My Second Pregnancy

Good Thursday to ya!

I wanted to make at least one lay-out for my second pregnancy. Come to think of it, I don't think I've made one yet of my first -- YIKES! :(

They say every pregnancy is different and I have to agree. I definitely think this time around has been more challenging physically. Dunno if it's the fact that every muscle has already been stretched out and so there's a lot more pressure. Now, having a tater tot running around could be the cause of that too.



I am less than a week away from delivering and have tons of worries. Will I be ok during and after delivery? Will my baby be healthy? Will my relationship with Mattie change? Will I have enough love and time for both kiddies? Will I have the time/ energy for my babies, my hubby, my home, my work, my hobbies?? Should I apply to this one design team?

*Sighs* I know that it'll be definitely hard, especially in the beginning. But if other people could do it, then so can I. I gotta focus on the positive. I wouldn't change being a mother or a wifey for anything. I'm blessed enough to have a family...what's a little time juggling and sacrifice?

Anyway, the lay-out is of pics taken at my mini-shower thrown by Jo for our college friends. She likes to call it a "Sprinkle." Cute, huh? There were only 7 adults including me + 5 kids. But I had a blast and felt special. Every baby needs to be celebrated, right Jo? Thanks so much!!!

I really LOVE this Momma Mae stamp from SOG. I colored her to look like me (yes, I have violet eyes, LOL!).

This paper is from Sassafras' Mix and Mend line. I've put everything to the side because I didn't want to cover up the beauty of this patterned paper. I fussy-cut and punched and tore more paper from the same line and layered. I added some Sandy Lion stickers and bling and a sentiment from Paper Smooches.

I have to say that I really like this l.o. It's a little quirky...a mixture of cuteness meets shabby chic. Momma Mae is a giant, but I wanted her to stand out! :) :) :)

Toodles,

Somewhere Beyond the Sea...

Good Wednesday mornin'!!

I finally scrapped again! And colored my new OA - Ahoy stamp. I was so excited when he came out because of how he matched MK's second birthday party theme.

Paired him up here with one of my favorite studio pics of Mattie. Not your typical 'posed' pic, but I thought it was just adorable!

Supplies Used:
CS - American Crafts, Colorbok.
PP - October Afternoon's Seaside, Bella Blvd's Sprinkles & Lace.
Wooden Letters - Pink Paislee's House of 3.
Buttons, Tag - American Crafts.
Misc - Copics, Twine, Anchor Die-cut.

Hope you have a great day! Gotta do some errands of filling out some maternity leave paperwork, then watching a movie with my tot, and maybe dinner with some friends.

XO,

Some Quickies

Good monday mornin' to ya!

Just some quickies today! First is my card for a dear friend who's expecting her first baby girl this September. Just used a bunch of stickers from K & Company. Lovin' the vintage feel of them.

Next, I have more pom-poms to show you for my friend's bridal shower. Got 'em from SevynDesigns on Etsy, but next time, I'll probably try to make them (when a girl has more time).







And here are the favors all laid out.

Toodles!

Digis

It's Sunday Funday!!

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend so far! Lots of fun things planned for today for my little fam & I.

But let's talk about today's card. Well, I finally 'D O N E' it! I entered the world of digital stamping!! They're cheaper, take up less room in the house, more flexible in terms of size....

I do miss the ink on my fingers :).

Thanks to my bloggy friends (you know who you are ;)), I got to print a couple of new digi stamps on my sissy's computer (thank you too, sis!). For those of you who are curious, I am semi-illiterate with techi stuff & could NOT figure out how to do it on my printer -- and it is a fairly new one that we bought simply for the fact of its supposedly-cool printer features!! HA!!!

Anyway, Miss / Mrs. Momma Mae was patiently waiting for me to print/ color her up ever since I bought her weeks ago. I am always in need of 'maternity' cards so of course, I LOVE, LOVE her!

She came out a bit bigger than I thought so I just 'zoomed in' for the card. This card is for one of my besties - she had been trying for a while to get pregnant & I am so very happy for her!! It's too early to know if the babe is a boy or a girl so I incorporated both colors.

Thanks so much for visiting today! I'd be so grateful if you left a comment.

Till later,

Kraft Postcards - Part 4 of MK's Nautical Party

Happy Saturday, everybody!

Today's post is the last of the series for my son's second birthday party. (See Part 1, Part 2, & Part 3).


Since his theme was nautical, I thought these new stamps from TGF's OA Ahoy line were perfect for thank you cards.

I wanted to keep it really simple since we were blessed with lots of people to thank. I like the look of kraft paper so I bought some from RunEllieRun's Etsy shop. I cut them down to size & sent them as post cards. I think post cards are cute & fun to send/ receive. And I save a lot on shipping :).

