Simple and Sweet

Hello there! How are you? I am...tired! :)
Grace and I spent most of the day at Joshua's school for field day. It was very fun! Tug of war, relays, a water slide, and lots and lots of time in the sun!
I really enjoyed seeing JBG with his school friends and it was nice to visit with some of their parents, as well as his teacher. He has had such a great teacher this year, I just couldn't be happier! It is hard to believe that the school year has just a couple of days left. I am glad, though, because that means we will be heading to Utah soon for my sister's wedding, and I am so excited for that I can hardly stand it! Aren't weddings so fun?!

Quick crafty share:
I have a couple of cards I made for our moms on Mother's Day. They were super simple, but I thought they turned out cute! I had premade card bases from CTMH, and all I did was paint around the edges, add a punched out butterfly (Martha Stewart), and stick on a few letters (SEI)! Simple and Sweet. :)

Well, that's about it for me right now. I hope you have a wonderful week and I will try to be back with something a little more exciting before I head out of town!

bye-
JAG

A whole lot of a good thing is a REALLY good thing!!

So do you remember a while back when I mentioned that my mom and I went to the Cosmo Cricket office/store with the intention of buying some Cosmo Cricket goodness, and we ended up having a little "field trip" through the warehouse? Yeah. It was awesome. I have always been a big fan of their products, so ever since I heard they had opened a little store in their warehouse in Nibley, I have wanted to drop by. Mom and I had a spare hour one afternoon, so we stopped by and we were greeted by none other than Mr. Lindsay Moore. *If you read the Cosmo Blog, you know who he is. :) Funny, funny, funny man! Anyway, it turns out that he and my mom are members of the same stake, they have kids that go to school together, etc. So we had a good time chatting. Then he took us on a generous tour of the offices, and we came home with some fun things! (Shh...don't tell, but I even left with a couple of the oh-so-coveted Glubers!) It was very fun, and I have had a blast playing with all of my new Cosmo Cricket products! First up a few cards! Except for the brads and cardstock, everything I used for these is from Cosmo Cricket. I used the 6x6 pads from the three newest collections. I love how even their "themed" collections, like Salt Air (beachy/ocean theme) are so versatile and all their collections work so well together!

Supplies: Salt Air 6x6 pad, clear tiny type alphabet

Supplies: Upcycle 6x6 pad, Upcycle stickers Supplies: Upcycle 6x6 pad, yellow tiny type Alphabet

Supplies: Social Club 6x6 pad, Early bird stickers

I think this one below is my favorite :0)

Supplies: Social Club 6x6 pad, brown tiny type alphabet

And some layouts!

This first one uses the Salt Air collection, and the second uses Social Club.

Super fun stuff, don't you say?!

mmmmHUH!

Thanks for stopping by!

JAG

Recently....

...life has just seemed crazy! Every week I think, "this week I'm not going to be crazy busy! I'm going to relax this week." Hahaha. Guess I better just get used to the busy!

Did I ever tell you what my wonderful husband gave me for my birthday?
Three fabulous things:
FIRST, and most exciting, was a visit from my MOM!!! I had no idea she was coming, and the evening before my birthday he just walked in from work like normal...except this time he had my mom with him! I screamed for a solid five minutes, I think! And she stayed for a WHOLE WEEK! Lots of shopping, visiting and fun!
SECOND, a 50 mm lens for our -okay, technically it's his- camera!!! Still trying to figure it out.
THIRD, a gallon of paint and a coupon for some painting helpers to help me paint my scrapbook room! (don't worry, I'm taking before and after pics.)
Isn't that fun!? I think it was the best birthday ever, especially because I got to spend it with my mom...that hasn't happened for several years! What a blessed girl I am to have a husband who is so very, very thoughtful.

Next up....
I had a quick photo shoot with this little girl the other day... had to try out that new lens, right? We spend quite a lot of one on one time together these days with Joshua in school, and it is special time, for sure. We had to take some pictures to document. :)

She's pretty darn cute....and she'll talk your ear off if you let her! Watch out! In fact, as I type this she is climbing all over my back chattering away about the show she just watched. :)

And finally, a card!

As I mentioned, we are painting the scrapbook room, so there isn't a whole lot of creating going on at the moment, but I did manage to get a few cards made before I had to disassemble my room. I used patterened paper, journaling sprouts, a canvas flower, Happy birthday stamp, and stickers from Jillibean Soup, as well as some random cardstock scraps, a red button and a bit of twine.

Hope your day is fabulous!

JAG

Just a little card...

Hello again.

