The One with March American Crafts Layouts

I made my two monthly layouts for American Crafts this morning but I'm only showing one today. The other one is for a Blog Hop on Monday so hold your horses 'til then :)

THESE TWO = BLISS

Notes:
1) I watched Anywhere But Here while making this layout. Natalie Portman is pretty much the prettiest girl on the planet! She's a great actress, too.
2) To make the flowers I punched/die cut a million scalloped circles from mostly solid patterned papers, adhesive-backed fabrics, and cardstocks. I crumpled the edges of the circles for texture. Then I started with a yellow cardstock scalloped circle and adhered more and more scalloped circles behind that first one. I set a white pearl brad through the middle and da da da dum - a flower!
3) I drew swirls with a pen on the back of a piece of white cardstock, cut the swirls out, and backed the holes with yellow cardstock. I placed the swirls between the flowers and around the photos on pink sheet music paper, and cut around the swirls. Then I glued the entire piece to the middle of an aqua striped paper background.
4) My Fiskars scalloped circle punch did not go through the adhesive-backed patterned fabric. I learned the hard way and totally busted mine :( I used my Cuttlebug and scalloped circle Nestabilities die to make the other half of the scalloped circles.
5) I've now made a layout using the new Botanique line, the new Heat Wave line, the new I Do line, the new Abode line (to be revealed on Monday), and I saved the Dear Lizzy line for last. It intimidates me cuz it's so stinkin' cute and I want to use it all on a single layout. But I resisted and came up with this.

Journaling says: Eric has loved Tanya since high school though they never officially dated then. They wrote all through his mission, and the night he got home from Mexico they started dating. She's still in Washington while Eric goes to college in Utah. They fly to see each other frequently and do their homework together over google chat and video. I hope they get married someday - they're a perfect couple.

Supplies: Cardstock, patterned paper, adhesive-backed patterned fabric, pearl brads, letter stickers (glitter chipboard, puffy), pen, adhesive: American Crafts; Scalloped circle punch, paper cutter, scissors: Fiskars; Die cut machine: Cuttlebug by Provo Craft; Scalloped circle die: Nestabilities by Spellbinders

continue reading

The One with the Flair Necklace/Bree Tanner

I've got a project up on the American Crafts blog today! Can you tell what it is?


Click HERE to see the whole thing!
.............................................................................................................................................................
PS - did you read about Stephanie Meyer's new vampire related book that she's releasing in June?

I can't wait to read all about the short second life of Bree Tanner.

continue reading

The One with Sunday Afternoon Carving

After church I was chillaxing on the couch watching X-Files while Chris was carving away. I took some pictures to document what will hopefully be his last time carving a tooth from wax. I love that he's still in his church clothes, tie and all. I guess it's good practice for the future.

Hands at work. I'd trust him to fill my cavities :)

(Good thing he finished carving when he did cuz a half hour after I took these pictures he sliced his thumb open cutting a potato!)

A blurry picture of his tool box.

Life is all good with a can of Mtn Dew.

Until a bird comes and knocks it over. Luckily it was empty!


Today Chris was watching the extended Lord of the Rings trilogy while carving. He must be watching something while he carves. He's a great multi-tasker.

These are some of the "easy" teeth he carved last trimester.

The tooth he carved today is one of the very biggest ones in the mouth and it's got three roots and lots of stuff to it (don't you just love my verbose dental vocabulary...).

I give it an A+++, or as USC calls it, an "R".

continue reading

The One with What the Flip?

There's never a dull moment in South Pas! Picture this: it was 9:30pm on a Friday night. Chris and I were just getting settled for the night watching Prison Break season 4 in our room, all the animals were asleep, and that was the end of that. Or so we thought... All of a sudden we heard a "Blang! Blam! Bling!" Rachel jumped about a foot in the air. I thought maybe Joey had just knocked something over in the kitchen but Chris thought someone was trying to break in. He immediately hopped out of bed and started to investigate. No sooner had his feet exited our room than we heard the "bleep bleep" of a cop car siren and Chris ran to our big living room windows which face a very busy and noisy street. He said to me, "Oh my goodness. Paige. You have to come see this." I replied, "What is it?" "I can't explain, you just have to come see for yourself." So I begrudgingly put on my slippers and joined him at the window. This is what I saw:

An upside down car in the middle of the street!

A) HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? There were no other damaged cars so it wasn't a collision. It happened in the center of a straight road, so not like he/she was speeding around a corner. How does a car just flip over in the middle of the street? We are so mystified and stumped. It didn't look like it hit a tree or the grass divider in the middle of the road. Ahhhh! I wanna know!

B) How did the cops get there so flippin' fast? Literally five seconds after the crash we heard and saw the flashing lights. It only took about 30 seconds for four other cop cars to arrive on scene and about 5 minutes for two firetrucks and an ambulance to get there. Maybe they stay close to liquor stores on Friday nights?

C) How did the driver get out alive (though I'm very glad he/she did)? The top of the car was totally smooshed. There were a bunch of people standing around whom I can only assume was the driver as the ambulance people weren't crowding around the car but rather joining this huddle of people.

