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The memory is a funny thing, I can't even remember the last book I read...Oh I could tell you the story but not the tile or the author lol but I do remember what Stephanie's last book was, the hunger games...she was in a panic because she wanted to finish it before the movie came out! then there are the songs I know what ones I like but never remember the tiles or who sings them....Now I just feel old lol
 But there is this one song that I would hear over and over and the last couple of months it seems to be playing everywhere we go....It happens to be one of Stephanie's favorite songs I'm not sure of the artist but I know the name of the song is Happy.......so I decided to look up the lyrics and  then I went to my Photoshop make the background and the shape...added the lyrics.....then just printed them out.....cut and inked the edges....

Happy by NeverShoutNever...I looked it up!

It was so simple to put together I really didn't want to much going on so....I found a couple pictures of her with that goofy smile....

Add caption

the paper I wanted to use for a matte didn't turn out the way I really wanted it so I just distressed it a bit, liked it so much better.....

I had bought a couple little stamps at walmart because they had these cute little flowers on them, never looked to see what the writing was until last night and it just seemed to fit perfect....I also looked for music notes but I really didn't like any of the ones I saw....they were all bold colors like red and blue.....so I just made my own....

thanks for taking a look......

Getting the hang of things...

I think I am finally getting a hang of this...well maybe lol

So over at lets get sketchy week 4  sketch is up......I spent some time on this one...I decided to use a lovely picture of my furry babies Nova and Xena. Xena,14yr old pit bull/collie mix and Nova 2yr old Black lab.

I found these pretty flowers at the thrift store, I love how it looks like there are rain drops on them.

I tried to wear the edges down a bit...I really like how they came out.

Here is the sketch....week 4...stop by Lets get sketchy and check it out!

thanks for taking a look....all comments are welcome :o)

Beautiful Smile

I wasn't actually there when this picture was taken, she was out with a group of her friends....they went to an amusement park for the day But I have to say this is one of my favorite pictures of this past summer! So I decided to use this one in a sketch challenge for My Creative Sketches, I know I do a lot of them but I really need the inspiration and all the help I can get LOL

Here is my take on the sketch- I used some of Stephanie's old Hawaiian flowers form one of those lei's she always had hanging in her room.

that's what we based the colors on. This is how we want to remember her so bright and full of smiles!

this one is just to show how the flowers look off the paper!

Here's the sketch we followed

Giveaway by Bellaidea

A blog full of inspirational pieces with lots of color.

 here is the link to her Giveaway by Bellaidea

For the love of pickles

Between my best friend and myself we have five children they have know each other 11 years, so I guess you can say they grew up together. This past summer we had all gotten together and her middle son and my Stephanie they demolished and whole jar....you know those really big jars you get from a whole sale place,well yeah just the two of them ate the whole thing. we really thought they were gonna be sick...they surprised up they were just fine...anyway that's where I got this picture for this lovely layout....

the last pickle standing...lol

love the lil flowers

the colors are really bright as you can see I tried to eyeball some things but as we can see my eyes are crooked lol
thanks for taking a look.

Scrapping Everyday Miracles

Novembers sketch challenge ...for Scrapping Everyday Miracles

Here is my take on their sketch...

Our pets

I love the little pet houses I should of used different colors but I think they look nice, I wanted to stitch the circles but couldn't figure out my daughters sewing machine and she was at work so that didn't help...haha now she'll come home and make fun of me! I added a couple small stickers and the cute foot print ribbon. all in all I really like this one!

