Family Time at Disneyland

     Well, it's official, we are heading to Disneyland once again. The last trip was five... FIVE...years go. Can you believe it? I know, it doesn't seem like it could be true, but I know it was because it was right before our oldest left on his mission. We have worked out every one's schedule and it looks like all of our kiddos will be able to make the trip with us. 

     When the kids were little and needing help with everything or asking the same question 100 times, my husband would always say he couldn't wait until they were older so they would be more fun. Having little ones is hard and all you really want is sleep. I can't hold my husband responsible for his words because they were always spoken at the times when he was walking around on, if we were lucky, three hours sleep. Really, our kids didn't like to sleep.  

     He didn't get to stay home with them and get all the special snuggles or the, "I wuv you" hugs that come at the most random times. He has always been up early and out the door to provide for us all. But one place he loves being with the kids is at Disney. Mainly because he is a big kid himself.  I know that now that the kids are older he really does miss the little hand prints on the windows and the horse back rides down the hall. 

     In honor of the biggest kid in the family and one of his favorite characters, I have started making our Disney vacation album with Donald Duck.

Thanks for stopping in to look around,

Ericka 

This is a 12x12 double page layout and can fit 2- 4x6 photos, 3- 4x5 photos, 1- 3x3 photo, and has a journal pull out tag in the bottom right corner. 

Christmas in July

     I really just like saying that, this post has nothing to do with Christmas. Unless you want to know how many days you have to make the perfect gift, in that case it's 170. 

     I have set a goal to make more time for myself to craft. We all have that one thing that we do that helps us to relax and ponder on the important things in our lives. That one thing that helps us sort out our thoughts and prioritize life again. Creating is that thing for me. 

     I love to have all my supplies in front of me all sorted out each in their own little stack and then after I have cut, trimmed, chalked, glued, pulled up then re-glued, I have my finished product that is actually something useful. Something I can use and appreciate for more than five-seconds. I used to like to vacuum, I would get a certain satisfaction from seeing all the nice clean lines in the carpet, then I had children. Those nice lines don't even last long enough for me to have the vacuum cleaner put away anymore before they are gone.  One of the things I have learned during my crafting and pondering time is, that the time with my children in the house, messing it up as fast as it is cleaned, seems to have gone by as fast as those vacuum lines on the carpet.

    Which in turn means, I need to craft more albums so I can have somewhere to put the pictures that document their younger days. See, I knew I could work this back around to a reason why I should have even more crafting time! 

     Thanks for sticking around long enough to read my wondering thoughts. Now here is a mini album I hope you enjoy even more. :) ~ Ericka 

This mini can hold 16- 4x4 photos on the water fall page and can hold an additional four more photos on the pull out tags. It ties together on the side with matching ribbon from the tags.

Banners, signs, and a lot of fun times

I have enjoyed making lots of banners for many occasions this year. I have used a few different types of materials but nothing beats a pretty piece of paper. One of my favorite banners is one I made for my daughters birthday party. She loves to read and we had this old book that had fallen apart so I used the pages to make rosettes for the banner. She loved it, and so did I! My sister is my biggest recipient of my crafts, whether she likes it or not. lol I made a little Halloween banner for her to display in her entry hall that I thought was pretty adorable also. 

Below is Cec's banner. It was pretty long so the shot isn't very close up. But it was super cute. She has it hanging in her room now.

The cute little Halloween banner I made for my sister. I had some little chalk board clips that I used for this and it work out perfectly. 

 I made this sign for a friend with little children and used chalk board paint so they could change the days. I will get better at the picture taking, I promise! lol

 Another sign I made for a friend this year. After this picture was taken I sanded it down and aged it a little more. 

 Anyone that knows me knows I love my Mickey! Especially my Mickey christmas decorations, but I didn't make this for myself I gave it to my little niece that visited Disneyland for the first time this year. Again the Mickey head is made with chalkboard paint so she can count down the days until Santa! 

