C minus 1

It was a BIG day in our house this morning. Cody lost his first tooth today!!!

He was in the playroom and I was fixing lunch. I heard "mom, something just fell out of my mouth." So I walked in. He was holding his hand out with a tooth in it. And so proud of himself.

Not sure I can be so happy though. I was dreading the day we lost our first tooth. He's well on his way to adulthood now.

Can't I just keep them small??

(This bottom photo I tried to do more artistically. I wanted the focus to be on the tooth, not him. I used my manual settings to achieve this).

Super Simple Pages

My scrapbooking philosophy says that sometimes, a super simple page is just fine.

I've had these sitting on my harddrive since April. Somehow I missed sharing them.

You've Taught Me

Last week, on the ClubCK blog there was a one hour contest. The challenge was to make a page about what you've learned from your kids, the catch, do it in less than 60 minutes.

Okay, the ironic thing here for me is, that's not a challenge! I do nearly all my pages in less than 60 minutes. I know, I have a sickness......

But regardless of how much of a challenge it was for me, here is mine.

Supplies from www.jessicasprague.com by Crystal Wilkerson

Worlds Slowest Bowler

Lately, our family has found bowling to be a very enjoyable pasttime. The kids both love it. And it's quite entertaining to watch them.

Aly has an incredible talent. She is extremely slow. I mean EXTREMELY. Think the tortoise & the hare, then slow it down even more. Really.

Today, I caught this shot. Her ball stopped. Yes, STOPPED. This is not a still shot of a ball moving. This is a still shot of a still ball.

Rain Rain?

It's been so rainy this spring, I wanted to do a page about it. I has seriously been all that everyone is talking about.

Unfortunately, I never got around to it. Then I was afraid, being that it's now almost July, I lost my chance. So a couple days ago I tried to get one picture. Not really the look I was going for, but it still tells the story.


I used my photo as the background paper. I applied a texture to it (a free one I downloaded somewhere), with the opacity set pretty low. Then I used a mask on my photo. Just a little journaling and that's it!

Love me some flip flops?

Because we all love our flip flops at summer don't we? And what's summer without them?


I made a quick flip flop SVG file for you. Just click here to download!

Not new, But still exciting!

Remember the mini album I shared last week?

I was making my daily rounds at http://www.clubcreatingkeepsakes.com/ and saw that I had the honor of having it selected by Brittany Beatie to be highlighted this week on the Club CK blog. From the probably 700 items posted each week, to be selected is a TRUE privelege! Thanks so much Brittany!

Gallery Highlights

(I didn't have anything else ready to post today, so you got to see this again! LOL!) Come back tomorrow for another SVG, I'm also working on some more videos for SCAL.

Summer & Sand

I have a quick post today as we have a very busy day. Summer is finally thinking about arriving here (of which I'm not sure I'm happy about). So I thought we should so some summer svgs.

Today I have a sandcastle. It is more of a paper piecing item. I was inspired by the article in CK July/August to handcut a castle and I thought, handcut? why not cricut cut???
Sandcastle SVG

I have a couple more freebies coming this week, along with some videos probably next week.

How To Load the ATG

To some of you, this might be a very boring post. One of my essential tools I use is my ATG. It's a giant adhesive application gun, initially used by framers, then adopted by the scrapbook industry. And let me just say, it comes in mighty handy for applying veneer as well.......

And just to torment me......LOOK.....NOW there is a PINK one.......really?????? Wait, though, a pink one would be much less likely to disappear from my scraptable and end up in the bag of a certain woodworker........Hmmmmmmm.......this is getting more tempting.

Now that I'm done riding wild tangents, I did a video of how to refill the ATG. (might be one you want to bookmark for future reference).

Mini Album Full of Love & Giveaway *Winner*

First of all, a BIG THANKS to all of you for all the super kind things you said about my blog! I know you weren't lying just to bribe me for the prize ;).....

Today I have a mini album to share. I whipped it out in about an hour a couple days ago. But in making it, I used my new border punch! Martha Stewart crafts have redeemed themselves. I wasn't too impressed with the punches I've had, but I picked up a new one at Michael's for 50% off, and it's pretty nice. Of course, for 50% off, I usually am willing to give a little if it doesn't last as long (my last Martha punch died very quickly).

Used that favorite machine of mine, the Bind It All to bind the book.

The paper I used for the album is the Pink Paislee 365 degrees 6x6 pad. I bought it on a whim, without thinking. I liked the paper a lot, so I thought, hmm...I'll buy the smaller pad. But I didn't think about the pattern being the full pattern of the 12x12 paper scaled down to the 6x6 size. Thus, the print was a lot smaller. I'm not big into small prints. Just not my thing. But it works perfectly for mini albums.

