Where's Emerson?

I have to share a funny story with you. This afternoon, Emerson was having quiet time in her room and Camryn fell asleep in her bouncy seat in the craft room. I decided to catch up on my email while bouncing Camryn. Camryn woke up and it was time for her bottle. I walked out of the office/craft room and the rug in the front entryway was rolled up. Nothing new...Emerson likes to pull my rugs all over the house so I didn't think anything of it. I stepped on the rug to get to the kitchen and there was something in the rug. I thought maybe Emerson has wrapped up her dolls or something inside of the rug. I was holding Camryn so I tried to unroll the rug with my feet, ya know, kinda kicking at the roll so it would unwind. All of a sudden, as I am kicking at the rug, I see a piece of Emerson's hair come out at the top of the roll! Emerson was in the rug!! I get down to help unroll the rug and there she is rubbing her eyes and her cheeks were all rosy. I asked her what she was doing. "Taking a nap, Mama." Yes, my daughter who has this beautiful bedroom and comfy bed, chose to roll herself up in a rug and take a nap!! I have no idea how long she had been in there, as I thought she was in her room with the door closed. It couldn't have been more than 30 minutes, but still! I felt horrible that I know she was in there. Just thought I would share the excitement we get daily from having a 3 year old.

NOTE: This picture is a reenactment. I couldn't let this experience go undocumented so I had Emerson "show me" what she did, so I could take a picture!

Birth Announcements

First, thank you to Deb & Allison for helping me with my color issues. (see earlier post) I think because I have two girls, I am always leaning towards "girlie" color combinations....teals, pinks, purples, etc. I just blank when I have to come up with a gender neutral card. I have more announcments to make and will take the color advice from Deb & Allison. But in the meantime, I made a couple of these up. I feel like they are a little boring, so I think by adding Bashful Blue and So Saffron (like they suggested), it will liven up the card a little more. I am making these for a surprise for a friend of mine who doesn't know what she is having. I hope she like them!

Camryn is down sleeping and Emerson is playing so quietly, so now is my time to get some cleaning done! Thanks for looking! (sorry the lighting is so bad in the picture...I just couldn't get it to turn out today.)

Supplies:

Paper: SU! Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery & Whisper White

Stamps: SU! Bundle of Joy, Punchy Words-GinaK Designs

Ink: SU! Chocolate Chip, StazOn Timber Brown

Accessories: Cuttlebug Spots & Dot Embossing Folder, Paper Piercer, Crop-A-Dile, Corner Rounder Punch, Word Window Punch, Marvy Uchida Giga Scalloped Circle Punch & Mega Circle Punch, Brown Watercolor Pencil, gamsol, blending stump, ribbon (from JoAnn's)

Cupcake Crayons

Here are some "Cupcake Crayons" that I made. I cased this idea from Emily over at Stamping and Stuff. I work part-time in the daycare at our local YMCA. We go through crayons like you wouldn't believe! We can put brand new ones out and within a few hours, they are already in pieces. One day when I was surfing Emily's blog, I saw this idea and thought this would be a perfect way reuse the crayon pieces.

Emily mentioned to use only Crayola crayons because they melted better, but I used a mixture, as we had MANY different kinds of crayons, depending on what people donate to us. I preheated the oven to 250 degrees and baked them for 9 minutes. I first checked them at 5 minutes, but since there were different kinds of crayons, there were different melting times, so I did it for another 4 minutes. Emily suggests putting them in the freezer, but since my freezers are jammed packed, I decided to just let them cool on the counter overnight. I loosened them, turned the pan over and "popped" them out.

Emerson loves this idea! Unfortunately, she has the crayons where you twist them up, hence no broken crayons! Which is great for Mommy, but doesn't work for this idea. I suppose she'll have to get some regular crayons in her stocking from Santa ;)

Camryn & Emerson

I just had to share these pictures. This first picture of Camryn just about sums it up!! She is telling me her opinion of me putting those ridiculous reindeer antlers on her!

Next is a picture of Emerson being her usual self....silly!

I'm Crazy About You!

This is going to be a short post.....my DH has to study for his MBA class, so I'm on duty. I finally got a chance to play with my Stampendous Coterie the other day. I tried to post the card then, but for some reason the camera software was acting up and I couldn't get the pictures off my camera. Anyway, I had fun playing with this monkey! I hope to get a chance to play some more after the girls go to bed tonight!

Supplies: Paper-SU! Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Whisper White, Ruby Red, Basic Grey Mellow; Accessories: Brads from Hendgehog Ink's share, Marvy Round Giga Scalloped Punch, SU!'s Ticket Corner punch & 1 1/4 & 1 3/8" round punches, ribbon from Michael's, dimensionals.

I need your help!!

