My Apologies, a Spider, and Madness!

First off I want to apologize... while listening to my play list the other day I realized there was a rather nasty curse word in one of the songs. I didn't realize it before because apparently I've only listened to the edited version. If you heard it and were offended, I truly apologize!!!! So sorry! Especially if there were little ears in the room. =0(

Now on to the madness that is my life... We went to my grandparent's house this Saturday. That's Maw Maw and Paw Paw Chicken to my kids. (They call them that because my grandparents own chickens, and they have so many sets of grand and great-grand parents they have to keep them separated some how!) We had a really good time, and I got some awesome pictures... one I'm particularly proud of is this one of Brandon through the sprinkler.



This one is pretty funny... Maw Maw bought the kids a sprinkler, and a slip 'n slide. She had this little pool for Brandon, but all of the kids wanted to be in it. Can you say sardines? Hehe Please note that the baby, whom the pool was meant for, is NOT in the pool. There is no room!



So that was a complete blast. I love visiting my grandparents. They are so much fun!!! Friday was eventful as well. Miss Jordan has been in Summer camp riding horses. She won a ribbon for two point (standing up in her stirrups while the horse was going!) Yikes! She did a fabulous job! Here's a photo of my proud graduate!



After we got home from that, Ronnie's sister was watching the kids, and we decided to pull out the chalk and let the kids play on the front porch. Needless to say you know Momma had to play chalk too. LOL Here are the kids and their creation's. (Photos edited to add more saturation. I'm planning a really bright sb page with these!)



Oh in other good news, I'm finally getting a flat bed scanner! Which means better photos to show you all of my layouts! Whoo hoo! And speaking of layouts here's my latest that I did at my very first crop! Can you believe I've been scrapping 4 years and had never been to a crop until Saturday?

So This Is Love
by Miracles_momma
Scrapbook.com

I had an adventure of sorts last night. Once all of the kids were in bed, I settled down in a hot bath to read and relax a bit before bed. Ronnie has already gone to bed, as you can tell by all of the pics it was an insane weekend and he was tired. So I'm sitting there reading my library book, and out of the corner of my eye I see movement. IT WAS A BIG HUGE SPIDER!!! ARGH! I am normally pretty tough, but bugs reduce me to a feminine screaming mess! I hummed my library book at it, and missed. (Not at all a library recommended usage for books I'm sure.) Then I threw a cup at it, which really ticked it off, and it ran and started to hide under the cabinet. I was worried it would escape and bite the kids while they were sleeping, so I jumped soaking wet out of the tub and grabbed the nearest item and smushed it til it was extremely dead and no longer even recognizable as a spider. LOL Care to guess what the closest item was? My poor library book. LOL I washed it off after shivering with the oogies. Yuck spider guts!

Thanks for dropping by and reading my extremely long post today! LOL

Hugs,
Heather

Creating Shrinky Dink Embellishments

Step One: Find some cool clip art to trace.


Step Two: Trace it, perfection is not necessary because it shrinks, any minor mistakes won't be noticeable.


Step Three: Color it. You can use permanent markers, or color pencils. Check your shrinky dink package for other coloring options.


Step Four: Cut it out. I prefer rounding the edges as I cut. It leaves a smoother finished look.


Step Five: Bake according to your packaging's directions because temperatures, and timing vary from each manufacturer.

Step Six: Finished product! (Sorry it looks a bit yellow, I couldn't get an outside photo due to rain, and the lighting in my house leaves much to be desired, but you get the idea!!!)

Sherbert Surpise Digi Freebie Just Because

I was playing around with some vibrant colors and this is what came out of it. I haven't done many digi pages lately, but I'm still working on my husband's album for his Mom for Christmas (which reminds me I still have a ton to do!). My Mom just gave me a box full of my baby and childhood pictures to scan and save. A scrapper's work is never done! I hope you enjoy this heavily textured vibrantly colored paper pack. Here's your preview...



