Bad news today. :(

My dad called this morning and told me that my uncle Joe has lung cancer. He'd been feeling off since Christmas and went in and it was cancer. Their mom, my grandma died of lung cancer so we are all a little scared.
Dad called tonight and Joe is coming up on Tuesday for more tests. We'll find out then how serious it is and if it has spread or anything. He went to bed early tonight because he felt so weak and my dad is really upset. I also just ache for his boys, my cousins, they are devastated. Uncle Joe is just such a fantastic person. He's caring and non-judgemental, easy-going and warm. He and my Aunt Linda are just a joy to be around.

I know this isn't the most coherent or fun post I've made but, if you could all just say a little prayer or think some good thoughts towards my uncle, I'd be forever grateful.

Thank you,

Erica

It was great!!!

I loved the Queen & Co. class!!! Cute idea for an album and they give you a TON, I mean a TON of product!!!! Three packs of the 3" wide felt fusion, two packs of brads, a pack of photo turns, a pack of sequins and a pack of chipboard, circle alphas. I'm used to a class where they say, "And, here are your three black brads..." LOL!!!

Mike was a great teacher. It was a beginner class but, I took it mainly for the motivation to actually use the product, so that worked for me. :D My only complaint was that color of the orange cardstock they used for the album cover and some of the accents was off. The base of the album is kraft colored cardstock and the patterned paper was from Scenic Route's Metropolis line and the orange they used just was too strong. But, since they gave us so much extra product, I can make a few more albums and just use the one I made as an idea. :D

I just added it up, and if I went and bought all their embellies full price it would cost me $31.00!!! Freakin' amazing for a $15.00 class!! :D

After class, I went back over to the registration area to check out the class samples and was sucked into the CK booth, which was open for business. I got Tracy White's "A Journaler's Handbook" for $10.00, a cute chipboard album kit leftover from a previous convention for $5.00 and then I found some cute Lil Davis chipboard alphas for $10.00, too! There are four styles, 80 letters per style and they are flocked!!! Super cute!

Well, that's all I can write for tonight. I've got to get ready for tomorrow!!! :D

Getting excited!!!

Tonight is my first class for CKC-Portland. I'm taking a class from Queen & Co. called Felt Fusion Mini Album. I love that felt and have a lot of it and only used it on one card!!! Hello, talk about intimidated. I'm hoping this class would get me over that. :D

Be brave, Erica, be brave!!! LOL!!!

February Fresh Pages

Remember this little guy?


Well, here he is along with a picture of my favorite little guy right before his first haircut. :D I stamped the frame with the tail feathers from the bird stamp in the January kit and then painted over it with Making Memories paint. I used the same paint for the owls feathers and some cream paint for his eyes and chest feathers. The journaling lines were stamped with a Rusty Pickle stamp and then matted with paper from the kit. The leaf accent was cut out and pop-dotted for a little more dimension. :D
Journaling reads, "It was really hard for me to take you in to get your first hair cut. I kept putting it off and putting it off and putting it off. I’ve loved every stage you’ve gone through so far and while I am looking forward to watching you grow up…I’m in no hurry. So, I was very glad to get this last look at my baby."


Here is little man doing his baby yoga. I wrote the journaling on there in the vanishing ink pen from American Crafts and I took the picture before I re-wrote it. It's on the green cardstock and follows the line of the bottom the patterned paper. It says, "Yoga babies are known by their need to crawl out of their pants in order to perform the more advanced baby yoga moves."

(I still have a hard time keeping pants on my skinny little guy! He just walks out of them now!)

And, the last layout I made with the Grande 1/2 Sweet kit from Fresh Pages is called Apple Jacker. I ran out of L's and so had to improvise with a couple of I's. The leaf is actually part of the photo mat patterned paper. I just cut around it to make the mat and then cut around the inside to slip my photo under.

The journaling reads, "I only set it down for a minute and yet, when I turned back around this was the sight that greeted me, Mickey chomping away at my apple! I figured he wouldn’t go for it because before this he’d only had sliced apples. But now, no apple is safe from the clutches of Mickey Hettwer, Apple Jacker extraordinaire!"

I made this little card as a thank you for future Mickey babysitters. (The fam loves getting cards with his picture on them!) :D The dots are actually the punctuation from the set of brown Thickers painted with my new Tim Holtz paint. Love that stuff!!!

