ALL DOLLED UP

I just had to share this most adorable picture of Caitlin that I took of her today. I took her and a few other girls from my Girl Scout troop to lunch at the Macaroni Grille and then to have make-overs at Girlfriendz. They had so much fun getting their hair done and colored (I LOVE PURPLE!!), nails painted and make-up on. I could not resist taking this picture of Caitlin on our front yard. I think she is just beautiful...dolled up or not!!

A LITLE MELANCHOLY

Why am I a little melancholy? Well check out this picture........

What's wrong with this picture you may ask? Well it is Brittany on her first day of college. ACKKK! She is not old enough to go to college is she? She is still a baby isn't she? Don't I still make her sandwiches cut into little triangles? When did I suddenly get all of these grey hairs? Yes, I am in denial, there is no way my baby girl can be starting college, but alas she is, and I am just a little blue.

So here is a photo I quickly snapped of her before she walked out the door. I called Scott at work to tell him (as I was watching her pull away from the house) that our daughter was just leaving for her first day of college. Of course I had to leave him a message and thus was not able to talk to him for the pick me up I knew he would be able to provide me. He does however call me back and tell me that he almost starting tearing up when he heard my message. So if he is having trouble keeping it together how am I supposed to keep from being a basket case today? Geez....MEN!!

I am calmed in knowing that she is a very intelligent young woman, with a good head on her shoulders and a very bright future in front of her and that we have done everything we could do possible to enrich her life and help her become the strong independent woman she is, including putting on a brave face as she faced her first day of college today. Still, if anybody out there has a way to reverse her ageing process and make her little again....call me, I'm all ears!!!

MAKE A WISH - CARD

My Dad's birthday is on Sunday, so this is for him. I really struggle in trying to make masculine cards. If I can't put a Bella or sparkles on it then I am at a complete loss. I found a few ideas for cowboy themed cards in a recent issue of Paper Crafts and used one of them for inspiration. I used scraps of Cloud 9 Design paper from the LO I did of my nephew Landon. The "make a wish" stamp is a Michael's $1 stamp. I REALLY wanted to add some stickles to the chipboard star but I resisted. I think I should sign his card now and seal it in the envelope as I may not be able to resist adding some sparkles before Sunday!

ALL BOY - LO

Here is a LO that I finally completed of my nephew Landon. I don't have very many photos of him and the ones I do have were taken by someone other than myself so it was hard for me to scrap them. The patterned paper is from Cloud 9 Design, their Photo Banner II Series. I LOVE this paper. They had a print in this series with all these little frogs on it. I ended up not using that sheet because I thought it would be too busy. The "all boy" was cut using the cricut and the other words are rub ons from a swatchbook made by Creative Imaginations. The swatchbook has fonts in eight different designs and colors.
Looking at this LO I realize that I really need to make more of an effort to obtain photos of this little guy.

WHOOOOO'S 2? - CARD

My nephew, Landon is turning 2 this weekend. I saw a card very similar to this on Sharon's blog. Her card was just so stinking cute I had to shamelessly scrapjack it. I hope you don't mind Sharon. I know you are all probably in shock that it is not another Bella creation!! If I thought I could get away with making a 2 year old boy a Bella card I would....but I didn't think I could pull it off. ;)

This cute owl is cut from the Happily Ever After cricut cartridge at 4". The patterned paper is from the Nana's Kids DCWV stack.

If you haven't checked out Sharon's blog, you should really take the time to browse it. She is absolutely amazing!!

BELLA ALTERED NOTEBOOKS

My name is Deborah....and I am a Bella-aholic. Group shouts back..."Hi Deborah". I know, I know, almost every project or card I have posted lately is Bella related. I can't help it, I try to resist, I take my other stamps out and oogle (is that even a word?) them from time to time, I even play with the other stamps a little, getting a little ink on them, even going so far as coloring them in. Then I feel guilty, like I am abandoning my dear Bellas. I am not strong and I fall off the wagon and go right back to the Bellas. I admit it, it's a sickness.

So here are a few notebooks that I finished last night, and yes they have Bellas on them. ;) This first one I made for my 4 year old niece. She picked out the paper on her own. I think it is from K&Company but I am not positive. Then she squealed when I showed her the Tinkerbella stamped image. Shhh....don't tell anyone but I have the same reaction. The primas are from the Prima Calypso tin collection, Costa Bright. The chipboard letters are from K&Company. I also added stickles to the stamped image. I made this second notebook for Caitlin. She has quite a few child safe websites that she plays on...like Webkinz and Build-a-Bear...that she needed a notebook to write down her passwords, usernames and website particulars. So I created this for her. The stamped image is Clickabella (I received her from a Bella stamped image swap...which is where most of my Bellas come from as I only own a handful...for now) and the background paper is from K&Company, called Sparkly Sweet Blue Paisley Glitter. I used the same collection of primas that were mentioned in he above notebook. I added tabs from my SU round tab punch.

VIVA LAS VEGAS!!!

Scott and I spent this past weekend in Vegas to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We had SO MUCH fun! We walked up and down the strip, went into every casino, ate entirely TOO much food, but the best part of our trip was seeing Cirque Du Soleil!!! It was the most AMAZING show EVER! If you ever have a chance to see it I would strongly suggest it. We purchased tickets at the last minute, the morning of the show, as a anniversary present to each other and it was the best spur of the moment decision.

Here are a few highlights:


1) Statue of Liberty in front of New York New York.

