One Layer Simplicity, Thank-you and Joshua's 2 1/2 birthday photos

I am back today to share a quick card and some pictures from our little family birthday celebration for Joshua turning 2 1/2 years old yesterday.

First, my card...I decided to try my hand at some random watercoloring. Leah received a pad of watercolor paper for Christmas since she likes to paint. So I asked her if I could borrow some to make a card and paint along with her. We had such a fun time Sunday afternoon painting together in my craftroom.

I inked up Medium Double Circle and Small Stitched Circle. Then I randomly painted them and added my sentiment from Assorted Greetings stamp set. I am linking this up to One Layer Simplicity. I am in desperate need of restocking some thank you cards.

I also thought that I would share the paintings that Leah did. She asked me to pull up some photos from the internet to inspire her on the iPad. What a hoot! So, I asked her to hold up her artwork so I could photograph it. Well, wouldn't you know it, but Josh had to help her hold up her artwork.

 

 

 

 

So then I decided to snap a few pictures of him out on the porch just because.

 

 

 

 

Playing with the leaves from the shrubs.

 

 

 

Tradition has it on our household to celebrate half birthdays with cupcakes. Any excuse to enjoy some sugar, right? This year my in-laws decided to give him a simple puzzle. He's been playing some puzzle games on the iPad, so he was so happy to receive this gift.

 

 

 We picked up some dinosaur cupcakes at the grocery store. You may remember from the kiddos monster birthday party this summer, that I made some cupcakes from scratch. Well, something went wrong with this batch, so it was Publix to the recue. Recognize the party hat? Yep, leftover from the same party.

 

 I love how he seems to be looking so dreamily at his cupcake.

 

 

 

Josh received some dinosaurs at this 2nd birthday party, so I asked Leah to bring a few to the table to take some pictures. Well, her take on a few meant almost the whole bucket of dinosaurs. Gotta love that! I know Josh did. (Don't you love the candle flame reflection on his sweet little head?)

 

 

Attempt #1 to blow out his candles by himself.

 

Leah to the rescue.

 

 

Licking icing off of the dinosaur ring.

 

Oh, I thought I would share, again, a layout that I created for his first half birthday celebration. Joshua, you are certainly growing up way too fast!

 

 

 Well, if you made it to the end of this post, thanks for hanging in there. I will be back tomorrow!

 



Happy 2 1/2 Birthday, Joshua and the Magic Kingdom

***This is my second post for the day. Just a warning, there are a lot of pictures.***

 

 

Happy 2 1/2 Birthday, Joshua! We have a tradition in our household to celebrate half birthdays with some cupcakes. We will be digging into those this evening. For now, I wanted to share some pictures from this past Saturday at the Magic Kingdom.

 

 

We arrived at the park pretty early to purchase our tickets. They usually ask if you are there for the first time or celebrating a birthday. Leah was quick to tell them that Monday was her brother's half birthday. So they gave them buttons to wear which they were so happy about. If you look closely at many of the photos, you will notice that Josh was holding his hand over his button. It was so precious! 

 

We spend most of our time in Fantasyland since the kids are smaller and not ready for some of the other rides. We met Alice on our way to the Tea Cups. Our kiddos love to spin super fast. I am amazed that they are not scared in the least.

 

 

 

They enjoyed the carousel.

 

 

 

 

And riding on Dumbo.

 

 

I love this photo because Leah is trying to pull Josh over to the edge and he obviously isn't a fan.

 

 

 

In front of Rapunzel's Tower.

 

 

 

 

We wandered over to Tom Sawyer's Island. We found a quiet spot so I snapped some photos of the kids. Josh is such a ham!

 

 

 

 

They also met Daisy Duck and Minnie Mouse. Joshua was a bit hesitant about Daisy but she took out her tambourine.

 

 

On his way to meet Minnie, I asked him if he could dance. So he danced his way over. It was so precious to capture it on video.

 

 

They also loved meeting Rapunzel.

 

 

 

When they got together to hug for some photos, Rapunzel said how about a kiss? We were pretty sure she was going to lean down and give one to Josh, but Leah was quick to plant one right on her cheek. She was so surprised and everyone broke out in laughter. He still managed to keep a big kiss from her.

 

 

They also loved meeting Snow White. It was so sweet to watch them together.

 

 

Nope, it's not a bruise under his right eye, just Rapunzel's kiss.

 

 

Well, if you made it to the end of this post, thanks for hanging in there. We had such a fabulous time! Thanks for stopping by!



Hope Blooms

Hi friends! I have a sneak peek to share with you using some of the new DeNami Design release products. Head on over the the DeNami Design blog for a full reveal.

 

 

I will be back on Wednesday to share some more DeNami goodness. Thanks for stopping by!



DeNami Design Valentine blog hop

Hi friends! I hope you are enjoying your weekend. We had a wonderful time yesterday visiting with Mickey and his friends at the Magic Kingdom. So glad you have stopped by today for the DeNami Design Valentine blog hop. I hope you have been inspired along the way. I am pretty sure there will be lots of pink and red. I just love creating for this holiday. Anyway, you should've arrive here from the awesome Tenia's blog.  I love her funky style. If you get lost along the hop, head back to the DeNami blog for a full list of participants. 

I think the moment you see my card, you know that I was inspired by the fabulous Paulina. When I saw this shaker card tutorial, I knew that this technique was something that I had to try. And when I placed my first Pretty Pink Posh order, I knew that I was going to purchase some sequins to make it happen.

To make my card, I followed her technique exactly. I added a diecut heart to the inside which I had stamped Decorative Love.  The inside is filled with a few more die cut red hearts and some raspberry, pink peony and sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh. I embellished the circle by adding some hearts from my Petite Fours Heart Stamp set. I love this polka dot heart that I am pretty sure you are going to be seeing more of it on the blog.