And, I really like making my cards orient this way. Just a little more fun! :D

Finally, I altered this little notebook with the Love, Elsie fabric paper in the kit. I'd never actually played with it before and it's pretty darn cool! :D I painted the Thickers with same Tim Holtz paint as the card and backed them with yellow cardstock to matche the elastic band that holds the book closed.

The paper inside is super thick and the post comes unscrewed so I can add more if I need to.

Here's what it looked like before I altered it.

(This would be why I got it for about a buck on clearance at Fred Meyer! LOL!)

Recent Scrappy Projects

This is the project I've been working on most recently. It's a shower gift for my college roommate, Yvonne. Her shower was a week ago Sunday and I haven't done a darn thing since. I think I was just too bummed about about missing her shower. Little man got a stomach bug from the gym daycare and then gave it to me. I was so upset about missing her shower. I called her that morning, crying. She is such a fantastic friend and did so much for my shower and then, I couldn't even go to hers. I felt like such a chump.

Anyway, she's having a little boy, Connor, and her due date is the end of March. Her nursery colors are slate blue and chocolate brown with monkeys. So, I made some goodies for Connor and his room. :D

First off, he's getting a set of blocks with his name on them. (I didn't take a picture of just the blocks and I have no idea why not.) They actually turned out pretty good for my first time altering blocks. :D

Oh, and here's the card I made for the shower. I got the idea from a pillow with a flower made of buttons.

This is a nametag for Connor's diaper bag. Yvonne can put a photo of Connor or instructions for the babysitter on the other side.

This lovely little frame is one I made following a tutorial from Samantha. She used ribbons on the seam between the papers but, I think the buttons work best for a boy. ;)

Oh, and here's a little extra I made a while ago. It's the card I made for my RAK winners! I used the same striped paper altering a Target mailbox and it inspired the rest of the card. Oh, and that cute little white paper is from a Martha Stewart kit I got on clearance at Mike's. It's was actually a kit to make napkin rings and such. I think this is a much better use, don't you?

MIA

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, I promise! Just a little busy with some family stuff and friend stuff. I do have some scrappy goodness to share soon, though! Tonight or tomorrow, I'll post my DT stuff from Fresh Pages February kit. Also, I made some goodies for my college roommate's baby shower. Can't wait to show you!!

We're off to the eye doctor for a check up for Mickey a little later this morning. Andrew's side of the family has a history of lazy eye and I had crossed eyes as a kid. So, he had to see the doc six months ago and of course, the doctor couldn't really tell so we had to schedule this check up. I did e-mail some pics to the doc after our first appointment so he could finally see what I was concerned about.

Oh, and I promised my CKMB croppin' buddies that I'd do a tutorial for a mini-book. Wow, I'd better get cracking!!! :D

Been Tagged!

Three times!!! Chrispea, angela and tigardlilly have all "tagged" me and so here are some things about me that go with the letters of my middle name.

B-Baller-I played soccer for seven years as a kid. I mainly played defense because I have no ball handling skills, just a big foot and the ability to knock over all the little forwards that were about a half a foot shorter than me. :D

R-Reader-Love to read, love books. It's killing me that all my books are boxed up and in our garage right now. Totally inaccessable. Sigh. Can't wait for a new house.

E-Evan-the name of the cousin who took away my biggest baby crown. Yep, I was 9lbs 10 1/2 oz when I was born. A half an ounce bigger than my cousin Joey who was born a few months before me. My aunt still claims that the only reason I weighed more was because I had hair! LOL!! Anyway, Evan took the crown from both of us, he weighed in at over 10 lbs!!! But, I had almost 10 years as the reigning champ!!! :D

E-Excited to move! I love our kitchen and our new bathroom but, I really want some more room! It's hard to keep a place clean when nothing has it's own place.

Sneak Peek...

...at my design team stuff for February! My Fresh Pages Co kit for February is called Grande 1/2 sweet. You can check out the whole kit here.


I love how this owl from Hambly turned out! He was kind of disappearing on top of the Kraft Bazzill cardstock. So, I painted behind him! Totally worked and gave me the effect I wanted!

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together? :D

I'll post the rest of this layout and all the others as soon as it's up on the Fresh Pages blog. :D