Memorial Day

Today.

Today I honor my brother, who served with the Marine Corps in Iraq. He had a hard service. He was assigned to a reconnaissance mission, not to a base. He slept in tents; he ate MREs; he patrolled in towns; he helped rebuild schools. He befriended Iraqi children. And he lost his friends. War is ugly but I am blessed with a brother who has a beautiful soul and a deep devotion to those he loves. This is the kind of men and women serving our country today.

 

Today I honor my father, who was drafted into the Army, but volunteered for the Marines during the Vietnam War. He was in the infantry, a foot soldier. The stories he told me about the war were of the camaraderie of his buddies or funny things about the young villagers. He never spoke of the ugliness he saw. He didn’t expect to make it back. We’re all blessed that he did.

 

Today I honor by grandfather who served in World War II. He was in the Army and fought in the Battle of the Bulge, where he was wounded and awarded the purple heart. He was the hardest worker I ever knew. He could do anything with his hands. He loved his wife. He provided for his family. He held his grandchildren close. He was a great man and I miss him.

 

 

Today. Today, I lift up our men and women in service. Today, I grieve for the fallen. Today, I swell with pride that I come from a family whose fathers and sons and brothers have fought for our freedoms.

Today, I honor and today, I remember.  And tomorrow, I will too.

Banners and Pennants with Echo Park Paper

I was so excited when Echo Park Paper debuted last year and I get a thrill each time I see a peek at a new release. I’m giddy at the moment due to upcoming release of Country Drive. Eeeeee. While I wait, not so patiently, for its release, I made some layouts featuring banners with a few of my favorite EP collections.

My little boy is a bit obsessed with cars.  I'm told this is a stage boys and men never outgrow!  Echo Park's Little Boy collection seemed to be made just for me, or rather, just for my little boy. I especially loved the stickers sheet of trains, planes, boats and cars. So cute. I used Little Boy mixed with a bit of Wintertime for this page of my son absorbed in play. It’s called “At The Track.”

When EP came out with a line called, Playground, well, I couldn’t resist. I love that the EP lines include soft, lightly patterned papers on the flip side of their whimsical patterns. Here, I used the backside of “Capture The Flag” as the base of my page. I also added stickers and a journaling card from the Playground line. Under the main pic, I added a little border of Springtime and for my banner, I used one of EP’s debut lines, A Walk in the Park.

I love using banners. Oh, I hope this trend doesn't go out of style!  Banners and pennants give such a whimsy touch to boy pages.

It's the most wonderful time....of the year!

Forget Christmas; CHA is my favorite time of year! I love to see all the sneak peeks from my favorite manufacturers. Here are some of the things that especially caught my eye:

Bella Blvd has some cute new lines and stamps to boot. I think this Mr. Boy line and Family Dynamix stamps are great.

Cosmo Cricket always has fun and whimsical pages. I know I’ll be using a lot of its Sea Garden for summer pages. I’m also digging CC’s new Grubers. A fabulous new concept in embellie-making.

Little Yellow Bicycle always has the most darling baby lines. I’ve only seen a little peek, but I already know I love Babysaurus.

　 

Maya Road carries the best chipboard in the biz. I love that it’s raw and open for altering any way we choose. So many terrific new chippies. Here’s one:



And Websters Pages. Wow, their sneaks are never ending and each just fabulous. Can’t wait til they make their way to a store near me.

The Kit Kat "Gingerbread" House - Crafts With Kids

I remember as a small child being so excited to make a gingerbread house with my Grandma. Then being disappointed that it tasted so awful! So this Christmas, I wanted to make a holiday house with my toddler that would be fun to make, pretty to see and yummy to eat. So, I settled upon making a “gingerbread” house using kit kat bars, a family favorite.

To make the house, I drew a template on the back of a cereal box. I measured it so that the house was two kit kat bars long (on each side) and one kit kat bar wide (for the front and back of the house) with a roof that was 1/2 a kit kat high. Then I cut out the template and taped it together to form a house. With this design, I needed 8 Kit Kat bars.

I used a tube of white Wilton icing to “glue” the Kit Kat bars to the house and roof. Then, I began decorating. I used mini Hershey bars, peppermint Lifesavers, sour twists and M&Ms. I decorated the house by adding paper snowflakes to the roof and a snowman to the yard. I placed the house on a sheet of patterned paper which I had covered in modge podge to prevent the candy oils from seeping onto the paper. After the paper dried, I glued it to cardboard to make a sturdy “yard” for the house.

 

I used patterned paper from Little Yellow Bicycle, the Savor line, for the yard, snowman and snowflakes. If you have any questions about this project, feel free to contact me.