Cami's Baptism

Well, our last little one was baptized this month, and I am starting to feel that we aren't "young parents" any more!!! With one unbaptized, I always felt that I had a little kiddo, but she is growing up pretty fast. She couldn't wait to turn 8 so that she could be baptized, so I guess I'm glad it is finally here for her!!! She has truly been waiting a long long time (remember how long a year took when you were little?). Anyway, she got dunked, so she is officially a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and she is a happy girl :) We were so blessed to have some family come join us for Cami's special day. Above is her Aunt Carol, who traveled a great distance to come -- thanks Carol!! Below is her Grandma & Grandpa Riggs, who made the 3rd trip to Las Vegas from Hatch in one week! They had a wedding in Ohio that they flew from Vegas to a weekend before, went back to Hatch to take care of the farm, drove back for their grandson's graduation in Boulder City on Wednesday, drove back for a couple of days, and they were back down on Saturday for Cami's baptism -- they are the most dedicated people that I know. We truly are lucky to have such great family members!

Megan and her BYU-I roommate Larissa hug Cami after her baptism.

Our family right after she was baptized.

Cami's Primary Presidency from church were all there to cheer her on! They are the most loving ladies, and help our kids grow up in the Lord.

Cami and Taylor her friend, and Taylor her cousin!

The Riggs extended family that attended, minus Mary, who had to go to work as soon as our first family picture was taken. It includes Aunt Carol, Aunt Bonnie & Uncle Karrl, Grandma & Grandpa, and Aunt Janice and Janika. We love you all for coming!

All in all, it was such a special day. Our little Cami is an angel -- we are so blessed to have her in our lives. We love you Cami!

More "Toy Box" Scrapbook Pages

I finally finished making the "Toy Box" album, at least in getting the pages put mostly together. I'll get pictures, and then finish embellishing. BUT, some of the pages are as embellished as they are going to get -- I love this kit! Too bad it's retired. But as you can see as you check out the three albums that I've posted in the past couple of months, I've used the same basic layout for all Simply Scrappin' Kits. For example, Pages 1 & 2 are the same layout in all three albums, Pages 3 & 4's are the same, etc. This pretty much finishes up this album. Look to a previous post for the pages that aren't listed here.

Page 1 & 2:

Page 7 &8:

I stamped the frogs on Whisper White in Old Olive ink, then placed the vellum over the top. This way I can use it as a journaling block.

Pages 9 & 10:

Pages 17 & 18:

Pages 19 & 20:

Pages 3 & 4:

I'm looking forward to getting pictures on these, and hope that those of you who have made these albums get yours on as well! Happy Scrappin'!

Last day of school! I'm happy and sad...

Well, a day that I dread and celebrate has come and gone once again, and I got by relatively easily! I don't have one graduating from high school, BUT I do have Nikki who is leaving Ruth Fyfe Elementary and moving on to Hyde Park next year -- I'll only have one left in elementary. Weird. I dread the end of the school year because I'll miss my kids' teachers so much, and it is hard to find a way to let them know how much I appreciate all they do for and with my kiddos. BUT I am happy because I love my kids being home! It is a reprieve from all the driving here and there to concerts, sporting events, dinners, etc. etc. etc. I love the activities during the school year, but it also nice to have a break from them! Happy and sad.....So below is Nikki getting her straight "A" Honor Roll award, and to brag on her just a bit, she also got the Top AR Reader for her entire school -- way to go Nikki! She is following in her sister Lizzy's footsteps, and I am so proud of her. I should have cropped the picture above, but oh well! My friend told me pictures from the back of the room are better, but with my little cheap-o camera, I found that I couldn't zoom in without getting fuzzy pics. So, Nikki is in the middle shaking her teacher's hand and getting her award. Below, Nikki & I made these little jars for her 3 female teachers (they rotate classes in 5th grade in our school). Nikki did the vinyl flowers, and I made the flowers on the sticks. I've seen these for years on blogs and at convention, but never actually made them myself. EASY, cute and quick to do -- we whipped these out in under an hour. Good thing too since we made them this morning :)

The flowers are 2 punched pieces of DSP, glued to the stick, and have 3 dimensionals between them to keep them sturdy and separated. I put beans in the bottom to hold the sticks (I thought they looked a little like dirt, so it works for the flower theme). The teachers loved them, and Nikki signed the back of the yellow flower. I just wish that I would have put some ribbon around the tops of the jars. I purchased the 3 jars at Wal-Mart --they come packaged together in a 3-pack.

