Winter Wonderland

Just popping in with a quick post for a challenge on Mo's Challenge Blog. One of my favorite things about digital stamps is the ability to work with them in Photoshop. For this challenge, Winter Wonderland, I added Siku and Shiya on top of Door with Wreath.




I added it to the back of a monthly calendar that I made:

Feeling Scrappy and another James moment

Scrappy in a good way though! For the first time in two weeks I felt like opening up Photoshop in the afternoon instead of just taking my (now normal) nap. Maybe I'm doing the digi version of nesting? Looking around my house I think a more traditional nesting might be in order, but since my sciatica is getting worse the lower this baby drops, sitting on my behind in my comfy chair is a lot more appealing. Plus, I have online commitments... yeah, that's it!

Templates have become my friend lately since the basic design is all set out for me, which saves valuable brain cells that would otherwise get fried trying to decide where to put everything, and Sahlin Studio's templates are all on sale right now. For the first page I started with a template from the In Review: Modern set, although you might not recognize it now because it kind of evolved as I went.

I can't believe a year and a half has already gone by since these photos were taken. Peter has definitely lost that baby look, as well as most of his hair. Apparently we hadn't discovered the many benefits of the buzz cut back then! Now I know it's time to cut all their hair off whenever they wake up with bed head. Hey, if I'm going to have all boys, there should be some perks, right? I consider being able to get them up, throw some clothes on them and walk out the door a major benefit of having sons! Saves lots of time on Sunday mornings!!

Grabbed the camera and took a photo of Andrew baking away in there; thank goodness for the bathroom mirror. I tried just holding the camera out to my side, but my arm didn't seem to be long enough anymore! We are so ready to welcome this baby into our family... these last few days seem to be dragging by so slowly. I think the boys are starting to doubt that he'll ever arrive.

Okay, so my James moment...

The boys were sitting around the breakfast table this morning, happily consuming donuts (I know, I'm a bad mom) that Simon had brought home from work yesterday, when the proverbial lightbulb went on above James's head...

him: Mom, I have an idea. Let's pretend this is a restaurant.

me: mmm-hmmm

him: You can be the cooker person...

me: the chef

him: yes, the chef, and the boys and daddy can sit at the dining room table

me: mmm-hmmm

him: then you can bring us a list and we can look at it (pretending like he's scanning a menu) and then tell you what we want, and you can cook it and bring it to us

me: uh-huh, well that's an idea all right

Chief chef, diaper changer, bottom wiper, maid, and comforter of all kinds of injuries... that's me! But, all in all, it's a pretty good job and I wouldn't trade it for the world (most days!) Check back with me in a couple of months when I won't even be able to remember the last time I slept through the night!

Card Patterns

The Hybrid Chick Card Caravan decided to play along with Sketch 78 at the Card Patterns blog this week. The sketch was pretty simple this time and that suited me just fine because with only three weeks until my due date, energy seems to be at a premium! In fact, I've taken advantage of the boys' nap time the past couple of days to take a nap myself, and I'm not normally a nap girl. So, on to my card...



I used Your Mother, a digital kit collaboration between Pixel Gypsy & Dysfunctional Design, available at The Digichick for my patterned papers and sketchy flower image, printed on Red River Paper Polar Matte Double-Sided which is thick enough to be used as a card base. The cardstock matting is DCWV, the ribbon came from Michaels, the clear buttons are Autumn Leaves, backed with pieces printed from the digital kit, and the font is CK Noah.

Be sure to stop by the Hybrid Chick Caravan Facebook page tomorrow for all the rest of the girls' cards!

Bit of Everything

Well, my friend Shen over at CatScrap talked me into trying my hand at a bit of hybrid design of my own, so you can now find my shop, Paper Crush Studio, there. You have no idea how I agonized over the name and logo!!




I think she's pretty cute; and she looks just like me (well, minus the eight-month pregnant baby belly anyway!!) There's a free sample in my shop, and I've started a design blog and am hosting a chance to win a gift certificate there, so please come check it out if you're so inclined!

Paper Crush Studio blog

That's been taking up a good bit of my available "craft" time the past couple of weeks, but I did find a bit of time to do some scrapping too. With Simon traveling for work this week, it's hard to go to bed at my normal hour so I tend to stay up too late!



and a couple of cards...


One last thing... there's a CatScrap blog hop tomorrow to celebrate the 4th anniversary of the shop, so make sure you stop by the CatScrap blog tomorrow to collect all the beautiful quickpages. I'll have a greeting card printable for my contribution, but I'll be hosting it on the other blog. :)

Making Some Cards

I seem to be in a card-making mood lately. In fact, I've probably put together more cards in the past three weeks than I have in months. Card making is really where this whole crafting addiction started, and I seem to be returning to my roots these days. In fact, I have a fun new venture that I'm embarking on this week... but more about that in another post!