I just wanted to share this cute little card I made using papers and die cuts from the Alphabet Soup Boy line by My Mind's Eye. It is based on a sketch challenge they had on their blog a couple of weeks ago. Isn't that tiger die cut adorable? Oh, and the sentiment is a sticker from SRM...love their clear stickers for cute, quick cards. I would say that I need to buy myself some more, but I am on a self-imposed-scrapbook-supply-buying-freeze. :) We'll see how that goes, especially with all the new CHA releases coming up!! My goal is to make it throught March without buying anything new...wish me luck!

I've been reorganizing my scrapbook room, and it has been quite fun to dig through everything and find all the fun things I had forgotten I had! Of course I am a little disgusted at how much I have that goes unused...hence the buying freeze. :) I could probably make a hundred or so cards just from the scrap stash I have built up! YIKES! Time to get busy!

Not much else going on around here, just keeping busy with the normal school, work, church, life kind of stuff and trying not to get too sick. Seems like someone has been sick since November, but right now we all just have colds and I am praying that is it for a while! In the past we have been blessed with such good health that I guess I have been spoiled. I would maybe take one of my kiddos to the Dr. each year. Poor Joshua has been four times already this year, and Grace and I have each been once! So anyway, I'm hoping this is the end!

I'll try and be back with something a little more exciting soon!
Have a good night!
JAG

A couple of new things

Hi y'all.

I just had to show off this 'Welcome Baby' banner that I made for my friend's baby shower we had at my house the other day. I have been loving all the banners I have seen around so I had to try my hand at it.

I used the Cricut Calligraphy cartirdge on this to cut out the triangles, scalloped triangles, circles, and the little onesie.

I kept this one pretty simple because I didn't have a ton of time, but thought it turned out so cute, I may make a fall or halloween banner next!

And here are a few quick cards.

I've made several lately, but it still seems

I've hardly made a dent in my stack of scraps! :)

I love yellow and gray together....something about it just makes me happy!
I think I may give this one to JBG's teacher.
He is loving her and kindergarten, and I am so grateful for that!

So I finally broke down and ordered some new things from this last CHA. I was trying so hard to resist, but I just couldn't. And when my dear husband wanted to indulge me......
well, I couldn't say no, now could I? :)
A little Cosmo cricket, October Afternoon (I ordered their Seaside papers...think I'm going to
L-O-V-E these!!!), My Mind's Eye, and American Crafts.

Yea, that ought to hold me for a while! :)

JAG

Happy Wednesday!

.... even if it is almost Thursday!

It's amazing how having just one child in school makes life seem so much crazier already!

I like all the new activities and things, but it does kind of cut the scrapping time short. :) We have also had Grandpa Guymon here for a couple of days, which has been lots of fun! Tonight we went out and took some awesome, very West Texas looking pictures in our brand spankin' new Harvesters gear.... I will definitely post the pictures when I get them! It's homecoming week here too, so I will hopefully have some fun 'Friday night lights' pics. I'm taking the big camera to the homecoming game this year, that way I can better capture the true essence of a West Texas Friday night high school football game. Pure craziness, really, but in a fun way! :)

Anyway, here is a layout that I made for the American Crafts Blog challenge this week. I haven't been able to participate in one for a while, but when I saw the challenge for this week I knew I wanted to give it a try. The challenge was to make a layout about yourself using two or more AC products. I rarely do layouts about myself, but I need to do them a lot more often, so this was fun. You can find all the details on the American Crafts Blog.

SUPPLIES: Patterned papers (Abode by American Crafts); Cardstock (Brown: American Crafts, Honey: CTMH, White); Journaling spots (Sprouts by Jillibean Soup); Alphas (Thickers by American Crafts); Glitter brads (American Crafts); black pen (CTMH); White paint (Delta); circle punches (Fiskars); corner punch.

And here are a few cards as well. I've been trying to shrink the massive stack of scraps that has accumulated on my scrapbook table. :) I can't ever seem to throw the paper away until it's down to the smallest scrap, unusable for anything else! All part of the obsession I guess!

This house warming card also uses the Abode collection from American Crafts. Aren't those little chipboard houses so cute?

And this one uses some American Crafts Dear Lizzy scraps, AC ribbon, one of those fabulous SRM stickers (really lovin' these for quick easy cards when I don't feel like pulling out the stamps!), and a few random buttons from the button jar.

until next time -

JAG

SRM Sketch challenge

Hello again!

I hope y'all are having a great weekend. I have had a wonderful Saturday, much to the credit of my wonderful husband who did pretty much everything while I took some time to rejuvenate by going to the Lubbock LDS temple.