Above, Nikki and her friends together for the last time (at least through middle school -- they could all end up at the same high school). With all the magnet schools, they are going their separate ways. Most of these girls have known each other since they were in kindergarten or before. Below, Cami with her two teachers -- they team taught, and have for a while. They are so so so wonderful with their students, and I learned to love them! They let us come in to the classroom on Friday (for Cami's birthday) and teach the class how to make homemade rootbeer and homemade ice cream. And Will did a magic show while the root beer was "cooking". Such a fun day. Got to love teachers that let kids really learn.

Thanks to all teachers out there who do their job because you love it -- we all know it isn't for the money! One reason we have stayed in Las Vegas is because we have found that about 95% (or more!) of the teachers who have taught our children are great, loving people who do their job very well. Thank you, thank you teachers and administrators who do the right thing for the right reason! You make a huge difference in our children's lives!

Toy Box Simply Scrappin pages

Here are 4 double page spreads that follow the Scrap Map from our Scrapbook class:

Pages 5 & 6:
Pages 15 & 16, flipped flopped (I couldn't decide which way I like them best):

Un-flip/flopped:

Pages 21 & 22:

Pages 13 & 14:

I used the Sticky Die Strip instead of ribbon on this layout. It's been fun looking at the map and making it fit in a different way for each Simply Scrappin' Kit! I will soon have the Scrap Map's for sale!

Stamps: Toy Box (retired)

Cardstock & Ink: Not Quite Navy, Summer Sun, Old Olive, Whisper White, Real Red

Accessories: Stampin' Pastels (chalks) to color in the airplanes, Old Olive Marker, White gel pen.

Scrapbook Album Class

I have had the best time the last couple of weeks getting ready for a scrapbook class, because it made me get one of my own put together so that we could have a sample for each layout. Getting prepared was unique to me because each person could pick which Simply Scrappin' Kit they wanted, and we just tweaked each one to match the layout's "Scrap Map" (which I will be providing to each attendee, by the way -- I've got them drawn out, but need to make them bigger, I've been told :) Most were making baby albums, using "Love Sparkles" for the baby girl albums, and "Happy B'day" for the baby boy albums. I will post pictures of their albums at a later date, but two of my ladies are using a retired kit, "Toy Box", and I am making one as well, so will be posting those pictures as I get them done.
I labeled each layout by the pages, so I am putting them on in order. I will make a complete list of what I used at the end, but if something is unique to a certain layout, I will make a note. Sorry that I didn't crop the pictures to get rid of most of the wall, but I'm getting ready to go to my nephew's graduation, but wanted these posted first! Here we go:

Oh, I found out that if you click to make the pictures big, and then click on it again once it is big, you can get an even closer picture. So click twice on each to get the "big picture" -- get it??? :)

Pages 1 & 2:

When you click on these so that you can see them bigger, you will see that we used the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder in the Big Shot on the widest Kraft CS. We rolled it from each end of the piece, and covered the part that wasn't embossed with stickers from the Simply Scrappin' Kit. This kit is a retired one, by the way, from last year's catalog called "Tie the Knot".

Pages 3 & 4:
Pages 5 & 6:
These pages were stamped with the Priceless set in Versamark, and embossed with clear emboss powder. Easy, breezy and so pretty!

Pages 7 & 8:

The hearts are stamped on Whisper White, and covered with vellum paper so that it makes a journaling block. We adhered the vellum with brads.

Pages 9 & 10:

We created our own patterned paper using the Priceless set and Pretty in Pink Craft ink. The lighter pink is the craft ink without embossing powder, just heat set. The darker pink is from using craft ink with clear embossing powder. Don't know if you can tell from the picture, but it is so pretty in real life because we used textured cardstock, and edged it with a sponge, and the texture picks up beautifully.

