Charlie accepted Christ!

What a day today!  As I was driving home from school with Charlie today, he asked me, “Mom, why isn’t Jesus in my heart?”

I said, “Well, you have to ask him first.”

“But I did.”

“When?”

“Today, at school.”

Umm, okay.  (Keep your eyes on the road, don't crash the car...)

So we kept talking and he knew exactly what he meant and what was going on.  He told me what sin is (the bad things that we do.)  He told me that he told Jesus that he was sorry.  And that he asked Jesus to be King of his heart.

My selfish side is so bummed that I wasn't there to witness it and share that moment with him, like I was able to  with Lizzie.  But then I am overwhelmed with gratitude that the Lord came to him at just the right moment, and Charlie made such an important decision - all on his own!  Like the man I am raising him to be!  

Mark and I keep asking him to tell us the story and help us fill in the details.   He said he prayed before he ate his lunch at preschool.  

My sweet son prayed to ask our Lord and Savior to change his eternity - and then unzipped his puppy lunch bag and enjoyed the grapes I packed for him today.  

The angels and I have a party to go to tonight!!

One Front Tooth Down, One to Go!

Her front teeth started wiggling right before Christmas, but they made it all the way to March before they gave out!  Thank goodness Oma was at our house to handle this dental situation.  The first two teeth (front bottom) were small and simple when they made their exit.  However, the big front teeth are a bit more....dramatic!!  There was blood, queasiness, and then a final hurrah including a shoot-across-the-room exit from her mouth.

No there is no doubt - my baby girl is growing up.  The bottom two teeth have already grown in, so this latest blow is unmistakable.  She will never look the same.  That sweet gap between her teeth is no more.

Lizzie at Two Years Old

 

ScriptureArt Calendar

This calendar was my Christmas gift from Jenny.  And I LOVE it!!  It's a big sticker than I can reposition and won't jack up my wall.  And it's dry erase, so I can use it over and over and easily move things that inevitably get rescheduled.

Jenny's next door neighbor, Kelly, started this company, ScriptureArt, and I believe she is going to be a gazillionaire because her products are just gorgeous.

After I hung it up, I decided to 'embellish' it with the Christmas card photos we got this year.  I love having this little group of friends on my wall in an otherwise empty hallway between my pantry and laundry room.  It's become one of my favorite places in the house!

Twins Invitation

This was the batch of invitations for my friend, Susan.  She was hosting a baby shower for her sister in law who was pregnant with twin girls.  She wanted a classic pink invitation, and these came out so cute!  I used two ribbons, a lace and a scalloped velvet, and the combination resembles ruffle-butt panties.  I embellished silk flowers with stickles and rhinestones, and put two (for the twins) on the top.  

Cupcake Birthday #2

This one was for my niece, for her first birthday.  It's the first time I've done one that is action-packed.  I actually constructed this two ways.  The first, and the one pictured, involves untying the ribbon and the cupcake wrapper folds out and you can see the copy.

The way I decided to do it in the long run, was a bit different.  

I made the wrapper permanent, and made the cupcake a separate piece that you slid out of the wrapper.  It looked the same as the final product (top pic), but Mark felt like it was a stretch to expect the casual recipient to understand they were supposed to untie the bow.  So I changed the design!

This was not a Cricut project.  I handcut each piece and then bordered it with the Stickles glitter glue.  

Also, just to let you know, you'll get much cuter bows/knots, if you tie your ribbon upside down.  Flip the whole thing over, tie your bow, and then you'll see what I mean.  I don't know why, but it just turns out better.

Cupcake Birthday #1

Cupcakes are so "in" right now.  Being a baker would be a helpful skill.  

I don't have it.

So I make my cupcakes out of paper!

Here's another shot without the flash - that reflective vellum is tricky with the camera.

Be My Valentine Birthday Invitation

My daughter's birthday is February 10th.  So, of course, one year her party fell on Valentines Day.  I thought about rescheduling - but then I just ran with it.  And I'm glad I did!

This one has some major Cricut action happening.  I used 3d foamy stickers to pop out the hearts from the background.  Because of the holiday paper selection, I was able to find plenty of cutie papers to choose from.  The base paper is actually a pre-made card in the invitation section of Archivers.  I bought the matching envelopes, too, in watermelon.  No cutting, perfect density, and matching envelopes.  Hello??  I'll take it!

Tangled Birthday Invitation

This one - totally - is my favorite.  It was last year, when Lizzie turned 5 and she wanted a Tangled party.  Thankfully, I had no trouble finding the bohemian style papers, crushed velvet ribbon in just-the-right brown.  Seriously, it's just perfect for her tower in the hidden meadow!  Oh my gosh one this was so fun!

