"I'll Love You Forever"

This is a page that I created for the February Challenge over at the Cricut message board. We were to use the word 'love' and a heart cut from any cricut cartridge. I used Plantin Schoolbook (tall ball feature) for the lettering and Graphically Speaking for the hearts. The big heart is embossed with the Cuttlebug using my Swiss Dots folder. The dots are embellished with red stickles and the little heart is also outlined in red stickles.
The page was inspired by my 3 year old son, Jonah. The journaling reads,

"It had been a particularly hard day for all of us, Jonah...the kind of day I'm glad we don't experience very often. You were sick and had not been sleeping well-I'm sure that contributed to it. Your behavior suffered, and Daddy & I felt like we had been disciplining you over and over again for the same things, yet to no avail. We were all ready for you to go to bed that night and just call it a day. Tomorrow would surely be better...it had to be! I poured you some milk to drink and held you close as I rocked you. I had tears of discouragement in my eyes because I was so tired of disciplining you all day without seeing a change in your heart. It was at that moment that you looked up at me, gave me a hug, and said, "I'll love you forever." You couldn't have chosen a better time to encourage my heart. I needed to hear those words. I'll love YOU forever, too, my Jonah...even on days like this." -February '09

Top 10 Reasons (A Valentine's Card)

I made this accordian card for my hubby for Valentine's Day. It was fun but very time consuming. :) He liked it though, so I suppose it was worth all the effort it took.

The cover (Top 10 and the 4 hearts) is made from Graphically Speaking. It is a little hard to tell in the picture, but the Top 10 is mounted on pop dots for dimension. The card closes with a ribbon tie.
This is the card opened up--the tags (cut from Plantin Schoolbook) fit into the pockets on each fold.
Here are the first three sections. All of the numbers are cut with Printing Press with the framed feature or the bookmark feature. The heart paper clip is from Fabulous Finds. The 'cherish' stamp on the first section is from Stampin' Up's 'Lexicon of Love.' The rest of the pockets are embossed with A2 embossing folders for the Cuttlebug.
#4-7. Every surface of every layer is inked with Tim Holtz' distressing ink. The embellishment behind the tag in #6 is from Fabulous Finds.
#8-10. The green pockets (#3,6,9) are made with paper that has a white core. To get the white to show through, and to make it look distressed, I rubbed it with a fine sandpaper until I got the desired effect. The heart behind #10 is from Graphically Speaking.

Thanks for looking! And please be patient with me as I update posts as I feel up to it--hubby and I found out last week that we are expecting #3, and I'm extremely exhausted. I will try not to neglect the blog for too long, but I can't make any promises. ;)

Valentine's Day Ghirardelli Chocolate Boxes

I made Scott and the kiddos these boxes (instructions found here) for Valentine's Day. Each box holds 3 Ghirardelli Chocolate Squares. Mmmm chocolate!!!!
The boxes are made out of cardstock so they are sturdy but I covered them with DCWV paper from the Spring 2008 stack.
I used the Cuttlebug for the 'Love' stamp on this one, and I inked it with distressing ink to highlight some of the texture. The brown tab behind it is torn and inked.
I used the Cricut to decorate the other boxes. I cut the scallops from Storybook and the monograms from Plantin Schoolbook. I used Stickles to make it extra sparkly!
Thanks for looking!

...and Ten Tiny Toes

This page is the second page of yesterday's post. Again, I used VersaMark ink on little hands and feet stamps for a subtle look. I also used a rub-on in the lower right corner of the frame that says, "little hands and feet." The poem reads:

Two tiny feet,
ten tiny toes,
leave their
impressions today.
Soon they will wear
two tiny shoes,
and be running
and jumping at play.
Two little feet,
too little time,
before they are
walking to school,
kicking a rock,
or skipping a rope,
wading a puddle
or jumping in a pool
Two little feet,
one little child,
will soon go
their own way,
but footprints
in my mind recall,
they stood here
yesterday.
(author unknown)

Here are the pages together:

Thanks for looking!

Ten Tiny Fingers...

When Jonah was about 2 1/2 months old, I "tortured" him by inking up his tiny little hands and feet to get these prints. Although I felt bad for him at the time, I've never regretted doing it--they grow up and change so fast. I knew I wanted to scrapbook them in a simple way so that they would truly be the star of the page--I didn't want any of the elements on the page to distract from those pudgy little handprints. It's a little hard to see, but I used handprint and footprint stamps in the background. I used the VersaMark ink so it looks more like a watermark on the page. The poem below the prints reads:

Ten tiny fingers that always want to play
That never stop exploring the wonder of today
Ten tiny fingers that from the very start
Will reach out for tomorrow, yet always hold your heart.