we <3 snow!

Here are a few more pictures from our snowy day.  We had so much fun!  I'm loving being on the Two Peas Digital Design Team!  The kits are always SO amazing!  I'm glad to have something that pushes me to scrap more often.  The kids are always doing and saying things that I want to remember, but I'm always forgetting to get them down.  I hope this helps me do better!  Here are the kits I used on this page:

Baby It's Cold Outside by Michelle Underwood

Adorn Painted Masks by Jen Allyson

Hero Arts Stitched Border

a little crazy...

around here!  we are heading back to iowa next sunday so we only have one week to be totally prepared for Christmas.  ack!  lol!  hopefully in just a few minutes i'll be leaving to finish up getting a few gifts.  then the girls and i are having a girls day out.  they want to go antiquing!  i'm so excited!  ella and i went together this summer and she really loved it.  i have a feeling it's not really anna's cup of tea, but she doesn't want to be left out.  the mall with a huge justice store is on the way home, though, so we'll probably be stopping there too.  i can't wait!  it will be a much needed break from our routine.

anna has another science starter due before we leave, and ultimately it needs to be done early so she can give her presentation too.  those of you whom i know in real life have heard aaaaaalll about the science starter from last time.  lol!  but basically she gets a book about science and has to write 10 vocabulary words and 10 important facts from the book, and then give a 5 minute presentation with a display and/or experiment.  if she was just going for a passing grade she could just do 3 minutes and 5 vocab and 5 facts, but in her mind that's not really an option.  i am proud of her for that, but 10 and 10 and 5 whole minutes can be a bit overwhelming.  i know it's all going to be so helpful for her in the end, though.

anna's class is also doing a service project this year.  they are all learning to knit.  they are all knitting squares that her teacher will turn into blankets and donate to shelters.  i'm really impressed by how well some of them are doing!  almost everyone is catching on now that we've been doing it for a few days.  wilson and i have been going in to help every morning.  it's been good for him too. he's finally starting to make friends with a few of the kids.  they had pajama day on friday and his monkey Christmas jammies were a huge hit.  lol!

as i'm sure you can tell, ella isn't getting any attention.  if you don't believe me just ask her.  lol!  it has been hard for her to see me get involved with anna's class and not hers.  i know i will have an opportunity to help her class too, but it's hard for her to realize that will happen.  so wilson and i have gone to lunch with her and i've given her a few extra snuggles here and there.  but of course, it's e, so she still feels like the forgotten middle child.  bless her heart!  lol!

i have gotten to sneak a little scrapping in here and there.  the kits from two peas this week are so great!  i've been wanting to make this "sunny day" page of wilson for a long time.  he wakes us up telling us that EVERY morning!  i'll admit it's sometimes hard to take at 5 am when it's raining outside, but i love that he has such enthusiasm and optimism.  he's such a sweet boy!  the kit is called Sunshine Day and it's by Brandy Buffington.  i love those little banners!  i did mix in a few other kits with the page - all of the detail can be found here.

here are a few pictures from our snow last weekend.  more are coming soon!  we had such a fun weekend!  the kids were thrilled!  this page was made with Michelle Underwood's quick page Baby it's Cold Outside.  isn't it beautiful?!  i love the design of it so much!  i love being able to just stick my pictures in and be done!

these Imprint Christmas Stamps from Carina Gardner are so beautiful!  i think they would make really gorgeous tags to put on Christmas gifts too!  I also used a few other kits for this page too - all of the detail can be found here.

ok - off to get ready for our big day out.  hope everyone has a great weekend!

I LOVE all of the new Ornament kits debuted this week by Jen Allyson on 2 Peas! For this project I used the Ornament Stamps and Brushes because I changed the colors just a bit, but the colors in the Ornament Stickers kit are so beautiful too! I also used the Ornament Pink Papers, but I also LOVE the Ornament Ice Blue Papers too! I created a Photoshop document that was the size I wanted my pillow to be and created a layout for the pillow first, so I could know what sizes I need the ornaments to be. I erased the bows and the hangers on the stamps, because I wanted to recreate them with cording and embroidery floss. I then copied the stamps into an 8 1/2" x 11" document for printing. I chose to create a smaller pillow - about 5" or 6" x 7" - so I could print the ornaments and the fabric for the back of my pillow all on one sheet. I had some printable fabric sheets from a project I did years ago, and I don't think the kind I used are still in production. Avery sells these Printable Fabric Sheets, which have a heat seal backing. They would work well, but I wanted my ornaments to pop up a bit on the edges, so I would recommend these Printable Fabric Sheets from Joann's instead. Which ever sheets you choose will have printing instructions, but for mine I just set my printer settings to "best," and also told the printer I was printing on the thickest media available. I don't think fabric is listed, so I used the heavy cardstock setting instead. The fabric I used was very tightly woven, which made embroidering very hard. I had to work really hard to get my needle through that fabric! If I make another one I will probably attach my ornaments to a different fabric, but for this pillow I just used the printable fabric for all of the pieces. Also I embroidered the ornaments onto the front cover of the pillow directly. Next time I think I'll just embroider the fabric of the ornament and then attach it to the pillow with Heat and Bond. Hopefully not having to go through two layers of that tight fabric will make things easier. After sewing the ornaments onto the pillow I embroidered French knots where the hangers were on the stamps. This tutorial on Sublime Stitching has pictures that show just how to make a French knot. I just sketched the word "Joy" on the largest bulb and embroidered over it, too. I used some silver cording to recreate the ribbon on the ornaments in the kit. Any kind of ribbon or cording would work. I did stitch those to the pillow too - I don't think glue or Heat Bond would work as well for that part. I stitched the two fabric pieces together with my machine, left a hole in the bottom seam for stuffing, and then slip stitched the rest. (The link will take you to a great slip stitching tutorial). Voila! :)