Thanks for stopping in and looking around, Ericka

I Love to Share my Crafts

I really do love to share my crafts. I get so many good ideas from other blogs and I love to show how they have inspired me. But I am not so good about posting the results on here. This year I will try to be a little better. But just a little... 

I will post a few of the projects I did last year. Sorry I didn't take pictures of most of the things I made. 

I have been making the dinner calendar for our ward missionaries for the last few years. Here are a few pictures of the calendar I made for 2014.

I used paper bags, one of my favorite materials to use for minis.

Our ward has Sister missionaries and Elders this year so the open slots on the paper bags came in handy to use for the Sisters dinner calendar.

             I like to decorate the back cover to carry the theme all the way to the end of the album.

I hope you enjoyed my mini album. I love making minis! 

Thanks for taking the time to stop and look around,

Ericka

Time flies when you're having fun...

   It's been a fast summer to say the least. I can't believe my last post was in April. We have had a son return from a mission and one son leave on his mission, youth conference, yw camp, four birthdays, a family reunion, and a family trip to the top of Mt. Lassen since my last post. I have had many opportunities to be creative but have taken few pictures of them. Boy oh boy I need to get better at taking pictures. LOL I thought I would share a few cards I have made with you, that I did remember to take pictures of.
Thanks for sticking with me and checking in......

I made this card for a sweet friend using scraps from a paper pack I purchased at Micheals. I love using up my scraps and making cute cards. 

Again, this card is made from scraps. It's a bit more simple but still a cute way to say thanks.  I love my white pen, I think everything looks better with "stitches" around the outside. 

Thanks for stopping in and looking around............

Ericka

Family Mini Book....

I had these great intentions of making this cute little mini photo book for a friend, but then the more I worked on it, the more I started thinking I just couldn't give it away! lol
I have had the idea for this book for a few years and finally decided to put it all together. I do really love how it turned out, but in the end I am not keeping the mini, it is going to another great home.

For this mini I used the stack the deck binding system I found on you tube while watching videos from my sisters scrapper. I also made my pages using the example found on another video from my sisters scrapper, on you tube. The paper I used was a 6X6 paper pack called Fact and Fiction and all the little embellishments were from this same line.

The family tree is a sticker that came in a pack that I picked up at Micheal's. It is one of the only embellishments that didn't come with the fact and fiction line that I picked up at Joannes. It sure does work really well with the theme of the mini though.

 

This little tricycle was probably my favorite embellishment. I topped the page with the same pendants as on the cover and some washi tape across the bottom.

I really liked the paper in this line. It had embellishments preprinted on it and that sure is a time saver. I also used some rub on stitches and bakers twine on these pages.

I have this spool of fake pearls and I can't ever figure out how to use them, heaven forbid I throw anything out. Anyway, I cut them to length and used mini dots to adhere them to the top of this page and I loved how it turned out. 

Each page has a pull out photo mat for added space for photos or journaling. The reverse side of these mats are lined to make journaling more convenient. 

Thanks for stopping in to look.........

Ericka

Easter Treat Bag...

I put together a quick treat bag for my littles to take home with them this weekend. Everything I used was stuff I had around the house, so it was a win win! Happy kids and happy me :)

For the bag I started with a 12X12 sheet of paper. I cut it in half and had two 6X12 pieces. I then used my score board and scored each piece of paper at 1/2", 5", 7", and 11 1/2". Then I folded at the scores to get this cute bag shape. I used left over clear plastic treat bags and filled them with plastic eggs that had treats inside. Last, I folded the bag together with the paper, and then stapled it at the top for a stronger hold. 

The tag was made using my Cricut cartridge, A Child's Year. I used the tag feature and the shadow tag feature. I cut the tag and shadow at the 3" size. I wrote on the tag for a little personal touch. Then I topped it off with a bow and stuck it all on with adhesive dots. 

I made twelve and it took around an hour, and that includes stopping to help the littles every minute or so. lol Such a simple project that brought so much joy!

Thanks for stopping in to look……………

Ericka