12th anniversary

Today is my 12th wedding anniversary. I wanted to do something more than a card for my husband, so I made him a mini album that I appropriately titled "Love Story". I adapted a kit from Christine Middlecamp from a couple of years ago to fit one of Karen Russell's Narratives easel albums. I love the way it turned out!

Scrapdango Crowned competition

Save your spot here!

Family Fun

Quick share today using scraps from 3-4 different Scrapdango kits!

Soccer Star

Again with Scrapdango kit leftovers!

Hudson Riverwalk

I made these for each of the kids' albums using the December Scrapdango Sugar Kit and some Jillibean journaling spots.

{Park} Field trip

I used more Scrapdango kit leftovers here and even a little ink!

Happy Easter!

These were Scrapdango kit leftovers.

7th birthday Tea Party

My medium child just turned 7. She decided six months or so ago that she wanted to have an American Girl party, so went the English tea party route. It was tons of fun, and I thought I'd share here what we did (also so that I can remember for my youngest daughter someday!). I've added links to the pictures that I was inspired by.

The invite requested “Fancy tea party attire” (dress, gloves, hat, pearls) and had a tea bag tied to the top.


American Girl-themed Food:
Sombrita’s Sandwiches: pimento cheese on mini bagel, chicken apple salad on waffle, ham/American/lettuce/Italian dressing on wheat, turkey/cheddar/tomato/vinaigrette dressing on white

Josefina’s Pinwheel wraps

Felicity’s Cheeses & crackers

Penny’s Carrot sticks/ranch

Sugar’s Fruit kebobs/yogurt dip

Mrs. Merriman’s Macaroni Salad

Coconut’s Treats: lady fingers, cream puffs, rock candy sticks, marshmallows

Kit’s cakes: Big & Mini cupcakes (choc. & white, colored icings, sprinkles), cake pops

Cecile’s drinks: Sprite w/ Kool-aid ice cubes






Cupcake Bases: Williams Bakery
Inspiration: stacked cupcakes, adding cotton candy

Cake Pops credits: Short and Sweet Desserts

Decor:


Plastic "chocolate" rectangular plates that were on sale at CVS, doilies for placemats, decorated tables with rose petals, confetti, lace, tulle, pearls, beads, and ribbons.

The birthday girl got a chair decorated with ribbons, and she made tissue flowers for the others.



We had a photobooth, which the girls loved. I used paper chains/tissue paper in background, and the girls held either a paper fan or flower as a prop.


Behind the food table, I hung the Happy Birthday banner from home and placed her age in photos on a foam board.


Favors: teacups with treats inside (I also made hair barrettes for each girl).

We also had craft tables: bracelet making (I prepackaged beads and stretchy cord to make it easy on the kids), American Girl sticker coloring, edible teacups (butter cookie, non-pariels, big marshmallow, life saver, icing), and an American Girl word search. We played a game called Pass the Parcel and had a dance party at the end.

Scrapdango & S:CY challenge

I posted a fun challenge for the month over at Scrapdango. Ali MacDonald, of Sketches:Creatively Yours, gave us an exclusive sketch to play with!!! Woot!

Ali designs sketches for an amazingly creative team of ladies once a week. You are invited to play along at her site as often as you like (and simultaneously check many layouts off of your to-do list). I've never found a sketch of hers that I could resist!

You have all month to complete the challenge and post it to the Scrapdango message boards. Of course, you don't have to use a Scrapdango kit, but you'll receive an extra point if you do.

Here's her fabulous sketch...


...and my take on it:


Journaling: I have always been able to understand you, but at your 5-year-old appointment, Dr. Chris thought that you should receive speech to correct certain sounds that you made incorrectly: sh, th, c, k, s. You had fun with the games and "graduated" in a few months. I'm always proud at you working hard in whatever comes your way!

I used the Scrapdango March sugar kit here!

Scrapdango April Sugar kit reveal

I LOVED this kit, featuring Simple Stories Fabulous line {Available April 5th)!

I remember weaving a basket as a child, so, on this layout about my niece, I decided to give it a try with paper:


I used every bit of the yarn in the kit on this layout, and I love the effect...


On this layout, I decided to only use the journaling cards in the kit as the patterned paper. The baker's twine on the second page was the actual twine from the bakery. Love that I was able to use it!


This one was simple... I only matted the picture twice and then added in lots of embellishments.


This kit just begs for cute, springy cards to be made.




Have a lovely week, and don't forget to get your own kit on the 5th!

Before tomorrow's reveal...

I wanted to share one extra card, made with last month's Scrapdango sugar kit:



My medium DD had a tea party for her birthday last week, and these doilies were the perfect touch for the card.