Laugh, Love, Live card *Cardabilities #40*

Woohoo Friday!

Today I want to share with you my last card as part of the Cardabilities design team. I have enjoyed my time and have been very inspired by all of Karan's sketches. I will play along as much as I can and I hope you do too.

Laugh, Love, Live

So with this sketch I decided to stretch myself and actually work with the balloon and cloud images as seen in the sketch. I don't do much paper pieces or die cut items in my cards not because I don't like them, but because I'm intimidated by them. But this is after all a challenge, so I scoured my stash and found a balloon rubon plus I used my Fiskars cloud punch to create my sky scenery.


I decided to run my clouds through my embossing machine to create the swirls in them then I inked the edges blue to give them more definition.

I used blue pattern paper to create my bottom border. The blue in the border paper and the blue clouds create a balance in the card.

Thanks for stopping by and make sure you check out the rest of the design team's take on the sketch here.

Till next time,

Grace

Field Day

Last Friday the kids' school had a Field Day. It was spear headed by the P.E. teacher (which I learned has been in that school since it opened some 30 years ago. Crazy!). It consisted of 6 events that tested the kid's physical abilities and each one of them got a ribbon (1st-6th places) celebrating their achievement.

Before the event, the school had asked for parent volunteers to help out. I wasn't planning on signing up but Marcus begged me. We weren't here last year for this event so I didn't know what to expect but when my son begs, I can't resist!

So sign up I did and boy was that a mistake! Don't get me wrong, I think the event was well planned and my "job" was not hard at all BUT being that I was the only one representing my family, I had a hard time tracking my kids and I missed half of their events. Because I was "working at my station" in the beginning of each rotation, by the time I got to where Marcus or Maddie was playing, they've already gone! Plus there were two of them so I always had to run to each station just to catch up. That was sad for this Mama that wants to capture all the action.

But luckily after the third rotation, I was "relieved" of my duty and was able to track the kids down. Here are some of the shots I got from our Field day...

After six events, Marcus' ribbon tally was....3 2nd place ribbons, 1 3rd place and 2 4th place. Way to go champ!


Here he is gearing up for the "modified" sack race. Mr. Nelson (the P.E. teacher) was explaing that he didn't like how constricting the sacks were for the kids so he invented this combination of tire tube material and rope in replacement of the sacks.

my buddy in action!

jumping to the finish line!

he tied with another boy for 2nd place so they made them run a tie breaker.

as you can see, it was another neck and neck race and Marcus got the 3rd place ribbon for this 40 yard dash event.

So Marcus' wins were all over the place but the biggest surprise of the day was Maddie getting a clean sweep of all the blue ribbons (1st place) Yeah baby!

She was rocking all the events. All the parents I was with was very impressed at how well she played. I was shocked myself. The funny thing was that she was eyeing the 6th place ribbon because it was rainbow in colors. I told her that what she got was the "big prize". Everyone's working hard to get the blue ribbons and she had six!

This was the "cross country" event where they ran around the school property. My 'station' was just around the corner to this and I ran as fast as I could to catch her get to the finish line.

Here she is at the high jump event. They used spoons to mark where each kid landed and as you can see with the text I added to my photo, Maddie had a big difference with the rest of the Kindergarten girls.

and here she is at the trike relay pedaling to the finish line.

I'm so proud of both of them and for the efforts they made. They both truly deserved the ribbons they've recieved. We are planning on framing those ribbons. Mr.Nelson showed us his ribbons from when he was in school and did Field days. I want my kids to have the same memorabilia. I think it will be a great way of building courage and motivation for them.

So that's it. It was a llllooonnnngggg day but well worth it.

Till next time,

Grace

Sweetheart Gift Set *Glue Arts*

Week, please slow down a bit. I can't believe it's already Wednesday and my list is still a mile long.

Anyways today I want to share a project I recently made for Glue Arts. We had a team up with Scor-Pal and I used their Scoring board along with my fave Glue Arts adhesive to make a gift set which included a bag, box and card.

