Scraptastic Kit Club!

Last month I was invited to join the Scraptastic kit club.......I was excited and touched that Jessica (the owner) invited me over ;)

I really enjoyed my down time having no commitments, but I can't deny it.....I looooove to scrap and it's so fun being apart of a community again and being challenged!

The unique thing about this kit club is you don't have to buy a kit every single month.  Plus Jessica has 2 kits and add ons to choose from.  You let her know which one you want, or if you need to take a break you can do that too.  Pretty awesome hu!!!!  She has amazing taste and puts together really great collections. 

I started this month with the Truly, Madly, Deeply kit......here's what I've made with it.

It doesn't get any better:  I cut one side of the paper off and replaced it on the other side to turn the V pattern into a chevron pattern. 

 

oh....my heart:  I used one of the heart die cuts to stamp these yellow hearts with some Prima chalk ink.

The Best Friends:  this ones pretty straight forward with a bit of decorative stitching at one corner.

Swak:  For this one I drew a large heart and simply stitched it with my machine, a bit wonky and all ;)

Paper Issues

Welcome to Paper Issues Spring into the Studio with Studio Calico!

You should have arrived here from  Audrey's blog

If this is your first stop, be sure to head over to Paper Issues to start at the beginning.

  We've got TWO awesome prizes for you, first:  Use promo code PaperIssues20 for 20% off your full order on the first month of a new subscription at Studio Calico, good through 3/10/2013 at midnight EST.

Then, Paper Issues is also giving away a $30 gift card to our store to get all your Studio Calico supplies.....just make sure you leave your comment on the Paper Issues Blog

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Here's a layout using the Darling Dear Collection.

Next up on the hop is Jennie


Thanks for hopping with us today
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and don't forget...........the paper issues shop is loaded with good stuff and you cannot beat this deal!!!  Use my code    CAROL     for 20% off ;)

Using what i got.......

there's an idea!

I love belonging to a kit club and getting that little box of awesomeness in the mail every month.  The only prob......I don't always get around to using it.  I want to....but with some of my past DT obligations they often got set aside.  Since I've been a free-er girl lately I've challenged myself to get those kits and use it!!

So I did.

I took the latest kit from Studio Calico...Block Party.  I wasn't too sure about this one, didn't love some of the papers.  But Once I got started on it I figured out ways to make it work for me.  

These silly girls set up quite the Thanksgiving spread for their American girl dolls one year.  It's the only picture I took and it's not that great, but I had to document this.  It was too cute.  And all the oranges and funky colors in these papers looked great with it.

All these patterns were on the same sheet of paper.  I wasn't sure I liked it until I started cutting them out and pulling the colors I liked.  The big green stripe was my fave and so I pulled these pics of Samantha after a St. Patricks Day party.  I tried to add some green mist to this but in the end didn't like how it looked.....hence the yellow dots to cover them up ;)

This last one was fun and liked all the bright colors.  I adore these pics of my boys....Jack adores his big brother and is always by his side and lovin' on him.  Thank goodness Nathan doesn't mind and I think he likes him quite a bit as well ;)  

The Birthday Hobbit

My baby turned SEVEN last week or two!    Eeeek.....I can't believe how big he is getting.  He's losing that sweet little boy body and growing taller, leaner, losing teeth, reading, doing homework without any help....ahhhhhhhh!  

He's such a funny kid!  He'd been talking about having a Lord of the Rings party for evah......and I was like, how the heck am I supposed to throw that kind of party????  Then he got all weird before his birthday and said he didn't want a party.....or presents!!!!  Wha??????  Who ARE you???  So I kinda quite worrying about it....though feeling like he would regret it.   But the week before his birthday he changed his mind (duh!) and then we got into major last minute party planning!

It turned out awesome though.  All his friends came and we had a blast!   I rely heavily on Pinterest to help me out with my parties and I can tell you, there aint much for this theme.  I was pretty much on my own.  Thank goodness Dad is an expert....he helped me figure most of it out.

Here are the deets ;)

We made our front door into a Hobbit door, using a cardboard box and kraft paper for the door.  Cut a few vines off a plant to make it "cuter"  and added a sign  "NO ADMITTANCE except on party business"  you know, official LOTR verbage ;)  Oh and he's sporting some big dad shoes for his big hobbit feet.

I sewed quick little fabric bags and filled them with these:  Gollums Goodies (swedish fish)  The Ring (peach rings)  Bilbos Biscuits (a pack of peanut butter cracker things)  and some gold coins.  All tied up with twine and kraft tags.

We covered the table with kraft paper, bought ugly paper goods at the dollar store (they looked elvish, gold/green with vines or swirls)  pulled out our old teak wood salad set, an old silk plant fake fruit and gold fish.  The cake was just a bundt cake for that ring shape.  Nothing fancy.  Used the goodie bags for centerpieces.

 

This is one of those things where i said "I'm soooooo glad I saved all that old ugly fabric forever cause I knew I would need it someday!!!"  yep, made a fabric swag out of old ugly fabric ;)  There's a crazy tree peeking out the edge of this photo that I made with kraft paper.  That was it for the decor, easy!

 

So the premise for the party was that they had an adventure to go on, to destroy the ring.  I gave them each a ring to keep safe at the beginning.  First we played pretzel sword fighting on the cliff (the black tarp)  The first persons pretzel to break lost that.

Next, they had to escape the spiders web and climb up the stairs.  On the second set of stairs (that I didn't get pictures of cause I was trapped)  they put on some big shoes and had to climb the rest like a hobbit that has really big feet

Upstairs they were met by an Ork (doug) that they had to shoot with a bow and arrow.  

That was the funnest ;)

Once they made it past all those challenges it was time to destroy the ring!  

Hence, the donut game!!!  They ate that thing up ;)

 MAKE A WISH!!!

Somebody had his two front teeth hanging by a thread that day and lost one during the party.  

Do you see that big hole up there?   ;)

Our wild party crew!!!

Jack has such an amazing group of friends....we are so lucky!! 

He is loved ;)