Welcome home little one

Little Z was born on Friday, March 27th. I'll post the details and pictures later as I want to get our birth annoucements off first. He is a cutie and keeper and doing very well. Mom on the other had had some minor complications. I ended up being allergic to the pre-op stuff used for my c-section and have a really ugly rash now. I got a steroid short yesterday and have to take some meds and topical loation to help clear it up. That is slowing down the healing time too. Other than that I am doing well.

We survived the first night at home! It does seem like we will be working on the whole day/night reversal thing too. Big brother comes home today so that'll be another level of adjustment to work on. Hopefully by the end of the week we'll have the annoucenments in the mail and I can post here too.

Going on To Round 5

No baby yet. I go today for a check-up and then tomorrow for the c-section :)

However, I did want to post my latest creation for Scrap-tastic.com's AI challenge since I am moving on up again :) These challenges are really pushing me, and I am having a blast playing along and learning.

Here are the details:

I had to use lots of bling (sparkly stuff for those non-scrappers). Since I have a boy I don't tend to use the stuff so I took a different take on it. I had an idea hit me when I was looking at last year's Easter pictures that I still hadn't scrapped. They reminded me of a rainbow. I took the pictures of the eggs in the dye for the main picture and then cut the other three pictures into an egg shape: the supplies, end results, and DS's special egg. For the BLING I used lots of glitter as I don't have many rhinestones. I painted the rainbow and then poured glitter all over it to make it shine, I embossed gltter onto the word EASTER after I stamped the word in white craft ink, I used rhinestomes on the green egg and for the bodies of teh butterfly, and stickles on the purple and blue egg. For the STAMPING I stamped all the letters, the butterflies, and the eggs and their designs. I really liked the grass from my last layout and thought it would be perfect here to help "hide" the eggs. For the sky I sponged and splattered ink on textured c/s to give it some depth. I drew and colored the chocolate bunny to bring the brown down and mounted the top part of the rainbow on foam dots to again give depth.

The Count Down is on

Our new little one is to join the world this Friday. We are very excited and nervous. DS has helped put his little brother's crib together. DH has been great at getting things ready as he's taking four weeks off. I've been trying to wrap up some crafty projects and last minute errands. Even got a hair cut. I am hoping to get in LOTS of resting this week as I am starting my maternity leave tomorrow and finish up any loose ends. One thing I would really like to do is get a pedicure on Thursday after my doctor appointment and blood work. I'm not really worried about what I'll look like in the hospital, but I would like to have pretty toes after I came home since I will most likely not be wearing closed toe shoes. I've also got to wrap DS's present from the baby so that he can get a little surprise of his own when my parents bring him to the hospital.

Going on to Round 4

I made it to round 4 for the Scrap-tastic Americon Idol! I feel so honored to have gotten this far. The last challenge was to scrap-lift one of the Design Team's layouts while making it your own and use three or more different types of embellishments. I really enjoyed this one as I've been wanting to scrap these pictures since I took them last summer. DS LOVES to mow when our lawn guy comes as well as when our neighbor mows his lawn.

Here's my take on the scraplift challenge for this round. This was Becky's l/o that inspired me: http://www.scrap-tastic.com/pages/gallery_detail.cfm?galleryID=6751 I have been wanting to scrap these pictures of DS 'mowing' the yard with our lawn guy since I took the pictures last summer but haven't been inspired. I loved the nature feel and green Becky used in her l/o and that's when inspiration struck. I made the grass that borders the bottom edge and the bottom of the oval scene, and then I painted the c/s to add depth to them. Then I added the doodle lines on one side and the top to help frame everything. I had just gotten the new Maya Road tree chipboards and thought they would be perfect for this. I covered one with pp and painted the other two. For the journaling block I painted the edges and then added the doodle lines with a green marker. I also stamped a branch on the bottom and added a little chipboard bird. The ribbons and staples was a look I've been wanting to try for a while now. As for the pictures, I really like combining b/w with color so I made the top and bottom b/w and gave the color one a white mat so that it would pop a little more.

