didn't take a picture)  for Jack, Bennett, Sasha, and Francois next year when we go to Disney.
I bought a lot of laser die cuts too. I bought Christmas ones, some zoo ones for the pictures I took this summer at the zoo in France, a baptism one for Bennett's baptism, some frames and many more.

 The train one I got because Jack loves playing trains. I got a real cute piece of train paper to use also.
I bought some Disney ones for our trip to Disney next summer with everyone. We decided to stay Saturday night rather than drive home in the dark. We drove to the beach to see the Atlantic. You know me, I can't get that close without going to the beach. Then we found a great little restaurant called Poe's Tavern for dinner. It was a popular place and very busy. We sat outside and we both had a great dinner.
We drove back Sunday morning. What a great weekend. With all the stress at school with our new evaluation and inventory coming up, I really needed to just chill.