Family time

Hope you guys had a wonderful Valentine's day. As for me, it was great. Dear hubby made breakfast, I didn't have an early meeting, and we just lounged around the house after church. We even had family home evening. It was definitely a perfect day!

Anyways here's a page and a card to share today....

Family time
PULLED OUT FOR PUBLICATION
I made this with the latest sketch up on Pagemaps. I love how sketches instantly inspires me. I used some fun My Mind's Eye paper. The colors are great and the distressing details are just right for this page.

PULLED OUT FOR PUBLICATION
I love this font from the Thickers stickers. Lately I'm into cursive titles, I don't know why but I'm liking them.

PULLED OUT FOR PUBLICATION
I created a collage of fun stuff at the bottom of the page. I used a round journaling block from Little Yellow Bicycle.

then I made this card with the scraps...

Friends card

the colors of the paper worked really well with the neutral kraft card.


I used a stamp from one of my dollar stamp set. You know me, I hoard those dollar stamps. LOL.

Thank you for looking

Till next time,
Grace

My heart is full.....

With Valentine's day just around the corner, I thought of breaking up the "project" posts and share something personal with all of you.

I love Valentines day. I love all the sweet things you can give your special someone. I love how we "stress" out on how to show our dear ones how much we love them. I love how kids and adult alike get some type of valentine treat, whether it's roses, a nice dinner or sugary treats. All of them are great.

But today, I wanna focus on the intangible things. I wanna share the people I love. They are after all, the main reason why this holiday is so "sweet" to me. Without each one of them, I'd be one of those people being a "scrooge" during this love filled season.

Let's start with this man...


he is my strength. he is my protector. he always got my back. we are a team in everything and I love how he respects and actually listens to my opinion. I'm definitely the "best" me because of him. he doesn't let me use excuses in life and because of that I'm forever grateful for him

then we go to this little man....

he teaches me that with resiliency and faith, you can be anything that want to be. he teaches me patience (something that I never had an ounce of before I had him). he is pure, honest, fun, cute, very smart and whatever anyone says.....he is wonderful!!!

then her.....

this is the first time i'm going to come out and say this but I see so much of me in her. I didn't wanna admit that but it's true. The little things that she does that sometimes gets me, it's EXACTLY what I am or was when I was little. The impatience, totally girly, smart, divaish attitude. All that is me! AAaccckkk!!!
But seriously, she is sweet, very sweet. No day passes by without her telling me how she loves me. I enjoy her company (most of the time) cause she has tons of stories to tell and she actually listens to what I tell her the first time! Now that's a great trait to have in my books.

and my family...

they are my support system. Each and everyone of them play a huge part in my improvement in this thing we call life. Dad shares with me his expertise in cooking; Mom is always ready to give me motherly advise; George and Ali is so sweet to my family, especially the kids; Gary is my go to guy for cameras. I've learned so much from him eventhough I got my camera first; and Robert and Gem who are quick to lend a helping hand whenever we call them. Oh and I love my Penalosa family too. They are far from us but we think of them often and love them dearly too.

Oh, of course I love my "Tolman" family too, I just don't have a picture of the group. It's very big. :)

My heart is definitely full of love. I feel it everyday from all these wonderful people and I hope I show it too *wink*

Have a wonderful Valentines day everyone.

Till next time,
Grace

GCD studios share....

this post is a little bittersweet for me.

Sweet cause I love GCD studios products. Their collections are so different with each other that you just want to have them all. Their range is from cute, fun, bright to vintage, sweet and soft.

A little sad cause this will be my last post for them. You see my term in their DT is coming to an end. Don't worry about me, I was happy to have worked with a great company but it's now time to move on. and if you have been wanting to join a wonderful company, now it's your time. They're having a DT call. More info here.

Anyways here's my share this month....

To my Sweetheart card

since this month is the "love" month, what better way to celebrate it than with a fun, bright, cheery card.


This valentine inspired card was made using the Party it up collection. I love the "fun" colors and designs in them. And they just so happen to have papers that have hearts in them. Perfect for the theme!
Since I'm going to be giving this to my "sweetheart", I decided to go for a more masculine color scheme focusing on the blues rather than the typical red and pinks that we associate with Valentines day.

One Year Wiser layout

We had an assignment to make a layout about what we've learned in the past year. I took the assignment to heart and really thought about the important life lessons that I've learned over the past year. There were five that stood out and thinking about them made me thought that I am really wiser because of these lessons thus I came up with "one year wiser" for my title.
I used the Morning Glory collection here. I thought that the papers were pretty, feminine and yet with that touch of "grown up" that I was shooting for with the layout.


I've seen the pleated flowers everywhere lately,so I thought of trying them out myself. They were very easy to make although keeping them stay in shape while the adhesive dried was a little tricky.