Sweetheart Gift Set

I have to say, the Scor-Pal scoring board is a pretty handy tool to have especially if you like building your own dimensional paper crafts like the bag and box I made here. I am definitely going to using that product again, really soon!

Here's some close ups....

As always, I have made a tutorial for this project at the Glue Arts blog. Check it out here.

Till next time,

Grace

My best bargain to date!

Ok so I don't normally post pics of me and my outfits because I don't think I'm that of a fashionista to be doing that but I had to post about this one because a. I'm so proud of my finds and b. I mentioned these to my sisters while chatting with them on facebook and they told me to take photos to show them what I got.

So here's what I wore last Sunday to church....


Lately I've become an avid thrift store shopper. Not only does this new way of shopping fits in my new budget but also because I'm loving the HUNT!

Last week, I went to the ARC thrift store after going through the kids' and my closet to get rid of unneeded clothes. If you have kids you know how fast children can grow and my kids were no exception.

Anyways since I was already there, I shopped for me too *wink*. I found my yellow silk top which had a price tag of $4 but since the tag was marked at 50%, I got it for only 2 bucks. Then I found the blue skirt (which was super cute) at $5. My wardrobe needed more color in there so having this outfit gave my closet that boost. And I love how I was able to find good quality clothes for a fraction of their price.

The other items I already had on hand- Sweater ($17) from Target purchased last April; the shoes (Nine West) purchased from Goodwill at $9 and accessories bought at Burlington Factory for $5 for the earrings and necklace set.

So if you add that up my whole outfit cost me about- $38.

Now who says you can't look cute without burning the bank account?

Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

Layout share

Oh gotta love Fridays. Although my Friday started off with a hectic morning while I helped out at my kid's school and my Saturday just filled up with all sorts of activites, still Friday denotes the end of another week and that just gives me so much relief.

So today I'm sharing a couple of pages I made recently....

Miss Sassy

here's a pic of my Sassy child about two years ago. I just love her facial expression here and posing. Too cute! Although the pink color dominated my daughter's outfit, I decided to play on the brown and green color instead. I also added blue in there to make the sprinkling of pink pop out more.
Papers, die cut shapes and Brads are from Doodlebug Design; Letters stickers from My little shoebox, GCD Studios, My Mind's Eye and American Crafts; Spray mist from Tattered Angels; Border punch from Fiskars and Embossing folder from Cuttlebug


I had the white background staring at me looking so bored, so I decided to add some blue spray mist on it but before I misted it, I added a shaped journaling block so I can leave part of the background white which held my title.
I didn't have enough pink stickers to complete the title but I did have some orange glitter letters that still coordinated with the rest of my glittered pink letters.

So very handsome

This photos got me excited that eventhough I don't normally print photos that I've taken recently (I like to work in order, from oldest to most recent) I went against my rules on this one. Why do I love them so much? First off, these are photos that I took as a "professional photographer" plus I just LOVE how grown up my little baby boy seems in these shots. He is definitely one handsome boy in my books!
Papers and stickers are from Bella Blvd; Buttons from Favorite Findings; Baker's twine from Papertreats.etsy.com

I love layering accents in my pages. In this page, I grabbed the black journaling sticker and filled it up with a dinosaur accent that I cut up from pattern paper, then added a layered die cut star cut from my die cut machine and topped it with button and baker's twine.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

Till next time,

Grace

Mitch's birthday

Ob it's so windy outside. Where did my summer go and it's not even officially Autumn yet?!

Anyways today I want to share a few pics from Mitch's bday get together last Saturday. His birthday actually fell on that day and days before I had asked him what he wanted for his birthday. He said, he'd like to have a few friends over for dinner and he would like to eat Beef Enchiladas and 7 layer dip.

When he was growing up, in their family when it's someone's birthday they are called king/queen of the day. They get to skip on chores and their mom would make any dish/meal that they've requested for dinner. He had always loved his mom's Beef enchiladas and I'm grateful that the recipe was passed down to me.