And here's your download link... Please respect my TOU and leave me a comment to let me know what you think!
http://www.4shared.com/file/53207092/c721d55b/MMD-SherbertSurprise.html

Come back in a bit and there will be a tutorial on using shrinky dink to make embellishments for your paper projects! I've been a busy bee this week.

Hugs,
Heather

OMG So excited!!!!

I made it to the top ten in the Scrapbooks Etc. cool journaling and doodling contest that they are running!!!! If you get a minute could you please run over there and vote for me?! I've only got 3 votes! LOL You can only vote once a day. I really appreciate any help in my shameless plea for votes!!!

JUST REALIZED THAT IT DOESN'T TALKE YOU DIRECTLY TO MY LO! I can't link to it directly. You'll have to click on the You are My Sunshine one... Thanks!

http://my.scrapbooksetc.com/app/voting/index.jsp?id=/templatedata/sbe/voting/data/1207926635964.xml&sid=9

Here's what the LO looks like if you are having problems finding it...

You are my SUNSHINE
by Miracles_momma
Scrapbook.com

My Entry to the Gutter Girlz Challenge!

Feel Like a Woman-Gutter Girlz Challenge
by Miracles_momma
Scrapbook.com

If you click on the photo it'll open in a new window... BIGGER. This is for the Gutter Girlz challenge... We had to make a LO about what makes us feel like a woman, incorporating Lyrics from the Shania Twain song " Man I Feel Like a Woman" (I used it for the title.) And we had to use pantyhose on the LO. Well of course since I HATE pantyhose I had to rip mine up to rebel. LOL At least they weren't asking me to wear them. ROFLOL I did all three requirements that they had. It was really fun.

The journaling says... No matter how grungy I am from taking care of 3 kids, if my toes are painted, I feel like a woman. Thanks for looking!!!

Hugs,
Heather

I made a digital freebie.

I am combining my two blogs... keeping up with 2 was too much trouble. LOL So here is my latest digi freebie. I'll be closing my digi freebie blog, and just posting them over here.

This one was a request from my lovely friend Leah, so it's called the Lovely Leah paper pack. She was looking for yellow paper, so here are 6 lightly textured yellow papers. Here's the preview...


And here's your freebie link... http://www.4shared.com/file/52053914/45777371/MMD-LovelyLeah.html

I'm trying out for the Cosmo Cricket Design Team.

I'm trying out for the Cosmo Cricket Design Team. They requested that I post layouts using Cosmo Cricket products on my blog so here they are... Wish me luck!!! Click on the images if you'd like to see the layouts at a larger size. You can check out Cosmo Cricket's products at CosmoCricket.com.

I Saw God Today-May Cosmo Cricket Challenge
by Miracles_momma
Scrapbook.com

Simply Wonderful-Boys Only Challenge
by Miracles_momma
Scrapbook.com

Love Grandkids~ Mini Album for MIL for Mother's Day
by Miracles_momma
Scrapbook.com

My Life
by Miracles_momma
Scrapbook.com

Thanks for stopping by to check out my blog!
Hugs,
Heather

I'm such a klutz, but check out my buttons! LOL

Oh man, I am such a klutz. We went to the pool at the gym for Father's Day yesterday. Going to the pool with three kids is an incredible feat in itself, but when we try to get them out of the pool it's always an adventure. Ronnie was in the pool with all 3 kids, and I got out to get the towels and help the kids out. As I was walking along the side of the pool, I was almost to the edge and whoosh! My foot went out from under me and I very glamorously (NOT!) fell directly on my butt! In front of at least 100 people. I tried to play it off, and pretend no one noticed. The funny part is that Ronnie didn't see it, so I tried to convince myself no one else did. LOL Thankfully nothing but my ego was bruised. =0)

What else did I do this weekend? I finished up a layout in the ugly scrapbook paper challenge. Everyone knows I am Basic Grey's biggest fan right? Well in the Mellow paper pack there was this extremely hideous floral paper that looked like the 70's threw up. LOL So I knew it'd be perfect for the ugly paper challenge. You can click on the image for a bigger view. I tried to pretty it up with some embroidery... but it just wasn't happening. Ugh.