I created a visual triangle with the paper threads, adding two to the flowers and one tied on top of the pattern paper.

Thank you for looking.

Till next time,
Grace

February Crazy Daisy kit layouts....

Happy Friday. Got more layouts to share with you today. I have been firing up on projects lately. And it's very good cause I have a feeling that this trend will slow down dramatically in the very near future. *more on this in a future post*

Anyways I was very fortunate to have asked to play with the February Crazy Daisy kit. Have you seen it? It's very fun! and you know me, I'm all about fun. *smile*

Seriously though, the kit was screaming Grace all over with lots of fun, bright colored papers, cute embellishments and also some vintage feel to add to the mix. You can't ask for a better package!

Here's what I came up with....

Valentine School Party

This two page spread was made easy with the fun bobunny and crate papers in the kit. I just love the fun, whimsical feel of them.


I used three different elements for the title. I love how the metal, sticker and chipboard came together. I also highlighted the chipboard title to make the letters pop out.


these cute hearts from the Basic Grey sticker sheet are so adorable.

My Sweeties

The neutral color of my background papers made my kids' shirts in the picture stand out more.


I added the round heart transparency as part of my visual triangle. It was continued with the heart border and the other heart sticker.


again, more of the BG stickers here. Oh and can you see my newest border punch? I just love, love, love border punches!!!

Family Deerest

This page will be the front page of my 2008 family album. Excuse the bad photo of Marcus and Maddie. Got too carried away with post editing. Didn't know that Costco does their own editing. Learning from experience here.


I love that bobunny title sticker. It's sooo cute.


I also added the Prima sticker trim, a border sticker from the Basic Grey sheet and more trims.
The imaginesce stamp was also added as an accent.

Curly Q

I love this picture of my daughter. It just so happened to fit the bill of the theme of my page which is all about her curly hair.


I used the lovely shaped paper from Fancy pants. I added some subtle hearts on the paper by using the heart lace cardstock as a mask and spraying glimmer mist on the paper. It's subtle but I love the added effect of it.
I used the flowers from one of the pattern papers and used them as accents.


I added the flower trims here too. One as a trim and another cut out to make separate accents. The ticket stub was added here too.

Bowling Baby

I love the combos of green and pink. It screams girl to me so that's what I used to make this page about my daughter in her first bowling experience.
I had a few pictures to scrap but I still made room for the title, enough journaling spot and spot embellishments.


I used the Pink Paislee stickers as part of my title and handwrote the rest.


I also created a visual triangle between the white on the journaling block, the sticker embellishment and rubon butterfly.

I got my mini all done, just need to print some pictures. More on that next week.

You like what you saw? Well head on over to the Crazy Daisy kit site to get yours. Oh and hurry. They are known to sell out fast. *wink*

Have a great day.

Till next time,
Grace

mid week post

Hi all and happy mid week. Hope you guys are having a great day.

As for me, some life altering changes going on here but I'm not ready to share yet. But this thing I do wanna share..... a layout with a matching card....

Scout-o-rama

I've been dying to make this page. I get really overwhelmed when I have pictures that are printed and not in scrapbook pages yet. I've had this printed for over 6 months before I finally scrapped them. I know for some that's not bad but for me it is. Just one of my little weird pressures that I put on myself.


I finally used some great We R Memory Keepers papers that I've been saving. The journaling block is from Cosmo Cricket though. I love the ribbon edge.


I played with some buttons as well. Every page has got to have those bumps and lumps in them, right?!

Congratulations card


I have been obsessed with border punches. I don't have them all, although I wish I did, but I've been slowly making a "collection". This one was made because I wanted to play with a punch I got by EK Success. Love the intricate holes and designs.


I added some glitter over the edges of my sentiment block to add more texture and shine.

thank you for looking and have a great day.

Till next time,
Grace

Project share....

Happy Saturday!

Thank goodness the rain has stopped. Don't know if it's for good though but I'm glad that it's not wet and bittery cold out there.

Anyways I'm busy diving into some projects. I can't wait to share them to all of you.

But for now let me share a couple of projects that I've been holding onto. I've decided not to keep this locked up in the "don't share volt". LOL.

Snow fight

I used some pretty SEI papers for this. I incorporated some "older" stuff like the flower lace paper and ribbon.


I used some white chipboard stickers here. I wanted to incorporate the "snow" shimmer to it so I added glitter.


A corner dressed up with a little bit of everything.

Happily Ever After card

This year I decided that I will make a card with the leftovers of every page I make. This way I get to (a) use up some supplies before they're put away and eventually forgotten and (b) bump up my finished card supply. Somehow I can never get enough stock of cards.


layered paper, stickers and cardstock here.

So that's it. Thanks for looking.

