Live 2 CREATE!

A couple of years ago I tried out a foil pen I bought at a Scrapbook convention and basically gave up the idea of working with foils after the pen turned out to be a dud. I recently had the chance to review Creative Imaginations new foil kits and Sticky 2 (double-sided rub ons). I had a ton of fun playing with these products and after reviewing these products, I have actually created a new drawer space in my room to store all my foils and foil supplies!

Here is one of the layouts I created for the ScrapFriends review of Creative Imaginations new foil kits and Sticky 2’s.

She’s Clever

This is a 12×12 layout and I actually just enlarged the photo below and then cut Charlie out to use on the layout.

Here is a close up of the foil embellishments on the page:

The butterfly and distressed edging are from the Sticky 2- Naturals sheet. I used my finger to spread the foil glue from the foil kit over the alphabet stickers and then pressed the foil on top of it. I was actually going for a distressed look so it came out great! Then I simply made little doodle glue dots with the foil glue, waited for them to dry, and then added the foil to them. I loved this technique and I’m anxious to try out more foil glue doodling!

Happy Scrapping and Creating!
April

Well I just got back a little while ago from dropping off Memphis and Charlie for their first day of School! Both of them were very excited and of course they graciously smiled for all my pictures. Today is also Charlie’s 5th birthday, so we will be celebrating with her choice of Strawberry Sundaes tonight.

It is very weird being home alone….guess it will just take some getting used to…

Here’s to all the mom’s out there who are trying to figure out what to do with their day!

Happy Creating,
April

Well, last time I posted I was talking about having hectic Monday and it turns out that hectic did not even begin to cover it! I wanted to impress my husband that night by making a new recipe - Sesame noodles. While I was cutting up the onion, apparently I was going to fast because I ended up almost cutting the tip of my ring finger off. So instead of getting a nice dinner when Scott got home…he got to take me to the ER so I could get stitches!

I did make the Sesame noodles the next night…but I left the onions out!! lol I will say that the recipe was actually really great and took less than 25 minutes to make. Here is the recipe:

Lighter Sesame Noodles
(found on page 32 of Everyday Food - issue 52)

Ingredients:
- coarse salt
- 12 ounces whole-wheat spaghetti
- 1 bunch broccoli, cut into florets
- 2 red bell peppers - thinly sliced
- 1 large onion (NOT)…lol
- 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
- 3 tablespoons dark-brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 to 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook spaghetti 3 minutes less than al dente. Add broccoli, bell peppers, and onion. Cook until pasta is al dente and vegetables are tender, 3 minutes more. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water; drain pasta and veggies.

2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together peanut butter, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, oil, garlic, and red-pepper flakes. Add hot pasta and vegetables; toss to coat, thinning sauce with a little pasta water, if necessary. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

*NOTE: I doubled all of the sauce ingredients because I always like more sauce than not enough and I thought after doubling it - it was perfect!

I don’t normally like things like this, but I thought it was excellent and Scott loved it!

So summer is almost over now - both the kids start school on Monday and they are so excited!! Here are some of my favorite shots from this summer.

Here’s to the end of another summer…and looking forward to my favorite season - FALL!

Happy Creating!
April

Monday’s always seem to be so hectic! Scott and I had a wonderful weekend but now it’s all about playing catch up.

A good friend of mine is having surgery today so I am sending out all my prayers to her and hoping everything goes okay.

I also have to take Charlie to get her shots today for school..which I hate because she has to get like 5 of them and she is not looking forward to them!…although she is looking forward to the big banana split I promised her after she gets her shots…lol

Tomorrow we are going to town to purchase all the school supplies the kids need. You know I was reading over the school supply list and on Charlie’s it says she needs a box of “8″ crayons. Just “8″ Crayons??? I mean I’m really sorry but she is sooo getting a bigger box - there are so many more colors she needs to create with….lol…I’m know I’m strange…but I just can’t deal with only sending her with “8″ crayons!

* I know I haven’t shown a “15″ minute layout in a month or two, so I am going to get on that…but in the meantime, here are a few of the layouts I created for the Flair CHA booth last month and all three of them were fairly easy to put together if you wanna give it a try.

Favorite Holiday Photo

This one was a lot of fun to make! You just have to pick a strong photo and different papers to match, then cut up all your papers into different size squares and layer them behind the photo. I could see a million different possibilities with this technique and it’s easy to dress up by adding a few stickers and maybe some journaling or doodling!

Chillin’

By now you know how much I love kraft paper! - Of course I can thank my friends Julie and LeAnne for that obsession. The layout of this page is really fairly simple and it came together very fast. I used one of my Sakura Gelly Roll glitter pens to help dress things up!

Grandpa

To create the glitter title, I simply adhered some Heidi Swapp ghost letters using mini glue dots, then covered them with copper stickles! …I am sort of addicted to this technique now too because it’s so easy and has great results.

Have a great Monday and Happy Creating!
April

So yesterday was our 9 year anniversary! I wouldn’t say it was an especially eventful day, we both had to work…but I am looking forward to this weekend as I have arranged childcare for the whole weekend so Scott and I can spend it alone. I woke up this morning thinking about everything we have been through …I mean I think nine years is a long time. I’m very thankful for all the time we have together and I wouldn’t change anything…except I might have majored in something different in college so that we might be making a little more money right now….lol

Anyway, it sort of saddens me that I actually don’t have very many pictures of the two of us before we had Memphis and I started scrapbooking. And the ones I do have are not of great quality…but I thought I would share a few pictures of us in our younger days just for kicks!

This is about 2 months before we got married. I was a bridesmaid in a dear friends wedding and somehow I convinced him to attend….which just proves he must have really loved me because he does soooo not do weddings!

This is one of our engagement pictures! We had my mother take all the pics and when I look back on it now, I actually love the fact that they were done in my grandmother’s house and not a professional studio.

Okay - Please do not laugh!! This is one of my first scrapbook pages…before I really even started scrapbooking! I made this in 1999, right after we got married and I can remember It only took me a weekend to put together our entire wedding scrapbook. Of course this was when there was not much in the way of supplies available other than cutesy stickers, bright colored paper, and paint pens!
Also…please do not ask me why I cut the picture on the right like that…lol…because I have no idea..and yes I know it looks a little funny..

Again, those were the days when I wouldn’t hesitate to cut up my ORIGINAL photos and slap them on with a glue stick - YIKES!

This was our wedding day and I can’t even begin to explain how much it means to me that my grandfather was the one to marry us! It was a wonderful wedding - although I have to say I really don’t remember a heck of a lot from the actual day. It went by so fast and we were so exhausted. But it was a perfect day and Scott was so handsome!

And last but not least, here is a shot of us on the beach in Florida on our Honeymoon!

Here’s to 9 years baby!….

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
April