It (as well as other 365 degrees products from Pink Paislee) are available on my personal MemoryWorks shopping website.

(I apologize that these pictures aren't as good as I normally try to get. I had to get this out in the mail, so I wasn't able to re-shoot them).

I love a good button (or three) on the cover of a mini album.

I layered some crotcheted ribbon over the arch punch. Yummy!

And now for the winner of the giveaway........Stephanie (froggy530). E-mail me your address & I'll get your goodies out right away!

Thanks everyone for entering. I felt really loved as I read all the kind things you all had to say about my blog. I'm so glad others enjoy it, what started out as a total fluke has become something I really enjoy doing, so I'm glad you enjoy it too! :)

Last Few Freebies

Just a quick post today. I have a couple more freebies for you. Not sure you'll use them or not, I was playing with inkscape and made these funky flower shapes.

Nested Funky Flower
Nested Funky Flower 2
Nested Funky Flower 3

If you haven't entered the giveaway in the previous post, be sure to do so! I'm drawing the winner tonight to announce tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!

Digital Layout "The Arsenol"

Life's more enjoyable when you try to laugh, right?

This year, our weather has been so incredibly mild that misquitoes are worse than normal. No, let me rephrase that. They are MUCH WORSE than normal. No, no, no. I still don't think that was emphatic enough. THEY ARE MUCH WORSE THAN NORMAL.

Sorry that I just yelled at you. I was really trying to yell at the blood sucking creatures who seem to LOVE me. And unfortunately, I just don't return their affection. Not. in. the. least......

Sunday, we ventured to Walmart to buy nearly every potion, posion and whatever other "p" words they had. $70 later I left with my aresenol, even having a complete "compact" set ready for on the road use in my purse.

As it was sitting on my counter, I thought, hmmm.....this would make a kinda funny freeze frame of life at the moment.

So here it is.

Call me a dork. That's fine. I'm happy to be a dork, but at least I can laugh at myself.....smack....sorry, just got another one......

Freebie SVG file - Day 5

.......Before we get to the promised freebie......I'd like to take a moment to thank all of you faithful followers & readers........I hit 30,000 hits yesterday! Yippee!!!! And I couldn't have done it without you (only about 25,000 of them were my own hits.....LOL......Just kidding......)

So to celebrate, I'm having a giveaway! You have three chances to win:

- Leave a comment (with either a blog or e-mail address to contact you)
- Follow (if you already follow, leave another comment saying so, if you're a new follower, leave another comment saying you're new!)
- one more chance here (come on over the the ClubCK boards and comment, sign up if you're not already a member! - there is a free social membership)


Today's freebie is another set of borders. My favorite border punch is my "bracket" border, so I decided to make a digital version. There are three styles here for you to use.

Again, unfortunately, this file is a SCUT file only (meaning you'll need SCAL2). I apologize for any inconvenience.

If you want more info about SCAL2, look to the right on my sidebar. There is a red bracket-ish shape with a link.

Bracket Borders

Here's the next video about using SCAL.



I'll have more coming over the next couple weeks about using the creative parts of SCAL to make your own shapes or how to change shapes.

Freebie SVG file - Day 4

Todays freebie is a border file. I love my borders. If I make them with a punch, or my cricut, I love them.

This file is a SCUT2 file. Meaning, you have to have SCAL2 for it to open. I'm sorry for that, I tried to make it an SVG but inkscape kept giving me grief yesterday.

Arched Border

If you're new to SCAL, I did a video introduction to help get you started. There's a link in my sidebar to the right to take you directly to CraftEdge's website for purchase if you're interested.



Video part 2


Be sure to come back in the next day or two (maybe three), because I'm smelling a giveaway coming......but we have to wait for 30,000 hits :D

Freebie SVG file - Day 3

Back on track for some freebies. Today's was unplanned, but my sister called me and said she needed a clawfoot tub file. After searching for a while on the internet, I couldn't find one. I finally was able to create one that I was somewhat happy with. Here it is.

There are two files, one with an arched back (which I'm going to change into a sleigh come Christmas time), and one that is level.

Clawfoot tub
Clawfoot tub (arched back)

Giant Flower Pom Poms

Okay, I know I said I was going to do a freebie a day. I'm venturing a little different way today. I'm doing a freebie video, does that count ;)......

I will have some more freebie SVG files this week, I was having computer issues today and couldn't get the files to work.