Till next time,
Grace

catching up....

I'm happy this week is finally over. Lots of stuff going on around the Tolman home. We've been supporting Marcus in his new experience with "taekwondo" taking him to his classes, then we went on a short trip to Vegas and to top that all off, the kids are battling some major coughs. Gotta love life!

Anyways here's a few things worth recapping...

Last friday we went to Marcus' school to watch all the first graders perform a cute play. They've been studying habitats in science and the teachers have decided to put together short plays that talks a little about those habitats.

There's three classes and each one performed the same piece but set in different habitats. There's the forest, the sea and Marcus' class got to do the Savannah. He was one of the elephants!


He looked very cute and I was so proud of him doing his thing up on the stage. No stagefreight at all!

He's the best elephant I've ever seen in a long time. :)

Then on Tuesday we took a drive to Vegas. Mitch wanted to attend the World of Concrete show happening at the convention center. He asked if we wanted to tag along. I checked the prices of the hotels and when I booked (which was about three weeks ago) I scored a room at Circus Circus for $27. I thought that was a steal so we went ahead and planned for it.

We were only there for two days but it was enough for the kids to see everything that they wanted to see.
I had them most of the time since Mitch was at the show so I wasn't able to take much pictures. I figured it's wiser for me to keep an eye on the kids than to take pics. Wise mom! *wink*

We saw the Lion's den at MGM.


and then the pirate's ship at Treasure Island.


Marcus got a good pic of me and Maddie while at Treasure Island.


then we got to see a free circus show inside Circus Circus. Maddie was very impressed by this lady with the ribbon. She thought she was just fantastic! Maddie even told me that she wanted to be just like the lady. Oh the dreams of a four year old!


The view from the room wasn't all that great but the kids enjoyed our little getaway. Marcus even thought that hotel rooms was better than camping. Yehey! Now that's my kind of guy!

So that's all for now. I'll try to post some projects tomorrow.

Gotta get back to work.

Till next time,
Grace

You are the wings to my butterfly

I'm slowly getting back to participating in my fave challenges. Gotta love slow season for retail.

Anways here's my take on the latest challenge at the Cuttlebug blog.

You are the wings to my butterfly

Be Inspired #68 was to make a valentine project that has a vintage feel to it. When I think about Vintage, Jenni Bowlin products always come to mind first and that's exactly what I used here.


I sprayed some glimmer mist on the pattern paper first to have that aged effect then I ran it through my cuttlebug with the swiss dot folder for some extra texture.

Thank you for looking.

Till next time,
Grace

Random 4- January edition

Hi all and happy Monday.

Can you believe it's February 1st? Time sure flies!

Well late last year I had this idea that resulted from a dilemma. See with my family's life becoming one big blur as the activities, events and everyday routines combine, I find myself forgetting certain things. Those little things that each family member was into in that particular time. That's why I came up with a plan- at the end of each month, or the beginning of the following month, whichever will be easier for me to do it.....I will post 4 random things about each family member. This way I'll be able to document in my little way 4 things that might've slipped through the cracks of time, if I didn't blog about it.

So here's January's random 4

Mitch

1. He's going through p90x again but not as consistent as the first time. He's mostly doing it to help his brother Paul.
2. Liked Avatar. He was so into the blue people!
3. Worked with the scouts this month, helping with the compassing merit badge.
4. Splurged a little for his bow when we went to the Bass pro shop the other week. His hobbies are really expensive!

Grace

1. I'm listening to E.N.D. of Black Eyed Peas. Love it!
2. Being very diligent in saving so I can get a new lens. I've only bought one outfit in January. I'm really proud of that.
3. I've been watching a craft show every morning at 7:30. That's what I call dedication to my craft.
4. Been trying a few "gourmet" recipes from the Costco cookbook. So far I've done a pad thai chicken, fettucini calabrese and salmon with citrus orange relish.

Marcus

1. Still enjoys his peanut butter sandwhich for lunch but once in a while changes it to honey sandwich.
2. Started Taekwondo at the end of January and he is loving it.
3. Performed in a cute play at school. He played an elephant. He was very cute!
4. If he's not doing homework or sleeping or eating he is most likely playing his DS. It's like a body attachment to him. He doesn't go anywhere without it.

Maddie

1. Obsess with playing on the computer. Especially with PBS and Funbrain.
2. Been sleeping in a lot. It's been hard for me to wake her up in the mornings.
3. Starting to be really good at writing her name. She still needs a little help with the "e" but she's getting there.
4. Has gotten really tall. I have a budding model in my hands here.

So there you have it. If you feel like this "random 4" idea is something that you would like to do as well, go for it. and then send me a link to your post. I'm interested to see how people interpret this idea.

Have a great day.

Till next time,
Grace