Although I've been curious about all these blog posts on coloring kraft CS, I thought leaving Oliver & Amelia uncolored was the best thing. I really like the look of some Martha Stewart bakers' twine around it to give it a pop of color/ nautical stripes. But I wasn't sure if that meant breaking some sort of USPS rules.

Couldn't risk having these sent back because:
a. waste of postage.
b. the backs would be ruined with "return to sender."
c. it's almost been a month since the party & I wanted to send these off before baby2 comes.

Anyway, I hope you have a great weekend! I have all these little projects to do and lots of ideas in my head. I know I should be relaxing before our new addition comes but my crafting mojo has been really high lately. Thought I'd take advantage of it before lack of sleep leaves me with no time/ energy.

Talk to ya later!

Let's Shellabrate!

Good Friday morning, everybody!

I hope you are all looking forward to the weekend! This week actually marked my last day of work before maternity leave. Wish I could say "I'M FREEEEEEEEEE!" but there's still so much to do and prepare for before baby2 comes!!

Anyway, it's Friday so that means it's Recipe Challenge Day over at the PWCO blog. Today's recipe is Critter, Cute, and any color you want.

I knew I wanted to use one of PWCO's Aqua Amigos. Chose Tommy the Turtle for this one as I'm planning on giving it to a friend who loves Hawaii and is having her second baby (a boy!). Tommy is definitely cute, and I think the items used are perfect for a boy card! The color combo I did for this is green, blue, and orange.

Materials Used:

Stamp- PWCO Aqua Amigos Collection - Tommy the Turtle & PWCO Aqua Amigos Sentiment Collection.

Paper- Bo Bunny Barefoot Splash.

Stickers- Bo Bunny Barefoot & Bliss.

Twine- Pink Paislee

Misc- Ribbon, 3M Scotch adhesive

Copics- BG93, BG96, G94, G99.

As with all the Recipe Challenges for the month, you have till June 30th 11:59 (MT) to join in. If you play with along with at least two challenges, you'll be entered to win either the Card kit or two stamps! How great is that prize!!

Stay cool,

Soap Favors

I was in charge of making favors for this friend's bridal shower. I'm sure you all are familiar with her colors by now.

Super simple! The favors inside were custom home made soap I got from Etsy. You can pick the colors and scents :). I also included a little candy inside.



Bought semi-sheer glassine favor bags and decorated them with ribbon, a tag made out of colorbok cardstock. The stamps are from Stampin' Up's Bliss line. The stickers are from Jolene's.

Talk to you later!

A Bay-BEE Shower

On Father's Day, my family also celebrated another expectant mother and baby-girl-to-be. My sis-in-law is due a couple of weeks after I am. It is my bro's and her first baby. Mattie doesn't know what's gonna hit him...hehe! First comes a brother, then a baby cousin!

My sis, Kristine, had this great idea of making the shower theme, Pixar/ Disney's Monster's Inc. It's D's favorite cartoon. But being the superstitious person that she is, my mother (who is hosting the event at her home) didn't want anything to do with monsters (no matter how cute they are).

My sis made most of the decor. D's BFF made the bee cake pops. My only contribution were the pom-poms. I bought the Martha Stewart kit but you can also make your own using this tutorial.
















Have a great day!

Man Shower

Hi everyone!

Here's a quick card I made for one of the doctors I work with. Dr. J is getting married, and we wanted to throw him a 'man shower'.... LOL! He advocates a lot for our unit so we wanted to do something nice :).

I was in charge for making him a card that all the staff could sign. Didn't want it to be too cutesy so I opted for simple stickers. And if you're wondering what a man shower would entail, it's basically just taking him out for dinner at a restaurant and giving him gifts we've collected :). No corny games, haha!

Speaking of showers, I'll probably be sharing pics of my bro & SIL's baby shower. I didn't plan it at all but it was very cute! I'll show you soon!

Hugs,

Celebrating Uniqueness & Graduations

Because I am going to be on Maternity Leave soon, I really have to watch my expenses. That especially includes new stamps and supplies for my crafts. So I had told myself to only buy sparingly.

Now some of you know that I sometimes strive to be different. Often, I do not always like to go along with the crowd. And so I thought Some Odd Girl stamps are truly unique! From their big eyes to their small torsos and bigger-than-life calves! (lemme tell you, big calves have always been an insecurity of mine. now i feel like celebrating them).

I really ADORE and LOVE these new stamps. Couldn't help but buy most of Kristy's newly released stamps. There goes that theory about trying to save money...LOL!