I'm stuggling here! I need your help!! I'm trying to make some birth announcements for a friend of mine (for a surprise for her) and I can't come up with a color combo. She doesn't know what she is having (this is her 3rd baby and already has a girl and a boy). I'm using the bear from the set Bundle of Joy, which I've already watercolored brown with colored pencils and gamsol. What other colors do I put with it?? I've already used the color combo thing-a-ma-jig from Scraptitude, but nothing is jumping out at me. I need another 1-2 colors to go with Chocolate Chip and Whisper White.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!

Wooden Blocks

More Christmas gifts to show you. I loved these blocks when I saw them on Emily's blog, but haven't found the time to do them until now. Her's are cuter than mine, but it's my first time. And with the first time, comes mistakes. I was so intent on getting these done, that I got caught up in the Mod Podge groove and mod podged the whole block before I remembered to sand them and put the letters on. I was still able to rub the letters on, but I really wanted the rustic, sanded look to the blocks. Oh well, I'll remember that step for next time!



I used my new Cutie Pie DP paper that I got from the 3 for 1 sale from SU! Let's just say that I need a 12-step program for paper addicts. I stocked up with the SU! sale as well as more paper from Hobby Lobby since it was 50% off this week. I couldn't help myself!!! I used the 1 1/4" blocks from Hobby Lobby. They are $2.99 and I picked them up when they were 30% off. First, I painted them with white acrylic paint, covered them with the Cutie Pie paper and used rub-ons from The Paper Studio (also from Hobby Lobby). Since these blocks are going to the same person, I put "FAMILY" on one side of the blocks, and put "WELCOME" on the other. TFL!

Stampendous Coterie

I received my Stampendous Coterie today from Eclectic Paperie! I love to get fun things in the mail! My juices have been flowing lately so I better take advantage of it while it lasts. I'm hoping to get in the craft room tonight after Emerson's swimming lessons. (We are going to Florida for the holidays and Emerson hasn't been in a pool in a couple of years, so we thought she better do some more lessons to get her acclimated to the water again.)

In my Stampendous pail, I received Bee Buddies, Bee Wings, Bee Secret, Secret Admirer, Changito Logo, Changito Love Balloon, Changito Bouquet & Crazy About You. I look forward to showing you some goodies I've made with these soon.

Go Spartans & A Glass Ornament

We were gone all day tailgating for the Michigan State v. Penn State football game in East Lansing yesterday. The game didn't start until 3:30pm, but we were die-hard fans and arrived around 9:00 AM!! Our old neighbors and Penn State alums made the drive from PA and enjoyed the game with us. We had a blast....a little chilly, even with our propane heater, but definitely tons of fun!! It was a close game, but the Spartans were able to pull through in the very end. Go Green!

Today, I've been working in my craft room trying to get some more gifts for people checked off my list. I really liked the glass ornament that SCS did this week for its Holiday Tutorial Blitz and thought it would be a nice gift for someone. I had the darnest time trying to get a good picture of the ornament. With the iridecent bulb and the glare, it was hard to get a clear picture to show you. I followed the tutorial on SCS step-by-step and I think it turned out quite well!

Supplies: Stamps-Tags for All; Ink-SU! White Craft, Sharpie Markers, Black Stazon; Accessories: Clear (b/c I didn't have white) embossing powder, heat tool, 1/8" hand punch, dental floss (b/c I didn't have any silver cord), glue dot, red organdy ribbon, white glitter

Christmas Gifts

Here are a couple of things I have done recently for my MIL. She recently did a complete kitchen overhaul and she picked out these colors to accent her kitchen. First is a coaster pen/pencil box that I did for her. I really liked how it turned out. Not sure where the paper is from, as she picked it up for me. I sanded the edges and sponged them with Basic Brown. I used my CAD to punch the holes and thread the brown yarn. The Prima flowers are held together with a bronze brad.

This is the journal that she wanted to coordinate with the coaster box. I also fancied up a couple of jumbo paper clips to match the theme. I used the flower die cuts with my Cuttlebug and used E6000 to hold it all together.

Sorry for the short post....it's feeding time for Camryn! Thanks for looking!

Christmas Ornaments

Here is another Christmas gift I have been working on. My MIL ordered some of these to give to some friends of hers. I saw this idea on Trudee's blog and just loved the idea. These are really quite inexpensive to make. I got the ornament bulbs at Hobby Lobby when they were 40% off. So for $3.99 (less 40%) for 12 bulbs makes them about $0.20 a piece. I used DP from American Crafts which I also got at Hobby Lobby when it was 50% off. I added some Soft Snow Twinkle Flakes inside of the bulbs and then tied them off with red ribbon, which was $1.99 (minus 40% from my coupon) from JoAnn's. As I said, this was definitely an inexpensive gift.

(Sorry about the wild and crazy ribbon on these. I wanted to hurry and take a picture before I had to pack them off to my MIL this afternoon). TFL!