The base cardstock is a plum, with another dark brown square as a double mat.  Then there are four different patterned papers.  One is actually gold vellum, one a tan paper with a cracked finish, and the other two are floral patterns that coordinate.  The harlequin pattern is actually a paper I already had.  It was so perfect for this project.

The flowers (there are 5, of course) were sort of a project.  First off, they come in white at the store.  Actually, a cream color.  Then I bought this spray glitter paint that comes in every color (I used sugar plum) and sprayed them until I got the color I wanted.  Some are darker, some lighter, some have full coverage with no white visible, and some are a bit less opaque.  They are paper flowers, but they act like fabric the way they soak in the spray.  I used a cardboard box and lined it with newspaper and sprayed away, then let them dry overnight.

Then I took this glitter glue, called Stickles, I think, and added glitter effects.  The flowers come already textured, so some I just rubbed the glitter on them, others I did the outline.  Then I stuck embellishments with my Dot adhesive into the center of each bloom.  I used rhinestones, sequins, etc.  Whatever struck my fancy!

I used the 3d foamy squares to pop out the copy, which I rubbed pink chalk on the border of for an extra softness.  It's such an easy technique and adds so much to pretty much everything.

Polka Dot Birthday

This one is actually very simple, and would be an easy one to start with, if you are so inclined.  I used various ribbons - some I had already - to make this little bouquet of color.  The dollar spot at target would be a super place to find cheap ribbon.  You don't need a ton, just get some variety.  There are solids, polka dot, grosgrain, and satin in my little group.  But anything would work.  Sometimes they sell spools of coordinated ribbons all together.  Jackpot.

So I started with my thick, brown cardstock - you want something sturdy for the base - and stuck on my two background papers.  I used Dots - they are little 'dots' of adhesive that stick to anything and come in various sizes for all your needs!  I grouped my ribbons together loosely and then stapled them together.  Not to the paper - that would obviously go all the way through.  Just staple the ribbons together.  Then I used my Dots to stick the group to the paper and covered the staple with my "2" circles.  If you don't have a cricut, you could buy a sticker to put here and cut the circle out yourself.  Totally doable.

Zane's Baby Shower

It was incredibly handy for my friend to name her son in such a way that his initials gave me a theme for his invitations.  Thanks Taylor!

Actually, this design was inspired by her very fresh and modern nursery.  She had black furniture and the bedding was grey and black and deep caramel yellow.  I found this paper under "wedding" at Archivers.  Basically anything muted is considered wedding - which is bizzarre in my opinion. You can't tell from the photo, but the paper is a thick vellum and has this perfect, textural shimmer.  Not traditional baby shower paper, let me tell you!

With my Cricut, I used Doodletype for the letters, and the In My Garden cartridge for the leaves.  That is the border style, so those three leaves are actually one piece.

Beth's Baby Shower Invite

I have this cricut cartridge called In My Garden and I love it.  It is so cute and happy with all these butterflies, ladybugs, daisies (my fav!!), and other flowers.  So when my sister-in-law, Beth, chose daisy bedding from Pottery Barn Kids for her daughter's nursery, I was thrilled to bust out my Cricut and get cutting!

The background is a textured yellow cardstock (yellow is Beth's favorite color).  I used patterned pink paper to mat the copy, which is normal printer paper.  Each flower bloom and center are different papers.  The stems and the 'grass' are from the same textured cardstock.  I just used different size settings on my cricut so that the stems didn't match exactly.  Because everything was so delicate, I had to use glue stick to adhere all the flowers.  Then I placed the 'grass' along the bottom to hide the bottoms of the stems.  I used my pinking shears to make it look like grass, but left it smooth along the bottom - flush with the edge of the yellow cardstock.

Helicopter Birthday Invitation

I'm not kidding, this one was a lot of work.

However.

When Charlie turned one, we were moving out of our first house.  Like that day.  So his first 'invitation' was actually an evite begging our friends to come and help us load the moving truck in exchange for some pizza and a spot on the floor to sit down.  So let the record show that this one counts for two.