For today though, I'm going to show how I made these giant flower pom poms. I have a baby shower tomorrow night and these are part of the decorations. I know there are kits you can purchase, but they cost about 5 times what making them on your own does.

Come back tomorrow for a freebie SVG file (for use with SCAL & your cricut).

She's A Grand Old Flag

Happy Flag Day.

In the United States, Flag Day is celebrated on June 14. It commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States, which happened that day by resolution of the Second Continental Congress in 1777.

In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day; in August 1949, National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress.
(information from wikipedia.com)

Please take a moment to think about what our country really stands for. Freedom. Liberty. Not promised happiness, but the pursuit of happiness.

(photo courtesy babble.com)

In honor of flag day, here is the SVG file for today. I created it thinking it would look really neat in vinyl on a wall.

Click here to download

Thanks for stopping by. Come back tomorrow and I'll have another SVG file.

Time for a Freebie?

I haven't done any freebies in a while. I think it's time to do some.

I don't have my blog week planned out right now, but at the moment, I'm thinking I'll do a freebie a day this week. Today is a castle.

There's a story behind it. A while ago we were at a garage sale. They had some princess items for sale. Unfortunately, they thought very highly of the items and they were absurdly priced. I think it was $55 for a used plastic castle that I could pick up at Walmart new for around $40?? Well, we had a very disappointed little girl when we told her no.

Being the crafty mom I am, I decided to make one for her. Sadly, I'm only to the point of making the SVG file, but I'm going to share it with you and see if you get any farther than me ;).

click here to download castle

A Little Busy - A Little Crazy....

Let's see if we can cover all the major holidays in one week.....LOL.....

What better paper to use for dying eggs than some super crazy super busy paper that I've had in my stash for a while and couldn't figure out how to use. Not sure I did it right, but it's done! And that's what's important to me :)



We learned this year, that dying brown eggs create some very vivid and beautifully earthy tones. Fortunately for us, our chickens lay brown eggs, but if you can buy some, they dye beautifully!

Ready for Christmas in July?

I know, it's only June! But that gives me a perfect chance to mention that 4th of July weekend, I'll be participating in another blog hop, themed Christmas in July!

So why not celebrate with a Christmas LO??

I snuck this picture of Aly playing under the Christmas tree. I just loved how sweet it was that she was playing with brothers fire truck under the tree.

Something Different

I was in a little bit of creative blockage a couple weeks ago. So I decided to change up my format a little bit. I had these pictures, and it was too many for one page, but not enough for a two page spread. So I decided to try an 8.5 x 11 format.

I kinda like it!

Sweet Baby Girl!

I had the privelege of photographing another new baby this week! She was 8 days old in these photos. And this time, fun fun, a girl! Lots of foo-fooey props to use.



I also had fun applying some textures to the photos as show in the next one.

I can't believe how many babies we've had all in a flood at our church, but how fun it was for me! As long as they are part of another family ;). I'll snuggle 'em and love 'em, and even take a few (okay, a bunch) of pictures. Just enjoying the moments in our house of not babies....and sleep..............

The only thing that would have made this shoot turn out better, would be NOT breaking my favorite lens. Ah well. At least I can say that Robert broke it first. I just happened to re-break it. And re-break it for good.

A new one is on it's way, but none-too-soon.......RIP my favorite Canon 50mm f/1.8..........

Some Days It's

I think the page says all I need to say.....

I Can Count to 31

Another digital page. Someone on the ClubCK message boards said my digital pages are the same style as my paper pages. Yup, pretty much. I don't do digital to do the funky things with it. I don't like it, it's not my style. I like digital to do the word graphics with. It's the text capabilities that intrigues me about digital.

Anyway, here's another page.

Thanks for stopping by!

I'm Behind You

I'm not exactly sure why lately, but I've done some digital pages. (I think it's because I had a couple ideas in my head that had very long titles and those are always much easier to do digital).

Cody took this picture of one of his lego towers this week. I thought it was a perfect picture to do some mushy journaling on (something I'm not terribly good at LOL!)

That's all for now. We're off to the local town festival!

oh, and uh, you want to know who won the Pay It Forward Giveaway?

Congrats, Veronica, Melissa and Christy (Emeraldvalykire)

Chief Joseph Dam * An Amazing Tour

**This post is text heavy. I won't be offended if you don't read it, I journaled it just as much for my own memory keeping as for sharing. **

On Monday, Memorial Day, we had a family day. We like to do things educational of sorts together as a family. We'd been hearing that tours for the season were beginning at Chief Joseph Dam Memorial Day. We decided it was just the thing for us.

