teacher gifts

Well, the end of the school year has come. I have one that is tickled to death that it is summer break, and the other is so bummed that you would think it was the end of the world!

Here is what the boys took to school today for their teachers. You can read Bryce's pretty well there. For Colin's I used a font called Penmanship Print that I thought was perfect for a Kindergartner. His is a poem that says...

When I first started Kindergarten

I couldn't have felt smaller

But I've been growing, growing-

And not just growing taller!

I've learned to write my name;

I've learned my numbers too.

And there are many other things

That I have learned to do.

Kindergarten is over now

But I am not afraid,

Because of the great foundation

to me that you gave.

~author unknown

Both boys then used my Wacom tablet to sign their own names to it. (That only took about 20 min each to get one that looked halfway decent! Finally I had them put each letter of their name on a different layer and moved them together afterwards. Otherwise we might still be working on it!)

The boys said that both teachers really liked them, and the one even had note cards with her at school and wrote him a thank you note.

June DTW and party info!

Hi everyone! It's nearly the end of May so I have your June Desktop Wallpaper for you! For this month I have made two versions. Pretty much the only difference between them is that one uses yellow and the other uses pink (hit the Creative Dream Team Blog to grab the pink one) as accents. Here is the yellow one, starring my boys fishing with Papa last summer (my version only). You can grab it here, but don't run off just yet!

I have some news you won't want to miss.On Monday June 1st we are having a PARTY at Creative Dreams. Anne has a new kit coming out and we want to celebrate (otherwise known as an excuse to have a party). Hop on over there for chats and noon and 9pm central time. There will be lots of fun and goodies to be had! We will be waiting to see you on Monday!

Road Trip

Hope everyone had a good holiday weekend. We went and stayed a few days at the family cottage on Indian Lake. It was our first road trip with Dozer. I am very pleased to be able to say that he did extremely well. He got sick twice on the way there (I am thinking that maybe he was upset thinking that he was headed back to Angels for Animals) but not at all on the way home. The boys spent half of the trip home asleep and draped over top of him. He was very good natured about it, and just sat there quietly. In fact the LO here to the right is from the trip where they boys used him as a pillow.

He also did really well while we were there. He got along well with the other dogs, didn't bark too much (pretty much only when people went walking by and when a new dog showed up) and then for only a minute or two. He didn't whine and was great at night. We were very proud of him.

Well, I still have a good bit to catch up on here so I'm gonna dash. Have a good day everyone!

Quick note

Don't mind my changes the next week or two to my blog template. I am playing around and learning how to do this stuff. And oh yeah, I used the soon to be released kit here on the blog, so there are a couple more hints for ya!

Also a big thank you to Amanda at kevin & amanda for her wonderful tutorial on changing fonts! Be sure to hop over there and check it out. Scroll down and click on tutorials on the right side.

Nuts!

As in my family. Full of them. I made this new layout with the intent of it being a fun and quirky family tree. When I saw the new Pressed Petals kit this is what came to mind. I had to pick up a few pieces elsewhere. Credits: Clothesline Breeze - Pressed petals designs, tree trunk - simplicity - A Work in Progress (Vicki Parker), Word art - Elegant Word Art, font used - Angelina. All of the photos were taken last summer. Yes, I realize that Kate's and my hubby's are missing, I didn't have ANY pictures of either of them. I will work harder next time to get at least one. I think I may make other versions of it during different seasons.

teaser with freebie

Ok, so I have been a really bad blogger the last couple of months. I'm not sure that there really is an excuse, but I do promise to try and do better. Anne at Creative Dreams has a new kit coming out soon so that means that I have a teaser or two for you. I'll give you one today and another in a post soon.

I also thought I would share the word art that I made for this layout. You can get it here.

Wow. Where have I been this last month? I'm really not even sure myself. After that big creative burst I guess I hit a mini slump. How scary is it that I can't really remember what I did the first couple week of April? I know that on the Thursday night before Easter I took the boys to Grandma's house for a few days. She brought them back home on Easter Sunday, and I made my first "real" Easter meal (you know, something resembling traditional because it wasn't just us). Then on Monday we went to Angels for Animals and got our first dog. We were a little concerned with how the boys would react. For Bryce it was love at first sight. Colin was definitely a bit scared, but he did want to bring the dog home. We have had Dozer a week now and he is a great fit for us. Here are a couple of layouts I have done of him. The story of his name is in the one.

I am sure I will have more LO's of him in the near future. I promise to try and be a better blogger!

New Challenges and LOTW!

Remember my LO titled "fishing with Papa" a couple of posts ago? It was picked as the Layout of the Week over at DSO!!! This is first for me and it took me about an hour to be calmed down enough to respond. As a side note, the boys now think that they are famous, lol.

A couple of new April challenges are up in the forums. First off I am hostessing another Quick Page Exchange this month and decided to go with a bright and cheerful kit called Popsicle Paradise. It can be gotten here and here. When you make a quickpage and send it to me you will receive ALL of the quickpages for the month, early in May. And here is one that I have made to get us started.


I am also bringing the color challenge back to Creative Dreams. I have picked a color palette and would love to see what you can do with it! Just for participating ... this month only you will receive not one but 2 posting bonuses!

Be sure to stop by the forums to check out all the details!

Catch!

Here is another LO I did last week that I am rather pleased with. The pictures are of my son out throwing and catching the football with his dad. I thought that the first week kits from the Design Star Competition had the perfect color palette for these pictures so I went looking through them to make my layout. Credits: Design Stars numbers 9, 12 and 55 (Sahlin Studio) competition kits at Scrap Matters, Shel Belle Scraps - Date stamp, Gunhild Storeide - Staples & Stitching, Atomic cupcake - scalloped edge and rub on action

Also be sure to stop over at the Dream Team Blog. I put up a new desktop wallpaper for April. I am also trying to decide which kit I want to use for the next quickpage exchange, so be sure to check back around April 1st and see which one it is. I would love to see more people jump into that challenge!

A first... (freebie)

Well, I have a first for you all today. I decided to jump in and make a mini kit for the color challenge at DSO. I have made some quickpages with Creative Dreams kits and given them away, as well as making things for my own LO's ( I even gave one of those away) but this is the first actual kit that I have made. All of it is made from photos that I took last summer. I hope that you enjoy it, and please don't be too hard on me.

You can grab your freebie here! And here is a layout that I made with my kit.

Also don't forget to check out the Quick Page Exchange at Creative Dreams this month. There is still a little time left to get in on it!