Today is my oldest teen's 17th Birthday. Happy Birthday my sweet Amanda! Here are photos of when she 6 months old and today as she turned 17...

She enjoyed a fun dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with a few friends and Grandma and Grandpa. I can hardly believe she will soon be a high school senior. Where does the time go? And why does it have to move so quickly. Now I know why scrapbook!

Finally...

Such a long time since I last posted. This is a busy time of year for my family. We've had 2 school performances, a huge Social Studies project (Allie received "Honorable Mention" for her diorama!), Mandy has been sick but still sat for a 5-hour SAT test Saturday, and I've had 2 papers due for grad school.
I'm also honored to be on a committee that is planning a farewell part for two faculty members at my daughters' school who are leaving after 20+ years of service. The party is the day before Mother's Day, and we're expecting over 200 guests! On top of that we're in the midst of preparing for a huge remodeling project. Needless to say I've had little time to play with my craft supplies, which is why I am grateful for this April kit from Citrus Tree Studio featuring the 8x8 Making Memories Flutter collection. Here's the kit:

This is a beautifully coordinated line - all the papers work flawlessly together. I decided to use it to make a few quick cards...(poor lighting alert! - a few of these pics reflect the bad weather we've been having. Will retake when the sun decides to come out of hiding...)

The trim and stamps are from my stash but the kit comes with all sorts of pretty doo-dahs and coordinating alphas.

I also used the Painted Prairie April kit to make this quick layout:

Allie worked so hard on her Social Studies diorama. She put in over 20 hours of work and rarely did she ask for help. The finished project won an Honorable Mention at the Humanities Fair. So proud of her effort!

The layout below was actually completed a couple of years ago during a class, but I was excited to have the perfect alphas finally arrive in the Citrus Tree kit for the title - these are fromPrima - love how they accent the photos...I don't have journaling on the front of my layouts, it's usually on the back...don't know why, that's just the way it works out sometimes!

I'm a lucky mom - my two girls love to cook! I really adore Allie's apron...she looks so cute, and wears it all the time!

Thanks for visiting! I appreciate all your kind thoughts and comments. You lift me up and make my day. Hope you are all well. xoxo

Ninja Blog Hop...

I love my blog buddies. I have had the good fortune of meeting the most incredible friends while surfing the net and visiting their blogs. Recently my buddies Melanie, Deb and I wanted to do a scrapping project together, and since we all love kit clubs we thought it would be fun to pick one club, make a few projects, and do a blog hop. Once Deb introduced us to the Pink Ninja Addicts, we decided to use their Carousel kit. What fun club! And Ally, one of the owners, is so incredibly sweet. So if you're here because you're hopping along with us, thanks for visiting! I used the Carousel and Wind-It-Up add-on kits for my projects...
and here is what I came up with: First is this banner:

Here are close-ups of the panels. I made the white flowers from coffee filters and the centers are these cool flowers (and a pin) we got in our kits. I also used two vintage images (from my stash) on each end panel to add visual interest.

Love the cute hat pins in the following pic. The blue crocheted flower is really pretty. This is actually half of the flower -- it was pretty big! I saved the other half for another project... and look at that cute ballerina!

I fell in love with the "glass slipper" Thickers we got in the kit. They are sooooooo pretty in person...soooo pretty!

Notice the "bling" wings on the little girl (love those too!)... and I cut her crown from the Teresa Collins paper that was included...too stinkin' cute!

Here's the mini album I made. I decided that this would be a "sisters" theme album for my two teens. They're growing up so fast and have such different personalities...I hope they always stay close. For the base I used a small children's board book from the dollar section at Target. The cover is all Teresa Collins paper with another set of "bling" angel wings added on each side.

I silhouetted the photos and added the journaling in a "curve" around the images. The triangle page you see below was supposed to be part of the banner, but I decided to use it here. It's called a "tip-in" page, a term from my altered book days wherein you add a page to an already bound book. I'll post a tutorial on this technique if anyone is interested...

and finally I made this little card...hard to photograph since it's so windy here today. I used the lovely chipboard journaling stickers from the add-on kit. Oh my! I fell in love with these (well, it's Prima of course!)

That's it for my projects. Thanks so much for stopping by and if you haven't done so already, please be sure to visit Melanie and Deb's blogs to see their amazing work (really, they are so dang awesome!). This was so fun. I hope you're inspired to do something like this with your blog friends too!

xoxo

Cris

Mojo Monday 113 & CPS 142

Yep...I'm still here. We're all doing our best to work through this flu thing. My girls and I are calling ourselves the "Cunningham Coughing Trio". Trying to make light of a pretty bad situation! I just thank God it's not the swine flu - from what I hear, that's 10 times worse!

When the Advil kicks in and my fever is down, I've been able to take short walks and watch a few movies with the girls. We enjoyed this Janette Oke series and our favorite Jane Austen flicks.

Also managed to fit in a bit of crafting today after we all returned from the doctor's office (I have FOUR prescriptions!!). Here's my take on the current Mojo Monday. This Graphic 45 paper makes me all giddy inside -- it is sooooooo beautiful!

(Cardstock: Stampin' Up; Patterned Paper: Graphic 45; Santa and Jingle Bells image: Graphic 45; Bling: Prima; Lace: my stash)

and I even had enough energy to tackle the current CPS sketch.

(Cardstock: Stampin' Up; Patterned Paper: K&Co-Brenda Walton's Evergreen Paper Pack; Stickles; All images and frame: Coordinating Evergreen die cuts)

OK...time for more chicken soup...

CPS 141

I LOVE Graphic 45 papers! I used the Domestic Goddess line to make this card for CPS 141. Hmm...I just realized as I type this that I neglected to add a sentiment! Ack! This is the last card I'll make at 2:00 in the morning! LOL!!

Here's the sketch:

and my card:

All items from Urban Anthology Oct. 2009 kit

Not the best picture I know, but we've been hard-pressed for sunny weather here lately. Hope you're all well. Thanks for visiting and enjoy your day. xoxo

Mojo Monday Week 110

Not much to post today. I've been so busy with the teens, schoolwork (I'm a part-time grad student) and volunteer commitments that I haven't had time to sit and play with all the goodies I've been accumulating. Ok, truth be told - I've also been spending a lot of my "free" time surfing the net when I probably should be digging into my stash, but hey...what's a girl to do when there's so much eye candy to take in? I frequently visit my friend Christine's lovely blog and have been reading about all the challenges and sketches she's having fun with, so of course I had to try one! I talked my BFF Joyce into joining me on a Mojo Monday attempt and this is what I came up with:




I used the entire contents of the Indigo Sunset kit from Citrus Tree Studio. Love that Kaisercraft Marrakech paper! I also started a mini album with the leftovers that I will hopefully have finished in a couple of days...at least that's the plan. Ok, that it for now (told you it wasn't much. LOL)...Hope you all are enjoying your weekend. I'm going to get back to my web surfing and pretend I'm interested in the football game my hubby is watching! Enjoy your Sunday:-)