Special Request

I don't do this often, but I believe this friend of mine deserves to have a chance at getting her dream answered. A good friend of mine, Lianna Knight, has a chip-in for help with getting an IVF so she and her wonderful hubby can have the blessings of a little child. With the chip-in comes a GREAT prize package (actually she has four this time) so please check out her blog for the details.

I am currently working on my third challenge for Srcap-tastic and it's fun. I'll post the picture next week.

Movin' On Up

I made it to round 3 over at Strap-tastic's AI competition. Here's the layout I did for round 2. We couldn't use any pre-made pattern paper for embellishments.

The Journaling: D & I have always had a love for reading. Many times while dating & when we were first married you could find us together going on some great adventure in book. Work & life has slowly started taking over & the books are sitting on shelves waiting for us to enjoy them. Then came our son A. It looks like he has gotten the same passion for books as we have. He loves to read and be read to. A will also pick a book to take to day-care most days. This is one passion I hope my family never loses & takes the time to enjoy.

Now for what I used on this page :) For the patterend paper I took a stip of blue c/s and crumpled it up to age it some to represent the older books we have. The red book was stamed with a canvas background stamp b/c it reminded me of a hardback w/o the jacket. The next two books are my interpretation of the children's Golden Books to represent my son and soon to be soon learning to read. I used the polished stone technique for these to achieve the look I wanted. Nothing fancy with the black book as it was used mostly as a base for the picture and one of the embellies I made. I also created the patterend paper for the bookmark I made and the frames of the book labels I made. These were done with the faux silk technique. I made all of the embellishments (b/c I had too :) ) They were fun to make too. I made both the big tassle haning out of the black book to represent the bookmark that is holding my spot, and the small tassle that is marking the spot in the small book. It was really fun and easy to make them too. The small book I used for my journaling was also made. I used scrap chipboard and painted it to look like a hardback & then added the pages to give it the open book feel. The frames for the pictures are my take on book lables and I did a faux ribbon type of thing on them. The last thing I did was create my own Rub-ons b/c I didn't have alpha stamps small enough and anything to cut chipbord.

Darn Internet

I finished my round 2 scrap page for Scrat-tastic.com, but have only been able to upload it to their site for now. I'll try to get it up here in the next day or two.

The time is getting closer for our new bundle of joy to join the world, and we are discovering we have LOTS to do still. One thing I would really like to do is get the birth announcements done. I am hoping to work on them starting tomorrow night. DH and DS still need to finish putting the crib together (yes, DS has to help or he would pitch a fit - it's really kinda cute). Then there are all the little things we need to do. It'll get done, just not sure when.

I'm in count down mode as we are less than 3 weeks away. I pray that he doesn't come any earlier just so I can make sure things are ready, but I know it will be in God's time. However, I have only four days left for work before I start my leave. Talk about Spring-itis. I think I've got my students beat in that department this year.

A Scrapbook Challenge

My SCS 52 week challenge for this week was to choose from these two quotes and use it to inspire us.

“March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.”

Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!" -Robin Williams

I choose the first one to use for my sample as I thought of my son and his tantrum/non-tantrum moments.

AI contest challenge #1

I mentioned a few entries back that I made it into an on-line scrapbook challenge over at Scrap-tastic. Well, I just found out tonight that I made it past round 1 :) For that challenge we had to choose a song and create a LO using that song in mind. Every detail of the layout had to personify that song; from the pictures to the colors to the embellishments and design. The technique for the challenge was to use 10 different patterned papers on your layout and NO cardstock. This really had me thinking about what to do. I ended up going with the song "Butterfly Kisses" and used a couple of pictures of me and my daddy dancing to it from my wedding.

It took me some time putting it all together, but it was so worth it. Now I must go off to see what the next challenge is and start working on it.

Cyber Crop at Color Me Daisy

I love to scrap I love to play,

I scrapbook almost everyday!

So what's this I hear, a crop you say?

We'll have so much fun scrappin the days away!!

I think a Dr. Seuss crop will be sweet and crazy,

be sure to join us here March 6-8 at Color Me Daisy!!

Once to get to the site you will need to register with them and then go to the Message Board to play with us.

This is one of the many things I plan on doing this weekend. I would love to see some friends there :)