 

Next up along the hop is my precious daughter, Leah. Of course I don't need to tell you how much I love that girl. I especially love to watch her craft.

 

 

For Christmas, she received a few DeNami supplies that she can consider hers and that I have to ask if I can borrow. She received some stamps, washi tape and twine. As you can tell by her card, the Pink Polka Dot washi tape made it's way onto this creation. When I told her about the Valentine blog hop, she told me that she was going to use Sand Castle because of the heart. And then, of course, every castle has a Fairy Princess Chickie with magical powers. And this princess' magical powers...why love, of course! She loves Mini heart and she stamped it several times and colored them in dark pink. She practiced coloring in these small hearts on some scratch paper first. She is really getting the hang of holding the copic maker at the right angle and the right pressured to color these small images. She did not even color outside the lines on a few of those hearts and I honestly couldn't believe how well she did. She also placed her washi tape border all by herself and trimmed up the sides with scissors. Lastly she stamped Love You Forver for her sentiment.

 

 

Well, that is all from us. Your next stop along the hop is the wonderful Tina. If you have visited her blog recently, you will have noticed that she is already in full swing creating some fabulous DeNami inspired Valentine cards. I can't wait to see what she has for us today.

 

Don't forget about the THREE gift certificates that will be given away! One gift certificate will go to a random participant and TWO gift certificates to TWO people who comment along the hop! You have until January 13, 2014 11:59pm PST to comment and be eligible.

 

Happy hopping!

DeNami Design Woodland Friends sneak peek

Today is the big day!!! I am so thrilled to be sharing some sneak peeks of the Spring/Summer 2014 DeNami Design release. Today some of the gals and I are sharing our creations using the Woodland friends collection. These critters are just darling. So stinkin' cute that my daughter, Leah, just had to create with them as well. At least I am good at sharing because my little one pretty much wants all of these stamps to herself lol!

 

 

 

So for my first card, I inked up Little Fox, Woodland logs and Hello foxy. After diecutting my white cardstock with my notebook die, I ran it through my cuttlebug with my Notebook Paper embossing folder. I added some Green graph washi tape to the bottom for grass. After coloring my stamped images, I fussy cut them and adhered them using foam adhesive. I hand cut the banner and then tied a bow with some twine from my Autumn pack.

 

 

For my second card, I went with a white cardbase again, but this time I ran it through my Woodgrain  embossing folder first. The gray polaroid frame was cut with my Silhouette. The sentiment is Thinking of You. I inked up Little Beaver and Woodland Mushrooms. Again, I colored them with my copics and cut them out. I hand cut my hill and added my critters on top. By adhering my polaroid to the cardbase with washi tape, I wanted it to appear like it was taped to  a tree. I hope that I accomplished that.

 

 

Now for my last card, I again embossed my cardbase with my Thin lines folder. I inked up the new Little Fawn and You're a deer as well as Teeny Heart.

 Now, of course, since I wasn't the only one creating with these stamps, I have to share Leah's creations. This girl loves to try her hand at coloring with my copics. She is only 6 years old and copics are quite the challenge even for us adults.

 

 

Here is her commentary:

 

"I wanted the fox to be far behind so that when it is ready to charge, the deer wouldn't see it."

 

 

"Those two foxes were trying to knock down the deer and the other was trying to get the other fairy." Those two blue buttons are the eyes of the other fox.

 

"The pink lines are the fairy chickie's magic. He was trying to make the squirrel's tail better with magic.  The princess chickie has magical powers too."

 

 So be sure to visit the other DT gals to see their inspiration.

 

Dana

Lisa P.

 

Also be sure to comment on their blogs and the DeNami blog because it increases your chances of winning. Two winners will be selected every day of the sneak peeks. Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

Happy Birthday, Friendly Robot

My daughter needed a birthday card for a classmate. So naturally I was assuming the role of cardmaker when the lightbulb went off...Leah is a cardmaker herself. She tends to create one layer cards when coloring DeNami images, so I told her that I would link it up with a new challenge One-Layer Simplicity. The challenge is to create a card/s to restock your shelves. This one, however, will be off our shelf this weekend. I have some great ideas to participate in this challenge myself since I rarely make one layer cards and they are perfect for mailing. 

Leah inked up Friendly Robot, Happy Birthday script and Small Stitched Circle. She colored in the robot herself. The only part I played in making this card was helping with the splatter.

After photographing her card, I realized that is also plays along with the current C AS(E) this Sketch! Her card is flipped on the side. It is so fun to see that Leigh's daughter is the guest designer this week. That young girl has some awesome talent.



Thanks for stopping by!

CAS-ual Fridays, In a Word

Hello friends! I hope you have been settling into the new year. Today I have a card to share with you for this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge. The challenge is to create a clean and simple project using a word to describe what you hope for in the new year. 

Our fabulous sponsor is CAS-ual Fridays Stamps.

 



I am not a resolution kind of girl. I honestly wish I could be better at setting goals. But reality is, life gets so busy. I have two wonderful little children, a loving husband and amazing in-laws. I love that this challenge is simple...find a word to describe what you hope for. This sentiment is from CAS-ual Fridays Stamps, Breathe. My reminder to not allow life to get so busy, that I miss out on finding JOY in the little things. I also inked up the brush stroke in ROYGBV since rainbows always makes me feel joyful. I added some Mister Huey splatters and some sequins to the top panel as well.

 

This challenge will run for two weeks. I can't wait to visit your blogs to see what things you hope for in 2014. Thanks for stopping by!