Freestyle class on Saturday at K2

Megan and I had so much fun at our K2 Freestyle class on Saturday. We just wanted to thank the 3 girls that came to our class. We spent time using acrylic paints, stamps, doodling, white pens, flowers... This was a LO that I started on Friday night and completed after our class on Sat. Even though I was one of the "teachers" I was still inspired to do a more freestyle LO.

K2 Friday night crop

We had so much fun at the crop Friday night. We laughed so hard... I met some really nice girls and got to visit with others that I have not seen in a while. I got more done than I thought I would. I actually got a couple other LO's done, but I didn't want to post them all.
I couldn't come up with a good title for my slide page (you think it would have been pretty obvious, huh) and Megan helped me out with that, thanks Megan!

Studio Friday- Sounds of my Studio...

This is my first week participating in Studio Friday's weekly challenge. I had so much fun making this layout (LO). I went around taking pictures of some of the items you would hear in my studio. Then I had to come up with a LO that portrayed all those sounds. Thanks for looking and I can't wait to see what everyone else came up with.

Circa 1978- Elsie Flannigan's Challenge #2

I have to say that this is my favorite LO right now. I just love it. Elsie's second challenge is to turn a photo into black and white and make it the "star" of your LO. I just love this photo of our family. It was when my dad was still playing for the Chicago White Sox. I used DCWV cardstock, and American Crafts patterned paper, Pebbles stickers, Delta Acrylic paint, my uniball white pen and my grandmother's vintage buttons.

Sean Is...- Elsie Flannigan's Challenge #1

I just picked up my copy of Elsie Flannigan's new book 52 Scrapbooking Challenges... wow. The first challenge is to take your journaling and cut it up. I have not scrapped a photo of my husband Sean in a while so here goes... It used American Crafts paper and stickers, Delta acrylic paint and my Uni-ball Signo white pen.
Thanks for looking.

Primary Colors

Since I do have a 2 year old boy, I figured I should do some LOs in primary colors. I had a lot of fun with these because I also got to use some Thomas the Train papers which Riley is totally into. Thanks for looking. All these photos were taken by my sister in law Lori Frailing (she is an awesome photographer)!!!

Inspiration Needed???

Sundays are supposed to be family days, but today we all woke up later than normal (usually Riley is my alarm clock at 6:45 am) around 7:45. Sean made us a wonderful breakfast of french toast with syrup and whipped cream and bacon, yummo. By the time we got everything cleaned up we were too late to make it to the early service at church. So needless to say everyone went in their own direction. Sean outside to fix some stucco on the house and other outisde odds and ends. Riley and I went to the grocery store for some necessities. When we got home I unloaded groceries, Riley played with(or should I say dumped out) all his leggos on the living room floor, and Sean was still busy outside.

I spent a little time finishing the MM frame I just blogged about, then I started browsing through my favorite blogs for some inspiration: K2, Kim Henkel's, Ali Edwards... which led me to http://www.52projects.com/ , which let me to Kerry Smith's web site author of Living out Loud and found this for inspiration http://www.kerismith.com/funstuff/100ideas.htm. If you need to be creatively inspired check out the above two and this one http://www.creativity-portal.com/ for three great sites.

Hopefully as the day winds down our family will reconnect and we can spend some Sunday family time.

Sisters

2 weeks ago today, I took a class at K2 from Margie Romney-Aslett, a product designer for Making Memories. I had so much fun. She had us laughing almost the entire time. The Boho Chic wall hanging is made from 3 pieces of 6x6 chipboard, decorated with tons of MM products... not to mention she gave each of us a bag filled with more MM goodies. The class was so worth it, I just wish I was able to make it to both of them...

I wasn't sure what pictures I would be using, so I just finished the frame today. My sister-in-law Lori, her mom Gloria and I all took pictures while we were in Wisconsin. I really didn't have any nice pictures of the Lori and I so I made this frame with one pict of her, one of me and one of us together... to remind me of what a nice time I had in Wisconsin with her. It is nice after 29 years to finally have a sister.

Look what is growing in my "garden"

I started a monthly ATC (artist trading card) club at K2 two months ago. We meet either the second or third tuesday of each month (it will be a set week once we find out what is better for the majority) from 5:30 to 7:30. It is a FREE club!! The first 15-30 min of the class is instruction on either a new technique or a fun reminder of something we have learned long ago and have not done/used in a long time. (we have practiced sewing, and embossing) Then we share our ATC's that we have made over the past month and discuss any techniques we used... The last hour and a half is fun time to practice the technique we just learned, and make some ATC's. The thing I love about making ATC's is you can try something on a small scale, and then transition it right over into card making or traditional scrapbooking. Our August class we will be learning tea bag folding.

I wanted to display our ATC's (since they are mini works of art) in a fun way so I came up with the flower pot. That way each woman that joins the club will get her own pot and can decorate it any way she wants. Then she can display her ATC's in our "Garden".

My goal is to have my pot filled with 2-3 ATC's that will represent the coming month's technique that we will learning. As I mentioned above August's class will be tea bag folding.

I also want to do a monthly challenge for our ATC club members. This month the challenge was to make an ATC that included your name. I passed out badge holders that we are going to use as name tags for our class (since I am horrible at remembering names) and then we can use them for crops and classes we take as well. If you did not make it to our class and want to participate, I will pass out more badge holders at next months meeting. Hope to see you at next months meeting in August (stay posted for the exact date).