Perfect Pumpkin Pic-Ugly PP Challenge-Two Page LO Challenge
by Miracles_momma
Scrapbook.com

I also made clay buttons from Sculpey clay. Teresa told me how to do it a few months ago, and I just now got around to doing it. I made plain ones, and funky ones too. I had a blast doing it, and even Ronnie helped. Here are some pics of my masterpieces, or not! LOL





I've gotten my teaching schedule for my local scrapbook store Scrappersaurus in Mandeville, La. I'll be teaching Basic Scrapbooking on the second Saturday in July, and then the Saturday after that I'll be teaching Journaling 101 which is a class of my own making. So wish me luck, and hope that I don't get tongue tied and embarrass myself. I can't believe I'M A TEACHER! I also picked up some more materials to make design team layouts for them. I'll be posting those when I get them done.

Everything here has calmed down somewhat, the kids aren't sick anymore which means I get to go to the gym! Yay! Alexis' meds have kicked in and she's much calmer thank GOD! Other than that just the normal Summer stuff. Lounging in the sun and soaking up some rays, reading books, participating in the Summer reading program. Oh, and keeping Brandon from killing himself since he's decided his new hobby is climbing on everything. See below for evidence!



Thanks for stopping by...
Heather

My Fourth Challenge

Here's a photo of how I altered a picture of my son and his grandpa. It wasn't the best photo, and the background was completely distracting, so I just journaled over it with a paint pen. I love how it draws the attention directly to the two of them sharing a laugh. I added a chipboard arrow, and a typed paper saying Grand.

The fourth challenge: Make a morning collage... This one you'll have to decide what to do on your own. You can take photos of all of the things you do as a routine in the morning. Draw a collage on how the morning makes you feel, be creative! And link me when you post your results. I can't wait to see what you do.

We've been doing okay around here except for the fact that Alexis has allergies, and Jordan and Brandon have sinus AND ear infections. I have a sneaking suspicion that Jordan and Brandon shared their sinus infection with me as I'm feeling a bit under the weather myself. I hope everyone else is well. Don't these kids know it's summer time and they aren't supposed to be sick!

Hugs,
Heather

A Scrappy Tutorial {Altering Brads}

Have you ever bought brads that you thought were cute at the time, only to come home and find out that they didn't match anything, or were a funky color up close? Well here are two solutions I've come up with for altering brads.

I've made my own sugared brads here by diluting some Elmer's Craft Bond Memory Book glue with water, and then dipping them in very fine crystal glitter. I let them dry, and it toned down the color of the brads. It also will help add a bit of bling to your project, and honestly who doesn't like bling?! Quick and simple. =0) Remember to only use a thin layer of glue. If you want a thicker coat of glitter you can wait until the first layer completely dries, and repeat the process. After they dry you can lightly dust the excess glitter off with a soft paint brush. Here's the before and after photo.



The second technique involves embossing the brads. I used tweezers to hold my brad and very carefully heated the head of the brad with my heat gun. It's important to make sure you get the sides heated as well. Then I quickly dipped the brad into the color of embossing powder I wanted to use. After that I reheated the brad again until the embossing powder melted and smoothed out over the head of the brad. Like the first process, if you'd like a thicker coat or the embossing powder didn't completely cover the head of the brad, repeat the process. It's very forgiving. Please be careful handling the hot brads with the tweezers {or you'll burn yourself like I did LOL} Here's your before and after photo. You won't see any of the orange once you put them through paper. I can't wait to use them on a project.



Thank you for stopping by to check out my tutorial! I'd love to hear what you thought about it, or if you have an idea or request for a future tutorial I'd love to hear it.

Heather Landry
Miracle's Momma Designs