Pages 11 & 12:

Pages 13 & 14:

If you haven't noticed, I used the pattern from Boston's baby scrapbook, and adjusted them into 12 X 12 pages. This layout has to be one of my favorites! I loved the ducks going across in Boston's book, and I love love love these butterflies embossed across the top of this layout! It adds elegance -- gotta love Versmark & Clear embossing powder!!!

Pages 15 & 16:

Using the corner rounder punch on the two vanilla pieces here really add to the pages. It was fun to see how my ladies used their stickers to fill in the gaps on this layout -- they are so creative. I just love these kits!

Pages 17 & 18:

We wove ribbon through our cardstock using the double rectangle punch technique. I just saw that this punch is retiring from the current catalog at the end of the month, so get one now if you want to ever do this great technique. And I love danglies on my cards or pages, so this is one of my favorite layouts.

Pages 19 & 20:

Love double-sided DSP! Makes turning down a corner beautiful.

Pages 21 & 22:

Another of my favorite layouts!!! Simple, but elegant. Hope my hubby doesn't mind butterflies in our wedding album :) I'll use these pages for "pictures of the bride" -- should work!

Pages 23 & 24:

Stamp Sets: Priceless

Cardstock: Kraft, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, DSP from the Tie the Knot Simply Scrappin' Kit, Vellum Paper

Ink: Versamark, Pretty in Pink Craft, Pretty in Pink, Certainly, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa Classic Inks

Accessories: Silver and Crystal Brads, Sponges; Double Rectangle, Heart to Heart, Photo Corners, Scallop Border Trim, Scallop Circle and Corner Rounder Punches; Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Beautiful Wings Embosslit die, Go Go Boots Alphabet Sizzlet Dies, Big Shot, Certainly Celery 5/8" Grosgrain ribbon, Dimensionals.

Great project, and now I get to add pictures!!! I'm working on the Toy Box kit first, and will get some of those pictures soon. Plus will add pictures using the other kits as well when I get them.

Boston's 1st Year Scrapbook

Another reason it's been so long since I've posted! I worked on Boston's scrapbook for a couple of weeks -- what a fun thing to do! It has been a long time since I completed a scrapbook -- I usually do pages here and there, but this has been very rewarding :)

I took this page from the front cover of the Milestones & Moments Simply Scrappin' Kit -- don't you love the flower?!! I loved this idea and couldn't wait to make it mine. This is an 8 1/2 X 11 scrapbook, and many of the page layouts I adjusted from layout ideas off of Splitcoast (splitcoaststampers.com). A major thank you to all of you who post out there! I will post mine as well, and hopefully will make someone else's job easier like you all did mine. I had the actual idea pages so that I could give credit back where it is due, but have no idea where they went now -- I might have thrown them away :( So although a few are my own idea, about 2/3 are ideas taken from others. Thanks again for your creativity and for sharing.

The colors I'm using are So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Basic Gray, Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise and Regal Rose. All the other things I used I'll list at the end. The feet below are stamped on Whisper White, and covered with vellum paper, attached with brads. It is so cute, and can be used for journaling.

This layout below uses paper from retired DSP pack Sweet Always, as well as the 1st page of the scrapbook. The stamps above, "I'm Here" are retired as well, but how can you make a baby album without them???

Mary helped me with some of the pages, and this below was her favorite. She loved cutting out the little hands :)

On the hands above, I finally tried a technique that I'd heard of but hadn't tested until now, and it works! Embossing with Versamark and Classic ink and Clear embossing powder -- a bit lighter color than usual, but it totally worked! You stamp in Versamark, then directly go to your classic ink pad color of choice, then stamp it on cardstock, and emboss with clear powder! I love learning new stuff :)

Above, Amber actually embossed these chickies for me. We were stamping together in the hospital -- I was finishing up the scrapbook, and she was finishing thank you cards. It was fun!

Stamps: Nursury Necessities, Happy Everything, I'm Here (retired), Fifth Avenue Floral, Baroque Motifs, Little Feet Wheel (retired)

Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Basic Gray, So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Regal Rose

Cardstock: Same as above

Accessories: Moments & Milestones Simply Scrappin' Kit, Clear Embossing Powder, Various punches, brads, Go Go Boots Sizzlet Alphabet Dies, Big Shot