All in all, a fabulous day!

I wanted to end the week by sharing with you a card that I made for the sketch contest going on at SRM stickers blog.

Here is the sketch by Jenyfur:

SRM featured the new Cosmo Cricket papers with their own fun new stickers on their blog this week, so I thought I would play along and use some Cosmo Cricket papers as well!

For this card I used papers from the Girl Friday collection, it is one of my favorites from Cosmo Cricket. I used SRM's Happy Birthday Sentiment Stickers - aren't those clear stickers cool? My friend Becky is on their DT and gave me a few and I've had to buy a few more because they are so fun!

Happy weekend to you!
If you are like us it is the last one before school starts, so enjoy it! :)

JAG

American Crafts stuff

Hey y'all!

We are back from SA (pictures/stories coming soon!) and things are starting to get back to normal - which I am SOOO grateful for!! - so I thought I would share with you the things I made for the American crafts DT call.

I love these projects, and that is why I like trying for these teams, sometimes it's fun to have a challenge and see what I can stretch myself to come up with!

I used a combination of AC Dear Lizzy, Abode, and Heat Wave on these projects, and everything you see is from American Crafts.

{this 'splish splash' layout is my personal favorite!}

So which one is your favorite? :)

Thanks for stopping by!

JAG

A few new things and family time

Howdy y'all!!

I hope you are having a fabulous week.

Here at the homestead we are trying to cope with being by ourselves after having these fun visitors for a few days:

This is my family! They ALL came to visit for four and a half fun filled days...it was a blast! My grandparents and my uncle, aunt, and cousins joined us for a few of the days as well, so we had quite the houseful! We loved it, though, and so far the after-family-let-down hasn't even been too bad! :)

Monday night before my parents and siblings headed out of town we set up the ol' tripod and attempted some family pictures since everyone was together. It is quite the feat to get that many people all looking at the camera and smiling, but we mostly managed to do it

{as long as you don't notice that Grace has her hand stuck in her belly button :)}. KIDS.....

I will be posting more on the FAMILY BLOG in the next couple of days as I get them edited, if you want to check them out.

And here are a few new things that I've worked up recently:

I love this layout of my chubby bald little girl! I used paper and stickers from the Fly a Kite line from October Afternoon (SO STINKIN" CUTE!) and some American Crafts Thickers, love those, of course.

And a couple of cute cards

to end the day:

Until next time....
JAG

A few cards...and some very pink lip gloss :)

Hello!

I hope Sunday is as beautiful where you are at as it is here! The sun is shining and it is so pretty outside! I think we may need to go sit on the swing on the back porch and just enjoy this beautiful day for a little while!

Well I survived my first weekend scrapbooking retreat last weekend. My friend, Lisa, and I walked in and our mouths dropped! I thought I was pretty crazy about scrapbooking, but apparently there are a lot of women out there who are more crazy about scrapbooking (or, at least collecting scrapping supplies!) than I am! HAHAHA!

Anyway, we really had a great time. I have pictures to show, but I haven't downloaded or edited them yet, so that will have to wait until next time.

Today I just had to share this picture of my daughter:

You like? She is totally a girly girl, pink through and through! She came out yesterday with pink lipgloss everywhere! She applies this stuff several times a day lately, and as you can see it is LOVELY! :)

and now I will get to find out if it comes out of blankets and shirts - fun for me!

And now for a few cards!

These first two thank you cards are for PaperCrafts Gallery Idol Competition. See, while I have very few scrapbooking goals besides, of course, to preserve all these fun memories we make each day, the one thing I would love is to see something I made in a magazine. Just one thing, and I would be happy. :) So I am "trying out" for this competition to get on PaperCrafts submission list...we'll see how it goes!

This first card uses the Juliette line by SEI - these papers are so pretty and elegant. I made the flower by drawing a five inch swirl on the back of the grey paper, cutting it out and scrunching it and wrapping it in a tighter swirl, adding glue as I went. Whalaa!

This next card uses papers from the Cherry Hill line by October afternoon - I love the colors in this line!

And this one is not for the competition, but is just a cute little card I made with some Dear Lizzy scraps and Rub-ons. Isn't that bicycle rub-on so CUTE!? Love it!
It just seemed to need to say Hello!

Thanks for stopping in, and check back soon for pictures of all of the crazy scrapbookin' ladies...oh, and a few of the pages I made once I recovered from my shock at all of the paper and cricut machine chaos!!

JAG

Flower Power

Well my friend Becky said I would get addicted to making these paper flowers... it seems she was right. :)

Here are a few cards I have made recently with the flowers:

This first one is for this weeks American Crafts blog challenge. The challenge was simply to make a card using at least two AC products - easy enough!