Just shows the little stitch

here is the sketch from scrapping everyday miracles

Lets get sketchy

Week #3 sketch over at lets get sketchy

 I decided to dig deeper into my pictures and found a wonderful picture of Stephanie on her third Birthday,she was trying to help me decorate the cake.As a matter of fact her and Sam helped make the whole cake,it was one of the worst cakes we have ever make but they had so much fun making it!
I used mostly scraps for this whole layout and Sam convinced me to use the lace with the little coffee filter flowers as the center.

lace and coffee filter flowers

I really didn't like anything I had around the house for the small embellishments at the top,So I took a ride to the thrift store.I thought I could find some really cool buttons or something.

hanging heart charms

what I did find were these cute heart charms,not sure what they were suppose to be for but I thought they fit perfect with just a little bit of thread to hold them on! The last thing I added was the banner/pennant thingy as you can probably tell I really don't like those things but this one kind of fit.

layers and the banner/pennant

I used a flower punch,still using scraps then ticked thru them and put a cute stamp on a few...like this one better then my other attempts.So that's my entry for week 3 at Lets get sketchy thanks for taking a peek.

It's been a rough couple of days. My anxiety has reached a new level,I never used to worry when Sam went away for the weekend to one of her cosplay events,this weekend proved to be very difficult. It started Friday at the store,I had been fine all day but when we were in the check out there was this little girl with her mother ahead of us. She was just too cute carrying a little stuffed dog with her. To be honest I'm not entirely sure what happened but I was just watching them in tears,I got it together pretty quickly and we made it out of the store of course my fiance doesn't say much just watches me,hold my hand...he doesn't ask if I'm alright because who in their right mind would be alright! That just set the pace for the next couple of days.Saturday I had a mini panic attack but I waited like a good mom until Sam called to check in, no reason for her to think her normally laid back mom was freaking out! I decided to spend the rest of my time keeping busy....I went thru a tons of pictures trying to decide which ones I wanted to use next....

Stephanie is forever in our hearts,thoughts and dreams!

I just love the face she's making in this picture.this picture was taking August 2011 at my best friends son's birthday. they were all hanging around cracking jokes she was trying not to laugh! After much debate I decided on a couple picture's we took last year. Sam wanted to something with her sister so she made an appointment at Sam's favorite Salon to have steff's hair cut....

Not sure if you can tell by the faces she was making but I kind of annoyed her with the picture taking..the last one on the right she actually said really mom,more pictures..lol

Purple Pumpkin GIVEAWAY!

One lucky winner will receive a GIANT LUCKY DIP BAG, worth over $50, full of loads of fabulous embellishments, including flowers, buttons, flair buttons, twine, washi tape, and some EXCLUSIVE goodies that only they will receive!!!!! 

 Click here to read more about it!

Something old to make something new

Recycling items to make embellishments, I couldn't believe the things I could make with some bits of lace,newspaper,wire,old beaded necklaces and some plain old note cards!As I posted last night I watched quite a few tutorials and tried one out last night and them this morning I went around grabbing scraps here and there through out the house. I really like the idea of using something old to make something new and the fact that the bits and piece I did grab were some odd ball stuff of Stephanie's.Stephanie and Sam are really the artsy crafty type both could draw,Sam can sew,she makes all sorts of costumes for conventions she goes too. But Stephanie could make jewelry,cards all sorts of things. So I have these little baggies filled with odds and ends that she had for left over projects...

Just one of the baggies I've come across.

So as I was saying between Sam and her material left overs and Steff' odds and ends I tried out a couple more tutorials and just some stuff on my own.

First I tried the newspaper flowers, thought this was a great idea. I have to admit its a bit time consuming cutting out each layer some only had five others had about twelve,my had was killing me. I really need to find a two or three inch scallop flower punch! even though it was more time consuming I noticed the more layer the better the flower,at least with the newspaper now the ones I made last night with card stock I liked the way the five layers instead of the eight. haha I convinced Sam to cut them out last night since she wanted to make a couple for a friend of hers,so that worked in my favor!
After the flowers I moved on to the ribbon /lace butterflies, this one I had to stitch a little...I only had a little bit of pink ribbon at hand  but at least I get an idea of what they will look like. I also tried a couple ribbon flowers those I also had to stitch a little but just enough to gather the ribbon,I think I pulled it just a bit too tight but I still liked how they came out!