I guess some mysteries will forever remain unsolved.

continue reading

The One with the 8 Color CARDS Blog Card

'Tis Friday which means I blogged on the CARDS blog. It's almost 8:30pm and I just finished the post....I was busy today! Better late than never right!?! The challenge was to create a card with 8 colors. Here's my take on the challenge:


Non-scrappy related: not much brings me more joy than coming home from a long day at work with my kitty in the window, just waiting for me. (Don't judge the interior of our apartment by the exterior - it's MUCHO better inside than outside...)

She melts my heart.

Meanwhile this little booger follows me everywhere I go. He's my li'l stalker.


I finished The Host last night. My review: I give it a 7.5 out of 10. It took me about 100 pages to get into it. In fact, when I first started reading it I called Chris from work and was in fits because I was disappointed that the book was so bad. The science-fictiony aspect to the book starts off really strong, but then like vampires and werewolves you get used to it. The story-line was like nothing I've read before and the love story was captivating. I love the way Stephenie Meyer writes her kissing scenes. Giggle. It definitely wasn't as corny as the Twilight series. I hope they turn the book into a movie, I'd love to see how they'd interpret it. I'm making Chris read it, I wonder what he'll think. I think most girls would like it, just because the love story. But it really is about aliens taking over the planet so take it with a grain of salt. And that's my review.

TGIF!

continue reading

The One with I MISS MY MALMY!

I love my mom, or as we so adoringly refer to her, my Malm. Ever since we discovered the glory of Google Chat my Malm and I have talked every. single. day. I love knowing what my mom is doing all day every day. But now she, my Dald, my sister, my maternal grandparents, two sets of aunts and uncles, and two cousins, are on a cruise going all over the Mediterranean for two whole weeks. They're going to have so much fun. But now I'm cut off from my Malm and I'm going nuts! I MISS MY MALMY!! It's so sad to see the gray dot instead of the usual happy green dot next to her name in my chat screen. It's gonna be like that for awhile...

Hurry home soon please Malm so we can resume our daily chats!

continue reading

The One with The Host

Please excuse my lack of interesting post today. I am quite consumed by this book that I've been putting off reading cuz it sounded weird, and it is weird, but a good weird and now I can't put it down.

Back to The Host I go.

continue reading

The One with Abandoned Cars

I forgot to add these last two pictures to the end of yesterday's post, but that's okay, it gives me something to blog about today :)

As we were driving home on the 710 we were almost to the end of the freeway and stuck in traffic. (What else is new?) I glanced over to the other side of the freeway and noticed that the cars were stopped. And they were spaced evenly apart, not bumper to bumper like regular traffic. And there weren't any people in the cars. And there weren't any cops or firetrucks or ambulances. What the heck was going on?

I was kinda freaked out, I'm not gonna lie - I was thinking a Happening moment was going down and it was the end of the world (which is just like me to jump to the worst possible and utterly impossible scenario).

We drove a little further and figured out what was going on. THEY'RE MAKING A MOVIE! There were tons of people, campers, RVs, trucks, and movie set paraphernalia at the end of the abandoned cars. So THAT'S how car chase scenes are made. Now I'm on the lookout for a movie with a high-speed-freeway-car-chase-scene and I'll be like, I so saw that getting filmed.

continue reading

The One with the Huntington Beach Dog Park

This post is going to be mostly about Joey, so I want to share a picture of dear Rachel first. Let's not forget about the cutest, fattest furball on earth.

Yesterday after we cleaned cages and the apartment (it's a weekly 4-hour ordeal that goes so much better when we have a goal in mind - something to look forward to as we work, such as a trip to the beach) we loaded Joey, his food, his water, and his bed in the car. He was all smiles and excited for the adventure.

First we made a pit stop at Target. Had to get my hot little hands on a copy of New Moon!

Then we drove down to Manhattan Beach and got lunch at Cafe Rio. It never gets old.

Three of my favorite things in one picture: my husband, my dog, and Cafe Rio pork burritos.

Then we made our way to the Huntington Beach Dog Park.

Joey was so happy to see hundreds of other dogs, but we had to keep him on his leash cuz he doesn't come when we call him. We're working on it.

Joey's first steps on sand. Bliss.

Turns out Joey does NOT like water.

We tried coaxing him into the ocean but he wasn't having it and pulled as hard as he could in the opposite direction.

I guess we shouldn't have expected anything less. He HATES getting baths and whenever we take him on walks and there are puddles of water he goes out of his way to walk around them. Wussy dog. I guess it's part of this breed's nature to want to stay clean and pristine. It's a good thing I s'pose.

There were just as many doggie footprints in the sand as human.

Shoulda got Joey's little paws in this picture too, that would have been precious.

I liked the aqua colored lifeguard towers along the beach.


So did Joey.

Looks like rain but it's just a receding wave.

We saw a little dog carrying a pack on his back - where do we get one!? I want Joey to carry around my water and snacks - how handy.


It was a super fun afternoon at the beach. Hopefully next time we go we'll be able to let Joey run around and mingle with the other dogz as he pleases.

continue reading