Chief Joseph Dam (named after the famous Indain chief, Chief Joseph), is the second highest producer of hydroelectric power in our nation. It is second behind only Grand Coulee Dam (also in our backyard of sorts, both are less than 50 miles away). I know, you might be thinking "what about Hoover?" While it's true that Hoover Dam is a more graceful and beautiful dam, it is not the top producer of electricity. In fact, approx. 31% of all our nations hydroelectric power is generated in WA state.

We were the first people to arrive and after going through all the security. And as the time progressed, we proved to be the ONLY ones on the tour. Yeah!

I did a digital LO of the event. I wasn't able to take any pictures, so I had to get creative to remember all the details for the kids.

And because the kids were very well behaved and we are uber dorks....we got a very special (IMO) tour that lasted just short of 2 hours.

We've toured both Grand Coulee and Hoover Dams and this was by far the best tour we've ever had. Not because of the facts and figures give to us, but because we were able to get up close and personal. It was incredible!

First we took an electric cart past the powerhouse. It is over 2,000 feet long. Amazing. And because of the treaties with the Native Americans, they are allowed to fish from the overhang. It was pretty neat, although no one was fishing at the time.

We went to the spillway and were able to get right to the edge. Very rarely is water passed over the spillway because it is a "run of the river" dam. Meaning it isn't built to hold back a reservior, just to use the power of the water for electricity. The volume of the water coming through rarely exceeds the capabilities of the generators, thus vary rarely is water spilled over. It would be like throwing away money.

Then we went into the spillway structure and took an elevator to the bridge. We were able to stand at the spillway gates. They are AMAZINGLY huge. The whole structure is so big you just don't realize how big each piece is until you stand by it. They are close to 4 stories tall. Amazing.


We went back to the powerhouse then for the best part of the tour. First we watched a video. Nothing special there. But then, then we put on our hardhats and the excitement began!

They are replacing the turbines at the dam. And the process had just begun, but because it was Memorial Day, no one was working, so we were able to go onto the work floor. Once normal work resumes, it will be closed again to the public. We stood on top of an operating generator and felt the vibrations. It was really neat.


Then we went to the bottom of the generator and were able to touch the spinning shaft. Now, this isn't really the bottom, but it was the lowest part we could see. But then we went down more stairs and saw right above the turbine where the levers and gates control the amount of water coming through (thus controlling the amount of power produced).


We also went to one of the generators that was having the turbine replaced. The housing was open so we were able to see the stators. (That is the part that actually generates the electricity - it is very tightly wound copper wires that are on the outside of the casing. As the shaft spins rotor, somehow the electricity is created between the rotor and the stator coils - sorry I'm not good enough with all the terminology to explain it).


We were also able to touch the new turbine going in. We were the first (and maybe only) general public to touch it. And to think that it will soon be put in the generator for 25 or so years with no other general public being able to touch it).


We were able to walk farther into the belly of the powerhouse. It was louder and colder the farther down we went. The dam was built with beautiful 40s and 50s architecture and finishes. But it was interesting that every set of stairs we went down, the structure was less decorative and more utility.


The lowest level we went to was the level of the scroll casing. We were able to look into one of the empty scrollcasings where the turbine was being replaced. The old turbine was already out, so we couldn't see that, but it was really neat to see the empty circular shape that the water is ultimately funned through to power the turbine.


All in all, it was a fantastic tour. We greatly enjoyed it!


The worst part was that I wasn't able to take my camera into the buildings. I took a couple pictures of the outside, but even at that, I wasn't supposed to even have my camera. So it sat lonely on the cart while we toured. The only thing that would have made the day better was to take pictures.


The kids were both troopers. Cody soaked up every detail. He LOVEs this kind of thing. He's my little engineer. Aly was tough. It was lots of walking, lots of up and down stairs. We had no idea it'd be so physical. It was so different than any other dam tour we'd taken, but it was incredible!
Next time though, I'm wearing my running shoes, not my heels! LOL!!

Making Eyes "Pop" In PSE

Here's a couple minute video of what I do to make eye "pop". From all the different tutorials I've watched/seen, it seems there's about a million and a half ways to do it. I took all the knowledge I gleaned from those and made my own way.

It works well for me, and is really simple. Please remember, that I am by NO means a PSE expert. I am self-taught and well, stubborn. So if you find a better way to do it, please use that instead.

And now that I look at this photo, it's not nearly as vivid as I thought. But, you'll get the point anyway.

(Oh, and as I said, I do some post-processing before I start the eyes. No need to reinvent the wheel for that, here is what I do by the incredible Noel Joy.)