2) Regretfully we did not take a picture of how this looks all lit up at night. Gorgeous!

3) Our gondolier. He was extremely funny and encouraged us to smooch often. Which we TOTALLY did...much to the dismay of some little boy that we happened to share the ride with.

4) Outside photo of the Venetian.

5) Indoor fountain garden at the Bellagio.

6) The Eiffel Tower Restaurant.


7) Excalibur at night.

ALTERED NOTEBOOK

Here is a quick notebook that I whipped up for one of Caitlin's friends. It's her birthday tomorrow and Caitlin is going to surprise her with a few gifts and a cake that Brittany is making for her to give Jamie. I love making these notebooks. They are so easy to do.

The notebook is a composition notebook that I bought from the Walmart. Right now you can buy two notebooks for $1. The stamp is a Bella Stamp called "Huggybella". The patterned paper is from K&Company. It's called Sparkley Sweet Giant Paisley. The primas are from the Prima Calypso Tins, Costa Bright. I love these primas. They are so brightly colored and you get so many in the tin. I can't recall who makes the chipboard letters but if you can't tell from the pic, they are sparkly. I love ALL things sparkly!!

CHEFABELLA NOTEBOOK II - THE SEQUEL

I'm sure you have all experienced this on more than one occasion. The more you look at a project the more and more you come up with ways you can improve upon it. It's not that I disliked how Brittany's notebook turned out. I just thought it was a little on the plain side. She also realized that she would need something a little bigger to write down recipes, tips and hints. So I made her a complete new set of notebooks. The larger one for her recipes and other things she needs to take note of and the mini one for her to keep in her purse with a list of the items she already has so she does not double up while shopping for supplies.

I bought the composition notebook at the dollar store and the smaller notebook was purchased at target for $1. I covered both with paper from Chatter Box, their Scrap Walls line, Loft Bias Plaid. I love that paper. On the larger notebook I used Creative Cafe's Classified Alphabet. You can not tell in the picture but the letters are felt and so soft. I also used Jolee's for the mini silverware attached to the primas with a little bling brad. The tabs on the larger notebook are punched with my SU Round Tab punch.

CHEFABELLA NOTEBOOK

Here is a quick little notebook that I made for the new baking chef in our family. Yep, it's a Bella....I'm sure I have mentioned before that I am addicted to Bellas...right...yes I'm sure I have. This is Chefabella. I do not own her yet, I received her in a Bella image swap, but I think I will need to purchase her soon.

I made this little notebook for Brittany to keep track of all her tools and supplies that she is acquiring for her new found passion.

BRITTANY'S SWEET SUCCESS

Our Brittany has discovered a wonderful new hobby that she just loves!! She loves baking. She wants to go to culinary school after she finishes Sierra and is hoping to make a career out of her new found passion.

So here it is, her very first cake. Isn't it just too cute?! She did such a good job and we think she has quite the talent for it. It also tastes as good as it looks.

I am helping her out with a blog of her own so that she can showcase her cakes as she makes them. So if you have a sweet tooth you may want to check out her blog listed to the right under "Brittany".

BASEBALL COASTER ALBUM

The girls and I (Arianne & Caitlin) had a blast on the 4th of July making mini albums with pictures from our River Cats outing. I printed out in triplicate all of our favorite pictures from that day and the three of us each made our own album. It was fun to see the same photos take on a different look in each of our projects. The albums were made with a pack of coasters that we bought from the dollar spot at Michael's.

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME

Saturday night was Girl Scout night at the River Cats. We love going to watch the River Cats play. We had the best time. Here are a few highlights:

Caitlin and Arianne cheesing it up for the camera. They were working it for some cotton candy.

This is my HOTTIE!!! Love those baby blues...I am a lucky gal!!

STAMPS, STAMPS AND MORE STAMPS!

As you can see I am in stamp heaven!! I had a sweet friend (love ya Jeri!) send me these stamps. I think she said you can find them at Joann's. The best part is I believe they are only $1 a piece. They all have the most adorable images and sayings.

The saying on these three are my favorite. I especially love the middle one.

GRADUATION PARTY

Here are just a few pics from Brittany's graduation party.

Brittany called this table her "shrine". Maybe I did get a little carried away with placing all of her achievements and so forth on the table. It's not like I drug out all of her baby pictures and kindergarten artwork. It's just her diploma, announcement, valedictorian medal, her academic letter, drama pin, and our favorite picture of her taken after graduation. Hmmmm....she's right...it's a shrine! ;)

Brittany and her "posse" enjoying their lunch.

Caitlin and Arianne are not only cousins but they are each others' best friends. Here they are enjoying the gorgeous weather.

FATHER'S DAY - CARD

Now that graduation is over I can concentrate on other things, like Father's Day. Here is a card that I made for one of the daycare kids to give to their dad. The stamp is "dad words -Q144" from Stampendous. Pretty simple card, I stamped the image once on the white card stock and then again on the background paper and cut out the word "dad" and adhered it to the cardstock. Doesn't get much simpler than that.

CONGRATS GRAD - CARD

Now that graduation is over I can post these. One of them was for Brittany and I did not want her to see it prior to us giving it to her Saturday.

Yes, I know, you are surprised to see that they are Bellas. LOL I told you all that I was obsessed with them. This is "diplomabella". I do not own her but one of the wonderful ladies from the Cricut MB was kind enough to stamp a few images and send her my way. The background was embossed with the "congrats" cuttlebug folder.