For today's card, I'm playing along at the SOG's white/ kraft & color pops challenge. Make a card that is either kraft or white and use only two colors (aside from the skin and hair color of the stamp).

As you can see, I used a white card and the combination of pink and green. Looking back, a lot of my cards have been pretty graphic and linear recently so I wanted to do something a bit different. This lace butterfly paper was perfect to add dimension to the card.

Materials Used:
Stamp- SOG Love Letter Kaylee.
Papers- Butterfly Lace Paper (American Crafts, Dear Lizzy), Green 'binder' paper (Creative Imaginations).
Embellishments- Pins/ Flags (Pink Paislee), tag (American Crafts).

In other news... (going off on a tangent!)

If you noticed, I am using one of my beloved Dear Lizzy products up there. I will not be hoarding that line anymore. Just like how I started using my Love, Elsie line when the Dear Lizzy one showed up. Because..... Amy Tangerine is coming out with her own line!!

I love her blog, her creations, and all the sneak peeks of her new products. Ummm, wasn't I just talking about saving money here?? *GULP GULP*

Anyway, back to my card. It's for my youngest cousin, who has graduated high school and will be celebrating her 18th birthday very soon. Filipinas celebrate debuts as Latinas celebrate quinceaneras. She's having a big combined party, & lots of relatives are coming from the Philippines.

As part of her presents, I am including Dr. Seuss' "Oh, the Places You'll Go."


pic source

It's the perfect book for graduation. I got the idea from a post at the blog of the
Pioneer Woman. I think I'll be purchasing more of these books as a grad tradition.

"Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go."




XO,

Happy Father's Day!

To my dearest hubby, G. Thank you to you and Mattie (and baby-boy-to-be) for making me a mother! Happy Father's Day to you! This photo is not the greatest, but I love how you are looking so adoringly at MK. Your eyes are so full of love and pride. I thank God everyday for having a wonderful husband and an amazing father to our son.

Now I know I've posted this lay-out here before. But I may have to start labeling my posts a bit more specific. For the life of me, I could not find it anywhere in my blog. Anyway, it's an oldie but goodie -- Matthew was about 2 1/2 months old here. Hope you have a Happy Father's Day with your family and friends!

Lucky Date Night

Good Saturday morning, peeps!

I'm very excited as tonight, my dear hubbs and I will be going on a date night. And what better way to go out with your hubby than to witness two people vow to spend the rest of their lives together? I just love going to weddings!

I made this card for my DH's co-worker/friend and his wife-to-be. Got carried away with trying to give Anya curls here...not sure that i like it. Used the I Do stamp from TGF again.

The couple's wedding color is purple so I tried to incorporate it here. Don't have a lot of violet embellies though so just picked fun ones from my stash.

Hope you're out enjoying the sun or at least a quiet moment with your crafts!

PWCO's Recipe Challenge for June, part 1 & 2.

Hi everyone! Sorry for the late post and previous empty posts. Blogger and I have been arguing lately. It keeps publishing posts when I'm not ready..hehe! Thanks for being patient.

It's time for PWCO's Recipe Challenge... it happens every Friday. I hope you can play along! You have until 11:59 Mountain Time on 6/30 to play. The prize up for grabs is either TWO stamps or this month's PaperCard Kit! These are GREAT, don't you agree?

Since we had two weeks worth of introductions for the new DT, this Friday challenge actually had two recipes:

1. One was a picture inspiration:
























2. An all-white card (except for the colored image) that is 'water'-based.

I have to admit that these recipes were quite difficult for me. The pic had a nautical theme and since I had already done nautical with my intro project, I wanted to show something different.

So instead of taking the whole theme of the pic, I decided to pick only certain parts of it. My inspiration for the card came from the stripes and the flowers in the pic.

And then, the all-white card stumped me for a while!! Super difficult until I discovered playing up textures. I found some embossed white papers (the swirly one was perfect for the 'water' theme). I used a punch and found some pretty layered stickers.

I decided to take it up a notch and colored this PWCO/ Rachelle Anne Miller image in 'black & white' to challenge myself even more! So here's the card:



Check out fellow DT Kerri's card on her blog.


Materials Used:

Stamp - PWCO/ RAM Puddles of Fun

Paper - Bazzill Cardstock, Swirl, & Flower embossed papers. Recollections papers (strips).

Ribbon - Crate Paper Trims, Neighborhood Collection.

Flowers, mini pearls, borders stickers, Pom-poms, punch - Martha Stewart.

Buttons - Basic Grey.

Adhesives - 3M Scotch.

Copics - T1, T4, T6, W3, W5, W9.

Have a wonderful weekend!