Get Picky June Inspiration & Prize!

The June inspiration challenge is up at Get Picky along with a prize!

Be sure to check out the DT takes on this poster....it's fun to see how differently we all interpreted it.

 I decided to pull from the color scheme of the blues and yellows, with a touch of brown.

I've had this fun tissue paper from Pink Paislee I wanted to use and just kinda scrunched it and glued it down over some stamping that i did.  Nothing too genius but I like the loose wrinkly look of it.  The tag sticking out of the pocket has the journaling about this fun little self photo shoot with Jack ;)

Now on to the BIG prize!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everyone who enters the inspiration challenge this month will go into a random drawing for all this yummy Sassafrass goodness!!!!

                                                                   Included in the prize:

• Sassafras Paper Crush Collection Kit (12 double sided papers, 1 sheet of glitter alpha stickers, 1 sheet of die cut journalling tag stickers, 1 sheet of cardstock "Sweet Treat" stickers)
• Sassafras Ellie's Tale Collection Kit (12 double sided papers, 1 sheet of mini alpha stickers, 1 sheet of die cut journalling tag stickers, 1 sheet of cardstock "Sweet Treat" stickers)
• Sassafras "Ellie's Pick" Foldies
• Sassafras Ellie's Tale Flag Banner Sticker Sheet

So be sure to submit your layout girls!!!!!

Go to Get Picky for ALL the details!!!!

A Quick Layout

We did a fun little photo swap at My Scrapbook Nook this month.
Traded pictures with another scrapper.

I got these adorable pictures (helloooo phone booth??!!!!!....how cute is that!)

I had so much fun with this layout!!!
Loved the bright colors. 
I pulled out some trusty old tissue paper and sewed a little ruffle.

I've got quite a mix of product on here, but the yellow is Pink Paislee, Daily Junque.
Everything else is just random bits.

I sure hope Lisa likes it ;)

My First Book!

Over a year ago I submitted some layouts to a book publication.
It was my first submission...evah!
They accepted 4 of my layouts....I was so excited (eeek! still excited!)
Then 13 long months passed.......and finally, the book....and my layouts were dropped on my doorstep!

It's so funnnnnn!

Here's a link to "The Big Book of Scrapbook Pages"

...and here are the pages that are published in the book ;)

When Nathan saw the book and looked up my pages he joked that I didn't have any of him in there!  Said I didn't love him!!!  He was totally kidding....but I think he would have gotten a kick out of it ;)

Next time he balks at me taking his picture I'll have to remind him it's the only chance he's got to be famous!!!!!

More School!

Thought I'd wrap up the whole school thingy....
seeing as how it's summer ;)

The kids did really well this year, I'm so proud of them.
Nathan worked really hard and took things seriously.....he's happy to be free of middle school.
Here he is at his award ceremony...doesn't he look handsome?? ....and tall?????

 The exchange....

 On to Samantha!  She has graduated from second grade...she did so great, straight A's!! Loved her teacher and had a fun year....which is saying something....school aint her fave...but she does work hard.
I love that she plans out her outfit and wants her hair just right!  She loves looking her best!

 And then we have Kristen.
She is our little lover of school.....wishes she could go every.single.day.
I can.not. believe this little thing will be starting middle school....I hope they don't eat her alive!!!!

 She got just about every award there was to get!
Most importantly....The Great American Award.
Out of the entire 5th grade class there were only 27 that earned this one.
The kids had to memorize the Gettysburg Address, The Preamble to the Constitution, ALL the Presidents, The Star Spangled Banner...and lots more, pretty much everything American!

She was amazing and had it done before Christmas.  There's her little trophy and her folder with all her awards in it!  She is going to be our school teacher!

***************************************

Summer is in full swing around here....haven't quite worked up a routine yet.....hmmmm.
There's always this week!

The Last Preschool Class.....ever.

insert tears ;(

my baby graduated from preschool a few weeks ago.

He's sooooooo excited for kindy!!!

He was over preschool...big time.

Figured he had learned everything there was to learn.

So happy he had a great year!

He loved his class and all his little buddies.

 Just look at him sittin' there all cute like!

 We loooooove Miss Heather ;)

Jack with his ex-fiance......good thing they are still friends though ;)

They were engaged for quite some time, even giggled at the thought of having to kiss each other when they got married.  Emily eventually decided she just wasn't ready to make a commitment and dumped him!

Recently Jack asked me who his mom was going to be when he was a daddy.  (I've never had a kid this obsessed with the whole marriage idea!)  I assumed he meant who the "mom" was going to be to his kids, so I explained to him that the mom would be who ever he decided to marry.  Then he said he wished he could see how many babies a girl had in her stomach before he married her!  Like they come pre-planted!!!!!  Hahahahahaa......I'm still laughing over his confusion over the whole thing!

This kid really thinks about stuff let me tell you!!!

Kindergarten here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Watch out!

Get Picky June Sketch

We are way busy at casa de Monson this week.....cleaning out and reorganizing so we can play this summer!!!  It is feeling good.  But I really need to blog bunches of stuff.....I am going to work on that this week too!  We are all about gettin' her done right now!!!