So with that I slaved all day Saturday making the enchiladas, 7 layer dip, spanish rice and the cake. It was hard work but I told hubby that the party was my gift to him and that he should not expect anything more. LOL.

Here are just a few shots of the party....


I'm so into fondant cakes lately. They are so cute looking and easy to make. It does take a bit of time to decorate but I still like them. One of Mitch's fave cakes is German Chocolate cake with the coconut pecan frosting. Since I was doing the fondant, I used the Coconut pecan frosting as filling in between the cake layers.


We had placed a lot candles on the cake but it still didn't add up to how old he is. Hehehehehe.

We are so blessed to have friends around to celebrate with us. We ate dinner and then played Phase 10 card game. I won, woohoo!


One of our friends mentioned that he never sees me in front of the camera. He is mostly right so I handed him the camera and he got this wonderful shot of me and hubby.

So that's it. Another birthday celebrated and that leaves us to one more for the year- Maddie's. Hers is next month and her and I are already cooking up ideas for her birthday cake.

Till next time,
Grace

Project share

Hi all. So before I share some of my latest projects, I need to give a quick shout out to a good friend of mine that started a wonderful blog...

I love her concept of providing a resource for families in the Colorado Springs area about the latest happenings in the area. So if you are local and want to know the fun events that you and your family can do locally, her blog is the first place you need to stop at. :)

Oh and *I heart Colorado Springs* blog is having a giveaway today! It's one that you don't want to miss.

Ok so onto my projects....

Thoughts of you card

this was my last project for Clear Scraps. We had a team up with Sizzix and I combined some Clear Scraps acrylic sheet with a Sizzix flower die to make my own embellishment.

I painted the back side of the flower to make it pop! I also added an embossed background using some Tim Holtz by Sizzix embossing folder. Make sure you check out the blog post here.

Random Four mini

Last year I had this project that I attempted to complete. I say attempted because there where months were I failed miserably and then after getting my ducks in a row, continued it again. I'm talking about my random four project. It was all about me documenting 4 random things about each family member every month. I posted them here in this blog. If you want to check them out, check the archives section with "random four" blog post titles.

anyways, I started it on the blog with intentions of compiling it later on in an actual album. Well after six months, I finally got it transferred into a book. I used a binder that I found out at the Goodwill store, covered it with pattern papers and then divided the inside pages into sections that represented each month. Here's a peek at the inside....

I added words to the months that I had skipped.

Sooooo happy that I was able to finally get this project checked off. Now I need to brainstorm what I'll do for next year.

Till next time,

Grace

The flooding story

So if you are on facebook, you've probably heard about this story but those who do not visit me on FB, here's my "flooding story" with pictures....

So on Wednesday, it was predicted that it will rain. No big deal as we've been having some good rains lately. I went about my day, running in the morning, doing some computer work, then I picked up Maddie from school, had lunch and just about after 1pm, it started to rain.

It was a GOOD rain, even hailing at times. It got so hard at one point that I couldn't help myself but stop what I was doing, grab my camera and take shots of the down pour from my bedroom window.


I was enjoying my time, cozied up with my sweater, hearing the rain fall down while I worked on editing some pictures. Excuse the mess on my work table, I had a slight cold hence the tissue and I had a few SD cards plus flash drives sitting in front of me.

I was also goofing around with Maddie which, by the way, is very insistent she changes into her Belle costume AFTER school EVERYDAY!

Then after some work, Maddie and I decided to do some scrapbooking so we headed off to our craft room. The rain was still going outside and we were working away at our projects when Maddie started screaming and told me that there was water coming in through the bottom of the window. Where my table is situated in the room, all I had to do was turn my head to the right and sure enough there WAS water that had come down through the window, then the wall and all the way down the floor which was soaking up my rug already.

With more inspection, I found out that there was a good 3" of water in the window well. Maddie was already crying at this point. She got really scared. She thought that water will actually fill up our home and we would drown. After a quick comfort and explaining to her that it would be fine, I called up Mitch and told him the situation. Then I grabbed my jacket and boots and ran to the side of the house with a bucket to try to get the water our of the window well.

