My New Summer Project

Two June's ago, my home was damaged by a tornado.  Last June I was packing & selling a house.  I thought for sure this was my year to finally have a real summer vacation with my boys.  Sadly, I was mistaken. 

Here is my new summer project for this year:

 Yep - it rained inside my house.  And we lost a bunch of roof shingles.  Gotta love 80 mile-per-hour winds.  At least it wasn't another tornado, but I still get to deal with the insurance company again.

What are you doing this summer?

Ride the Birthday Train!

I love giving personalized gifts!  Earlier this week I posted about personalized wedding gifts that I have created recently.  This post is about a very special birthday boy, my nephew!  He has a slight obsession with trains, so every gift I give him has at least one train item.  This year I created a 8x10 digital photo layout - a birthday train with pics of the birthday boy from birth to now.  Take a look!

To create this layout, I drew inspiration from Scrapbook Challenges 300th sketch.  Take a look at their site for tons more inspiration, both digital and traditional.  I also made us of a fabulous digital element - the Little Steam Engine cluster frame by Jady Day Studios. There is also a kit that goes along with this fantastic frame - stop by and see what else she has created!

I hope I've inspired you to give something "handmade".

Pagemaps Blog Challenge

I completely credit Pagemaps for the way I scrapbook today.  By looking at the sketches and seeing the examples, I was able to train my mind to see layout possibilities everywhere I look.  I seldom find a sketch that I love so much to duplicate (and that fits photos I am scrapping), but this is one of those rare moments.

Here is my layout for the Pagemaps Blog Challenge this month:

and the pagemap provided:

I am in love with the way it turned out - and that is what matters in scrappin' : )

I Do... Say Yes to Personalized Wedding Gifts

Since it is June and Wedding Season is in full-force, I thought I'd post a couple of the wedding gifts that I have made for recent events. 

This first gift is my Go-To wedding gift.  I always frame the wedding invite for a personal touch.  I try to take the couples decorating tastes and the wedding colors into consideration when choosing the mat and frame.

The next gift was a special one - my cousin was married and couldn't afford a photographer so the family stepped in.  My talented Brother-in-law utilized his photography obsession to take a million fantastic photographs of the ceremony and reception.  Then I sorted through all of those beautiful pics to put together a one-of-a-kind digital wedding album.  Of course I made sure to include the wedding color in the album, too.

I hope this inspires you to make and/or give a personalized wedding gift!  These ideas can also be applied to graduations and other milestone events (baby showers, birthdays, etc).

Dad's Little Firecrackers

Father's Day is this coming weekend, and we actually finished our Father's Day gift on time!!! I think this may be a first. 

I admit that I stole this idea from Old Navy - they had cute toddler tanks that said "Dad's Li'l Firecracker" on them. The problem was that they didn't go big enough for my oldest son to have one, and there was no tanks in his size that were similar in theme.  And then I started thinking about how cute it would be if the exploding firecracker was their handprints.  And then I thought about how cute it would be to make Daddy a tank top that matched with all of their handprint firecrackers on it.  So after some searching, I was able to find plain tank tops in all the right sizes... and here is how the craft came out.

Perfect for Father's Day and for Forth of July festivities too!

it's been a while...

We are moved into the new house but still crawling over boxes!  I have been working my fingers to the bone with home projects in order to make this place "ours".  In a week I should have plenty of before and after photos to share (including a kitchen transformation that I can't wait to complete)!

I still  haven't found the box of craft stuff for the kids.  that means that summer has involved a lot of TV and Wii so far.  I'm not really proud of that, but it does distract them so I can unpack.