So for now I will share the June sketch at Get Picky with you.  I had these wallet size Halloween pictures that I'd been hanging onto and decided they were perfect.  I ended up doing 2 layouts based on this sketch...both very different!

 

I took some liberties with this one and used 3 photo's that I stacked on each other.  I still can't decide if I'm completely happy with how this looks, the pictures show well in person but here on line they look a little lost.  I may go back and pop that top picture with a darker background, we'll see ;)

"Ready For Tricks!"

 

 This one is pretty much consistent with the sketch.  I love how clean it feels.

 It's occurred to me just now that I think I will add a continuing title on this page to connect it to the first layout...."and treats"  they will be next to each other in my album so I think that will look cute ;)

Happy Summer Day!!!!!

The Latest Kit at The Nook

I can hardly believe it's June already!!!!!
Can you?????
Don't know where the year has gone!
I got the June kit from My Scrapbook Nook recently.
It was so easy to work with, I've whipped out quite a few projects already!

This kit has a lot of purple in it...which is not a color I normally scrap with,  but it's such a pretty combination in this kit.  And with that being one of Samantha's favorite colors I knew I would have no trouble coming up with pictures that have been waiting for some purple paper!!!

This one of Samantha was a loner pic.  Didn't really have any others to go with it.  But I loved it, loved the lighting and the pretty smile on her face.  So I did a "just because" page.  Scrapping the lonely picture just because it's so pretty.  Plus I loved all the prints in this kit and wanted to be able to see them all together ;)

Another loner.  I always feel guilty scrapping one photo....but sometimes, it's all I got!  This is an old one of the 3 kids on a 4th of July.  Pre-digi even.  Not the best photo, a little dark, a little dull.  But I remember this day...it was so fun and I wanted to mark it.

 I nearly forgot I had these pics.  Was cruising through my on-line stash one day and came across them.  Couldn't believe I had forgotten about them.  She looks so pretty.  She blows me away.  First day of first grade....so you know she planned the outfit, the hair...the whole look ;)

Another Samantha....what can I say, her and purple just go together ;)
This is her on her 3rd birthday....a Dora Party.  I've got a few more pics of this party I want to scrap with this kit, we'll see if I get to them.

 .....and finally, one last little project!  For the 4th of July.  Besides all the purple, this kit has this gorgeous blue and red in it.  I thought it would make for a fun little vintagy pinwheel decoration ;)  I need to get some white beans or something for these jars....they just look so naked!

So there you have it!  Lily Bee is at the Nook this month!!!
To see more loveliness from the Design Team and members hop on over to the gallery ;)

Get Picky Inspiration!

It's that time of the month again (hahahaahaha....not that!)
It's inspiration time!!!!
At my favorite sketch blog......Get Picky!!!
I loved the prompt this last month.

As scrappers we tend to drool all over everybody else in our lives and scrap them..but we don't often scrap ourselves.  This months challenge was to scrap a layout about ourselves based on this quote:

 This happened to be a good one for me.......lets be honest here, some of you know it's not been a good year for me.  My health issues have left me down in the dumps.  I'm sick of feeling like one big diseased mess pot.
Maybe it was the winter blues or just all the stress of everything....but I am feeling better about things right now and I'm ready to get out of this slump.  

For this layout I titled it "Finding Joy in the Journey....everyday" and then journaled about how I've been feeling about myself and how I want to make every day count a little more than I have been.    I took these pictures of myself a few months ago after having my hair done......because I don't normally look this good!  I'm lazy....I pony tail it nearly every day.

So I challenge YOU....head on over to Get Picky and play along.  Hopefully you'll end up with a layout you cherish ;)

First Fake Family Campout!

We had BIG plans this last weekend.
Take the whole fam on a camp out.
Never done it before!!!!  Seriously, can't believe that.
The boys have been, Doug and I used to camp all.the.time before we had kids.
Then nothing.

So we got ready.
Made our plans.
Then the weather decided it should turn cold and SNOW up in the mountains.
I mean, I know it's still wintery in lots of places, but come on, this is Vegas.
We've already started swimming!

2 out of 4 kids were devastated.
We couldn't go...it would just be too miserable and cold.
So we did the next best thing.
We camped at home!!!

 The kids helped to set up the tent in the back yard.

 Then they set up all the sleeping bags and tried them out ;)

 It was VERY exciting!!!!

 They hung out, even the American Girl dolls made a showing.

 Cards were played.

 And someone didn't even make it till dark.

 We roasted our marshmallows in the grill.

 Made yummy S'mores ;)

Nice and tall!!!
Then we eventually went to sleep.
It was windy and cold, even in our back yard.
The ground......got r.e.a.l.l.y. hard.
I slept like crap.
At sunrise, I grabbed my pillow and headed into the house to my own bed and slept for several more hours.
I could have slept all day.
I must be too old for this!
I think I'll need to prepare my bed better next time.
Like find a mattress or something!

The kids had such a great time the girls decided to sleep in the tent the next night....by.them.selves.
and their American Girl Dolls.
Don't they look brave???
Don't they look like they'll last all night out there????

Less than an hour later they were back in the house crawling in their own beds.
Apparently it was too scary outside by themselves.
Duh.

Hopefully in a few weeks we can make another attempt at our first camp out....away from home ;)