After about 15 minutes of that, I went back inside and by then the water had reached all the way on the other side of the room where most of my scrapbook supplies are stored. At this point, I got really worried. I know these are just items but in my head, I knew for a fact that there are some things here that are not replaceable.

I quickly, and with all my effort and strength, moved everything I can out of the room. Pulled otu the soaking rug, grabbed some towels and buckets and went to work soaking up all the water. I managed to get everything *almost* dried when it was time to pick up Marcus.

Got in the car and went off to Marcus' school. When we got back, I was on Mommy duty, giving the kid's snacks and then started homework with Marcus. After about 5 minutes into homework time, I had the strongest impression to go back down into the basement and check on things down there.

I was very surprised to see that water had started coming in again and this time, it's coming in faster! I got the kids dressed up with jackets and boots and we ALL went out to the side of the house to start getting the water our of the window well again. This time we each had a distinct job to be more efficient in our work. Maddie was holding the window well cover up, while I was inside the window well grabbing water and putting it in a bucket which Marcus carried to the front lawn to dump the water. We did this for a while when a neighbor came and after seeing our distress, she called her husband which quickly came with a portable pump and pumped out the water from the window well.

He helped me a lot because while the pump was going, I was inside trying to get rid of the water accumulating on my craft room floor before it spreads to the rest of the basement.

We did this back and forth work until 6:30 pm when we got caught up and the pump did the rest of the work for us.

When Mitch got home, he purchased a sump pump and installed a make shift hole using a 5 gallon bucket and placed the pump in there. Because the rain was continually pouring, this job took him 3 hours to finish.

Needless to say we were super exhausted when we finally hit the bed at 12:30am.

I was telling Mitch that my uneventful day turned out to be one of the most unforgettable times in my life. Not only because I had to deal with a flood in my craft room of all places but it also proved to me that I have strenght I didn't know I have. He asked me if I took pictures to scrapbook. I laughed at this comment because would I really be thinking of photos in the middle of my flooding crisis?

But he's right, I can't pass up this event without preserving the moments with pictures so the day after, I took these photos....

Here's what my room looked like. All the furnitures and shelves have been moved either to one side of the room or outside of the room.

this was the makeshift sump pump that Mitch installed the night of the flooding. I still can't imagine that there was 3" of water that filled this window well the day before.

In the chaos of things, I was throwing items into the weight room. As you can see there are boxes, containers and plastic bags all thrown in there.

and for the rest of the shelves, I pulled them to the hallway. When I was taking these things out, I didn't have time to take out the items on the shelves so I was pulling them with ALL the stuff in it. Some of them where really heavy but for some reason I had the physical strength to pull them.

If you've read up to this point....thank you for indulging me in reliving my once in a lifetime flooding story and know that this event as weird as it may sound had reminded me of the hand of the Lord watching over us every minute of our lives. Sometimes we don't know the reason why we are prompted to do things but that's the Spirit guiding us.

I'm just reflecting that if I was not in the room at the time that the water started coming in, I would not probably know that there's flooding till 3-4 hours from then and by that time, who knows how much damage it would've caused. Plus the Lord gave me strength to manage the situation with calmness (to not make the kids scared) and He guided me as to what to do to eliviate the problem. He also gave me such wonderful neighbors that I can rely on especially when Mitch is not around. Truly I am blessed. And the best part of this whole thing......there was not one single scrapbook paper that was damaged by the water.

That in itself is a blessing all on it's own.

Till next time,

Grace

Lately.....in photos

today I'm reflecting on things that are changing, not only with the weather but also in the home where we seemed to have gone into the "busy" mode. So with that,I'm stopping from this CRAZY week and reflecting at what my life is....RIGHT NOW!




I am taking photos ALL THE TIME lately and I'm loving it. The beauty of photography through a scrapbooker's eye is that you don't just capture the posed shots but more importantly you look at the moment and what emotion you can capture then. I so love that vision and I'm grateful that I have the opportunity to be able to do it EVERYDAY of my life.