I moved on to beads and wire next, the little bead flowers and the wire shapes with he beads I love! they are so simple but really cute! The last thing is a little tag I made out of some old note cards I found in the desk drawer.I just cut it into the shape I wanted added a stamp and a wire hanger with little star beads on it. I think I like this one better then the tags my daughter bought for me,just don't tell her that!

Just about everything I used today came from that baggie but all came from stuff I had just laying around the house,I never realized how easy and fun it would be to make my own embellishments!

all the things I made today

Learn as you go...

Embellishments they sometimes a layout just needs a little something extra ,so I was looking around on the internet to get ideas and since I 'm new and don't really have all the fancy machines I have to do everything by hand you know cut and paste,So I looked up a couple tutorials on how to make you own flowers and such! After watching a few video's I got brave and decided to try my hand at them. Not as hard as I thought they would be but I think I will look around for a couple different flower punches,to cut them by hand takes forever. Here are a couple paper flowers that my daughter Sam and I tried out along with some no sew lace one which I loved because I have some strips that I really what to use on Stephanie's scrapbook and I didn't have to sew anything!We experimented with size and colors to figure out what we liked best. If anyone know of some good tutorials please let me know! thanks

the rainbow flower was Sam's idea!

just a different view

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A2Z Sraplets sketch challenge

In my search to figure out how to make embellishments I can across a blog A2Z scraplets they have plenty of new layouts for me to try and also have contests  so I decided I'd like to try it....

Here is the LO they want us to go by...... I seem to have a hard time matching my colors but my oldest says they all look fine,sometimes I'm not so sure.

Here is the Lo I have done for the contest I used my favorite pictures from this summer,she has the most beautiful smile on her face. I also used some of her ribbons to make flags/banners. I try to put something personal of hers in every Lo to me it makes it special.

Where to begin...

Most of the posts that will be on here are about family but a lot will be on my youngest daughter Stephanie,see one night in September 2012 I got a phone call that no mother ever wants to get! I was told she was on her way home from a friends out when she was struck by a truck and now she was in the hospital, I had no way of knowing how bad or exactly what had happened you see we had to move because the plant my fiance worked for closed but the same company offered him a new position at one of their other plant about 2 1/2 years ago and Stephanie decided that she wanted to stay with her father....

anyway we moved and she stayed the distance is great but we always made the best of it,the drive there and back were fun and we took all sorts of odd pictures and such. So the phone rings its a doctor trying to explain whats going on,I'm home alone at first I thought it was a sick joke....I prayed it was a joke! 

Well it wasn't a joke,I called my fiance and he had to recall the doctor because I just couldn't understand what he was trying to tell me. you just don't know what to think,do ,say...I really think I lost my mind in just a few moments...Now I had to explain to her sister Sam.What do you say,how do you explain. I'm sure I did a horrible job but I managed to get her to call out of work for a family emergency....packed.....then right out the door! twenty of the longest hours in the car with two distraught women,my fiance is a saint! We go straight to the hospital...there are so many people...aunts,uncles,grandparents...you just know its not good...How do you say goodbye to your 13yr old daughter,shes not suppose to be there but there is nothing you can do to stop it or fix it! We visit and we get to say goodbye... 

Since then there's a lot of talk about how you grieve,cope...there was talk of counselors! that's how this blog and the scrapbooking came about some thought it was the best way for me since I really don't have family where we live,its just the three of us and I really don't break down in front of Sam...the scrapbooking has been a really nice way to relive all the nice memories and Sam helps it seems to really help her too. We have boxes upon boxes of pictures so we thought there wasn't a better way to remember her than to make a special book just for her! We didn't start in order we just looked thru the pictures and what ever one we liked those were the ones we used. Now mind you I don't have any of those fancy cutting machines...just a computer,printer,paper,glue you know the basics......we'll see where this can get us!

  One of my Stephanie's favorite things was being on the cross country team!