Freestylin

I just finished 2 LO's for the Freestyle class I am helping teach with Megan, Saturday the 29th at K2 from 10:00 till 12:00. They were so much fun. I just used my basic supplies, one picture for each page, my white pen, some buttons and MM page pebbles.

Wisconsin Mini Album

I made this fun album before I left for Wisconsin. It is made from 3 large yellow mailing envelopes folded in half and a piece of cardstock in between. I covered the envelopes in Cherry Arte and Scenic Route papers. Embellished with Daisy Hill chipboard letters, MM defined stickers, Wisconsin epoxy stickers, Junkitz epoxy stickers, 7 gypsies stickers, fabric swatches and a few other miscelaneous items. Since I had already made the album before I went on vacation, I knew that I would want most of my pictures vertical. I was right, they fit perfect when I blew them up to 5x7. I am so happy to have this album complete so soon after my trip.

What it is like to have boys...

A friend of mine Tomi, sent me some pictures and this list in an e-mail and I couldn't help but pass it on...

And you also find out interesting things when you have sons, like
1.) A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 sq. ft. house 4 inches deep.2.) If you spray hair spray on dust bunnies and run over them with roller blades, they can ignite.3.) A 3-year old Boy's voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.4.) If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42 pound Boy wearing Batman underwear and a Superman cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied to a paint can, to spread paint on all four walls of a 20x20 ft. room.5.) You should not throw baseballs up when the ceiling fan is on. When using a ceiling fan as a bat, you have to throw the ball up a few times before you get a hit. A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way.6.) The glass in windows (even double-pane) doesn't stop a baseball hit by a ceiling fan.7.) When you hear the toilet flush and the words "uh oh", it's already too late.8.) Brake fluid mixed with Clorox makes smoke, and lots of it.9.) A six-year old Boy can start a fire with a flint rock even though a 36-year old Man says they can only do it in the movies. 10.) Certain Lego's will pass through the digestive tract of a 4-year old Boy.11.) Play dough and microwave should not be used in the same sentence.12.) Super glue is forever.13.) No matter how much Jell-O you put in a swimming pool you still can't walk on water.14.) Pool filters do not like Jell-O.15.) VCR's do not eject "PB & J" sandwiches even though TV commercials show they do.16.) Garbage bags do not make good parachutes.17.) Marbles in gas tanks make lots of noise when driving.18.) You probably DO NOT want to know what that odor is.19.) Always look in the oven before you turn it on; plastic toys do not like ovens.20.) The fire department in Austin, TX has a 5-minute response time.21.) The spin cycle on the washing machine does not make earthworms dizzy.22.) It will, however, make cats dizzy.23.) Cats throw up twice their body weight when dizzy.24.) 80% of Women will pass this on to almost all of their friends, with or without kids.25.) 80% of Men who read this will try mixing the Clorox and brake fluid.

Creating a Banner for your blog

I am so happy right now! I just created the banner for my blog sight (all by myself!!!). I was cropping Friday night at K2 and I asked our digital guru Megan how to create a banner (because she designed her own, K2's and other typepad users). Creating a banner in blogger is very different, so she went on 2P's and asked for help, and help we got! Someone referred us to Lindsay Teague's blog www.lindsayteague.blogspot.com click on her side bar "need to know" and choose "create a banner" (for those of us who have NO idea how to do it, she walks you step by step). After you created your banner, go back to the sidebar and choose "put a banner on your blog" (she walks you step by step through that process too). Her information is written in a very helpful manner, and I would recommend anyone who has a "blogspot" blog to use her tutorial.

It's a Boy!!!!

It became official at 8:45 this morning. Riley is going to have a little brother. We are very excited!!! Woohoo

Fun Finds in Wisconsin...

On trips I always like to look for something to add to one of my many collections (as I would like to call them, junk as my husband would call it). This trip, I was looking for unique letter "N" s. Well, that is how it started, then I kept seeing these really neat old blocks and old type from printing presses. I started rearranging letters until I had enough for "dream, design, create" and for all the cool "x's and o's". I did find a some "N"s and few left over letters to spell "luv u". It was a fun search that led me to many antique stores from Milwaukee to Door County, to Waussau... Plus they were easy to pack (which is a whole other story).

Tractor...

Is this a cool picture or what.
This tractor sits in my Aunt
Darlene and Uncle Eddie's
big garage. They live near
Green Bay with my cousin
Kim, her husband Cory and
their girls Kayla and Kristen.
(Grandma Gladys lives with
them too.)

4 of my fav's...

I could have added about 20 more "favorites" but... you know how that is being his mom and everything so I am a little partial to pictures of Riley. These 4 were great because they showed Riley's favorite things to do... ride tractors and trains, play on playgrounds, and throw balls. He had so much fun!

Grandparents/Great Grandparents

Nikki
Grandma Gladys
(my mom's mom)
Dianne
Riley











Grandpa Reno
(my dad's dad)
Riley
Ken








I wanted to add some pictures of my Grandparents and Riley's only Great Grandparents. This was the first time they had the chance to meet him and it was very special.