Some of the girls over at The Digichick have put together a Facebook group called the Hybrid Chick Caravan and have invited me to play along. Basically it's just participating in various card sketches and challenges around the blog world using digital papers and elements from The Digichick shop, along with whatever traditional crafting supplies you happen to have. Pretty much right up my alley!!

This week I happened across a fun sketch on The Sweetest Thing blog and decided to play along. Here's the card I made:


I'm loving the excuse to pull out the colored pencils and play again!! I'm sure you'll be seeing more from me in the days to come!

__________________________________________

What's in it?

papers and elements from Just a Girl collab by Sugarplum Paperie & Laura Banasiak
little girl stamp is by Gorjuss - Sent With Love
ribbon is Basic Grey
cardstock base is Bazzill

ink is Versafine

Prismacolor pencils & gamsol to blend

Glamour Dust glitter
sketch is SSSC80

CatWalk Blog Hop

I'm so excited to participate in my first Blog Hop as part of the CatScrap creative team. A group of us girls have each made some quickpages for you all to celebrate the arrival of the 2010 Summer CatWalk collection. You can find the links for the ones I made below the previews. They are completely different styles, so feel free to grab the one that appeals to you most, or take both; it's totally up to you!



DOWNLOAD HERE



DOWNLOAD HERE


If you just happened upon my blog by some random chance, you'll want to start at the CatScrap blog so you don't miss out on any of the goodies. If you've come from Claire's blog then you're on the right track and your next stop will be Lex's blog --- HERE.

Don't forget to stop by the chat at CatScrap tonight if you can. There's sure to be fun and prizes in store!!


On to the next stop on the hop and ENJOY!!

my dreams v. my reality

I can't believe it's been six months since I posted anything on the blog. There just doesn't seem to be enough time to keep up with everything. In my dreams, I'm able to keep the house perfectly clean, be a patient and creative first grade teacher for James, cook gourmet and healthy meals for the family, craft in my free time and blog about it, and sail through the third trimester of pregnancy with grace and composure. In reality, I have a sink full of dirty dishes that I'm ignoring in order to blog right now. There's no way I can cover all that's happened in the last six months, so I figured I'd just hit the highlights and pick up where we are now.

As far as Project 365 goes, I just about finished January and then barely picked up the camera until April. In fact, I didn't take any photos at all in March. I decided I'd go ahead and scrap what I do manage to take this year anyway, so here's January & February's pages (as always, click to see credits)...


In the past couple of weeks, I've picked up my camera more to try to capture the craziness that is the Pranaitis family. I can hardly believe that we're only three months away from adding another boy to our motley crew. Simon already calls me the "token female" of the family! It's a position I really enjoy for the most part. The weeks when he's working out of state are always hard, but they make me even more thankful for the days he's home. Two months ago we were on our way to some event and were (miraculously) ready about 20 minutes early so we grabbed the tripod and took some family photos on self-timer. The 20 minutes consisted of me pushing the button to start the 10 second countdown, then rushing back to the front porch steps to try to get settled before the photo was taken. We only got one decent photo, and it would never win any awards, but I'm so happy we made the effort because I know we can never get these days back. The photo:

and one of the photos I snapped while I was trying to get the settings right...

Yep, these are my boys!

Okay! I'm off to go tackle those dishes. I really am hoping to get back to blogging more regularly though. I seem to have finally gotten a bit of energy back!

01.04.2010

01.04.2010 . the christmas angel


I had created a blog last year for my P365 photos which I never used... so I decided I'll start using it this year. My daily photos will be here now: justJess | Project 365, although I might occasionally post a favorite at both blogs.

I'll be back later with a fun hybrid project!

01.03.2010

Peter finally figured out how to blow out... every time he made this little party favor inflate, he'd let out a giggle and stomp his feet in glee!

Project 365... Days 1 & 2

Never one to be too discouraged by past failure, I've decided to try to keep up with Project 365 again this year, taking one photo a day. I don't even remember how long I made it last year, but we'll see how this year goes.

01.01.2010


We spent New Year's Day in the car, driving home from CO after our halfway stop in Utah. The snow lasted for well over half the trip and I rolled down the window and snapped some photos while we were cruising along the highway.


01.02.2010


While we were gone, we had our closet redone so I got to come home to a much more organized clothes storage system. Having a new-found love for scarves, I was very excited to finally have a place to keep them, so I took a quick photo while I was unpacking everything.