I used papers from their Letterbox collection. This is such a pretty line of product!

Supplies: Patterned Paper: brown flourish/pink, yellow/blue, green - American Crafts Letterbox); Cardstock (White - Georgia-Pacific), Accents: (yellow button - SEI), Stamp (Sentiment - American Crafts Sentiment Stamp Set).

This next card I made using some of the scraps from a layout I made a couple of weeks ago.
I love that yellow butterfly paper from Basic Grey - isn't it so pretty?

Supplies: Patterned Paper (yellow butterfly, red floral, polka dot - Basic Grey, Ledger print - My Mind's Eye), Cardstock (pink - Bazzill, kraft - ?, Green - Paper Studio), Stamps: (frame - Prima, Sentiment - Close to My Heart), Accents (chipboard button - Close to my Heart).

Thanks for stopping by today!

Have a happy day!

JAG

Just a few things I'm lovin' lately...

Loving this...

Most afternoons the kids and I spend about 45 minutes cuddled on the couch with a stack of good books...Love it!

Definitely Loving this...

My Gracie girl - she's been especially cuddly and huggy lately, and trust me, you don't want to miss one of these hugs!!

And of course I'm loving some of this...


Spent some of my Christmas $$ on a few new supplies!
I bought the new Sweet Treats cartridge for my Cricut - it is full of cupcakes, fun sayings and other yummy birthday card trimmings!
I definitely recommend this one!
I think I will be getting a lot of use out of it!


And I couldn't resist a few of the new valentines things I found on Two Peas!
I love a good Valentine's day, so I'm getting in the mood! :)
This card uses the new valentine paper kit from K&Company and a stamp from Imaginisce. I love their little Snag 'em stamps - so cute and very affordable!

I hope you have a great day full of things you love!

JAG

Are you ready for a little Old School Scrapbooking?

I hope so, 'cuz here it is!!

I started scrapbooking when I was 13 or 14. I was introduced to it by my friend and her mom....who are now my Sister-in-law and Mother-in-law. Funny how that all worked out. :)

Anyway, needless to say I have been doing this for a while and it is crazy to see how, not only my style, but also scrapbooking in general has evolved in the last 10+ years!

The coolest thing about it, though, is that while styles have changed drastically, I still enjoy looking through these books and relieving all the memories from years ago. My kids got quite the kick out of it too!

The only quiestion I have is why, WHY, did I cut nearly all of the pictures into stars, hearts, and circles?!? That was totally the "cool" thing to do back then - all the stores sold the shape templates and the photo pencils for tracing shapes onto your photos - but looking at them now it drives me a little crazy!

Oh well, on to the pictures.

Try not to laugh too hard, okay? :)

Hahahaha...that is quality stuff there!

Maybe it is a good thing my style has changed A LOT since the beginning! :)

Also, I've been on a bit of a card kick lately, so here are a couple I've made:

The first one is made with an old CTMH kit that I still love - an oldie but a goody in my book!

This next one uses some Making Memories paper and CTMH stamp set "Baby Miracles." I can't resist those cute, chubby, little babies!

Thanks for stopping by my blog!!

June Cards

These are the cards for my June Card workshop that I am holding this week. It will be my final card night before we move. I have been doing this for over two years now, and I will really miss some of the good friends I have made through these workshops.

Thanks to all of those who have come and

supported me over the last two years!!!

This month I used the new Animal Cookies paper from Close To My Heart. It was so fun to work with! I usually don't go for the brighter, primary colors, but I loved this paper! The patterned polka dots are so cute!

I also used the new stamp set "You're a hoot!" - the owls in this set are adorable!- as well as the Good times stamp set, Family Ties children Stamp set, and various alphabet stamps.

Thanks for stopping by! :)

A Few Favorites

I have been working on a mega project the last few days (in the last week I made a 56 page scrapbook for a friend to give to her MIL!) so I haven't created anything new for myself recently, but I had these two favorites from a couple of months ago that I thought I would share now.

This layout uses a sketch from the 52 sketches blog.

It was the perfect sketch for this picture, and I love how it turned out!

Check out the title! :)

And this is my favorite card that I have made recently. I used the Key to my Heart kit from Close to my Heart (Jan. special). I wanted to make a big scalloped border but I don't have the right kind of circle cutter to do it, so I stamped the circle from another stamp set several times right next to each other and then cut them out and layered them under the patterned papers. Turned out cute, don't you think?

Thanks for Looking!