One of my brothers came home from a deployment late last week and we were able to see and chat with him on Sunday via Skype. LOVE THAT! I am grateful for living at a time where technology has advanced so much that I can SEE and TALK with family AT REAL TIME even if we are miles apart from each other.


After a whole summer of tending to my garden, I'm slowly reaping the benefits. These are my latest harvests- some spinach, carrots and lots of turnips. Anybody have great recipes or ideas on what to do with turnips? I have ton and they tend to be a bit bitter for my taste so if there's anybody that has ideas on how to make it better tastewise, please oh please share!


and oh how I love this photo! This is how my space has looked in the past, oh month now! Yes I've been scrapbooking/crafting like crazy lately. It doesn't show much in this blog but I have been productive. Most of them have gone out for publication though so I can't share them right now but when I get my projects back, be assured that they'd grace this blog then. :)

So that's my life. Busy but fruitful. And isn't that was fall is all about...."harvesting" a good life?!

Enjoy the weekend.

Till next time,
Grace

Our tiny treasure *Cardabilities #39*

Happy mid month. Gosh I still can't believe we're already in September let alone the 15th of this month!

Well today I'm here to share my version of the sketch #39 at Cardabilities.

Our Tiny Treasure

I sooooo loved this sketch and how I was inspired to pull out my Martha Stewart Crafts Butterfly punch and have a play with papers!


I laid my butterflies like in the sketch and adhered them through machine stitching in the centers. This way, I was able to give some dimension to the butterflies and a feel of movement by pushing the wings up.

Adding visual triangles to cards is a must in my book so here, I used the color black which you can see in the color of my stickers (feet and sentiment) plus the three black pearls on this one butterfly.

So that's it. Make sure you check out the rest of the design team members take on this great sketch here. Oh and try to play along too, it's always fun how people can have so many takes on the same sketch. It's so inspiring!

Till next time,

Grace

Game night

So about two weeks ago, on a Sunday, the kids were getting a bit bored. We have a rule in our home that we don't watch TV or play with our friends on Sundays. It's our day of rest plus a chance to be spiritually filled up for the upcoming week. Mitch went to a church meeting and I was left with two whiny and bored kids. So what does this mama do? Break out the Monopoly board game.



We love board games and we have a few in our collection. This specific one, we've had for years but since the kids were still young, we never got a chance to break it open. The box says for 8 years old and up but I think with a little help from us Maddie can follow along.



So anyways, we broke it open, played the short version of it (you all know that Monopoly can take FOREVER to finish) and the kids had a blast. Since then everytime we have a free night, they'd ask to play this game.



So last Friday night when all the family was home, we played another round of Monopoly. Here are some of the pictures of our game night....



Like I said earlier, this box has not been opened since it was bought a few years back and I have to say that Hasbro had made great improvements not only in the game but their packaging of Monopoly since I was a kid. I love the new slots for the money where it's standing up and easier to organize and pull out.




Marcus is really loving this game and I'm loving the sneaky way this teaches him math!

Maddie is usually happy to play this game but tonight, just before we started, she hurt herself pretty bad falling on the side of the dining room table and hurting her cheeks. Poor baby!

Mitch decided to be the banker and he was a very meticoulous (sp?) at that!

this is my token for the night. I love the new tokens, there's this ship, a wheel barrow, car and pot of gold. Cute stuff.

I've organized my seed money for ease in buying all my properties. Now we're ready to play!

a peek at where everybody was at after about 15 minutes of playing. I believe, Maddie bought the coveted Park place at this round.

this boy LOVE buying properties but he's smart, he only buys the ones that has about $12 or more in rent. He's going to be a good businessman someday.

As you can see, it doesn't take much for our little family to have fun. Now break out those board games and have a family game night soon!

Till next time,

Grace

Oh by the way, you're probably wondering who won....well despite going to "jail" five times and never passing go (never got $200) Mitch won. Lucky I say!