Anyways, my son loves helicopters, so I tracked down a Cricut cartridge called Boys Will Be Boys that contains a zillion boy related things.  You'll be seeing another one - the firetruck - this summer for his 4th bday. I used that to cut out the helicopter and the windshield.  The 3 is from a different cartridge, as well as the c-h-a-r-l-i-e letters.  Those are from Doodletype.  (I pretty much always use Doodletype, since I don't have many font cartridges.)   Each triangle was cut by hand absolutely random.  That was a fun project afterwards trying to  hunt for triangles long or wide enough to fit each letter.  (sorry h)

I used a glue stick to adhere the letters to each triangle and an itty bitty hole punch for the two holes across the top.  I used blue floss to thread through the triangles to make the banner.  (I need a shoulder rub just thinking about it.) Then I just put two brads and wrapped the floss around them to secure it.   I didn't glue it down in any way, it just flops around and dangles naturally.  I thought that was fun, but if you are worried about it getting spastic in the mail, you could tack down a few to keep it secure.

The copy is - you guessed it - from my printer, and I secured it with smaller nickel brads to the plaid background cardstock.  I used little 3d foam stickers to pop out the helicopter, so it wasn't flat on the grey background.

Owen's 1st Birthday Invitation

I have to give my sister in law, Stephanie, some credit here.  Without her, the cutest picture EVER would not have been taken.  The battery in her camera died, so she picked up mine and started taking pictures of a random january day playing in my inlaws backyard.  When I sat down to download pictures, I came across this  amazing shot of Owen!!  I love it so much that I have it framed in my living room.

And because it is so darn cute, this invitation became the first to include a picture.  It seems weird now that I never thought to use a photo, but I'm just telling you what happened!

As you will see often, I used my Cricut to cut out the letters - once for the letter and then again with the shadow feature to get the white outline.  So they are two pieces of paper each.  The copy is normal printer paper on a dark red cardstock mat and then there is an orange polkadot grosgrain ribbon running the length of the background.  I used my inkjet printer to print out the picture.  I'm curious how this will age vs a "kodak lab" aka walgreens print, but I guess only time will tell!

Lizzie's 6th Birthday - Hello Kitty

With each invitation, I try to incorporate the age into the details of the design.  For example, this is for Lizzie's 6th birthday, and there are 6 Hello Kitty's along the ribbon at the bottom.  This might get somewhat cumbersome as she gets older, but I'll keep doing it as long as I can.

This invitation has a black cardstock mat, with hot pink cardstock background.  Then I used my Cricut to cut out the hearts and the 6.  I used my Doodletype cartridge, I think.  The copy is printed on white cardstock from my inkjet printer and then I used pinking shears to trim the edges.  I used black chalk/ink to edge the small white heart and some glitter glue to line the purple one.

My Invitations

I don't scrapbook.  I have no scrapbooks for my children, although there are countless photographs and moments just waiting to be chronicled and placed within a beautiful arrangement of coordinated papers and embellishments.

But I haven't done it.  And God only knows when I ever will!

So my compromise to myself is that I hand-make each invitation for the milestones of my children.  So far that consists of birthdays and baby dedications.   But I also make quite a few invitations for friends and family, and I'd like to share them here.

There are several along the way that have been misplaced - Brandon's man shower, to name one.  That one was so fun to make!  But I didn't keep one and I never photographed it.  So the ones I do have, I will share and hopefully inspire others to create their own.

Valentine's Day Mantel

This is my Valentine's Day garland I made from inspiration found on Pinterest.  I was hosting a Panty Exchange at my house, and needed something quick and easy.  I raided my scrapbook papers, and Ta-Da!!  I'm really happy with it and plan to re-use it year after year!

Panty Exchange 2012

So I have this friend, Misty.  She is amazing, and had this great idea to have a panty exchange in preparation for Valentine's Day.  That way, ladies could naughty-up their panty stash right before the biggest panty-related holiday of the year!

We invited loads of women, who all said yes, and then divided everybody up into groups.  Each group had five women, and each woman in the group was assigned a unique category.  They were:  Soft & Simple, Naughty Newlywed, Elegant Evening, Sporty Sexy, and Feelin' Frisky.  Before the party, I emailed each lady and told them their category and the sizes they needed to buy for the ladies that would be in their group.  Then they could go shopping and pick out undies in their given category.

On the night of the party, each lady brought 4 pairs of undies.  And then we all exchanged!  So each lady went home with a pair of panties from each category - 4 new pairs!  (or 5, if you buy yourself a pair in your category - I know I did!!)

I realize most of you are confused, but it's like bunco.  Once you've played it, you realize how simple it is.

To add another layer of mind-blowing confusion - when I was sending emails getting everyone's size info, we also asked each lady to tell us the name of their favorite love song.  Then Misty made a CD with all those songs for everyone to take home as a party favor.  And it made the perfect party soundtrack!

We had the best night - good friends, wine, and fancy snacks.   Mark played xbox upstairs - and my kids all slept through the madness going on downstairs.  It was so much fun, and hopefully, will become an annual tradition.