We are off for some fun and relaxation. Have a wonderful Holiday week everyone!

I've been on a card kick. And making these little paper yo-yo's as I call them. Is majorly addicting. You take 3 sizes of circles, curl the edges add a button with some matching thread and you have a cute little flower embellishment. I think a little inking would be cute on them too.

We got a little break from the heat this morning, so I decided to open all of the windows and doors and do a little baking. I whipped up Cherry Chip Scones from my new Taste of Home Cookbook. I love this cookbook! Having never made scones before I think they turned out pretty good, and the house smells divine.

Cherry Chip Scones

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

6 tablespoons cold butter

1 cup vanilla yogurt

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk divided

1 1/3 cups dried cherries

2/3 cup vanilla or white chips

1) In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

2) Combine yogurt and 1/4 cup milk; stir into crumb mixture just until moistened. Knead in cherries and chips.

3)on a greased baking sheet, pat the dough into a 9 inch circle. cut into 8 wedges separate wedges. Brush with the remaining milk.

4) Bake at 400* for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

This card makes me happy. I had so much fun creating the little hand stitched flowers, the day just melted away. I love when that happens. I love getting in the creative zone only to realize there are kids to be fed and messes to clean 3 hours later.

Gosh it's been a zoo around here the last few weeks. The kids are out of school. Do I need to say more? :) I took some time today to make this little book. I have so many silly, weird, old, bad, and odd pictures of the boys I thought it would be fun to try to put them in a mini album. It's a 6x12 book made from manila file folders, I got the idea from Two Peas Creating Garden. I also made my own printed transparencies with stazon ink because I didn't have and of the cool Hambly Studios ones shown on the tutorial, a girls gotta make due right? The Scenic Route paper is from my June Scraperrie kit. The boys loved the finished book and we all sat around laughing and sharing stories from when they were little. Gotta Love It.

Happy Mothers Day! My boys treated me to a pancake breakfast on the patio. A snowman with bacon arms with a mickey mouse on the side. They even cleaned the kitchen!! The poem is from my youngest, my favorite gift of the day besides the extra hugs and kisses.

Lucky Me!!! Check out these cuties from Melissa! These felty little handstitched darlings just make me super happy and they are MINE! Thank you to the uber talented Felt Mistress Melissa! That's her new official name in my book.

Well, I finally got this layout put together. This is a picture of my Aunt (my moms oldest sister) when she was little. I just love the curls and watering can.

"A Road Less Traveled" Zing Boom Kit for May. The green and aqua screen print that came with this kit is really cool. I love this kit club because some of the materials you get (like a bit of 1970's brown and gold wallpaper and a vintage Three Horses beer coaster) are a little outside the box. It's challenging and I find myself working with some more difficult subject matter. Which is cheap therapy!

What $3.75 will buy you at the annual P.T.A garage sale. Or why you never should let your 10 and 14 year olds go alone, even if it's only around the corner.

More Amy Butler PP

Is this not the prettiest paper? It's Amy Butler from K and Company To. Die. For. This layout has been sitting on my work table for two days. I've been moving things around on it every time I walk by. I even found the perfect green vintage ribbon in my box to go with it. Seriously you can not make this paper look bad. I've wrinkled it, ripped it, and slopped some robins egg blue paint on it by accident and it's still gorgeous. I guess I should straighten it out, add the finishing touches and glue it down soon. Maybe tomorrow.

I worked on a few things today. First, I did this layout about my oldest who is now a hysterically funny, handsome 14 year old. I found this picture in my box and it reminded me how I always dressed him in head to toe Gymboree outfits, with all the crazy patterns and colors. Gosh that was fun. I miss those days. Now I have to pick up his laundry with a pitch fork off his bedroom floor. MAN! My kids grew up way to fast.

I did the title on the layout with my new toy the Cricut. Awesome machine and I have been enjoying the heck out of it.

I also worked on a few more altered felt notebooks to send out to the girls at Two Peas. The RAK list there sure has been fun.

My blog was tagged yesterday by one of my most favorite bloggers and creative goddess extraordinaire. http://vickichrisman.blogspot.com/ If you haven't been to her blog you should go check her out, she is amazing. So now is the part I go find and tag. This should be fun!

I scraplifted this little beauty from artsyfartsychic on Two Peas in a Bucket. I saw her's in the 2 Peas gallery (which is a fabulous resource for endless inspiration) and I just fell head over heals in love with it! I ran right out to Michael's and stocked up on the notebooks, then I made a few to send out to my buddies on the 2Peas RAK list, and one for myself of course!

Yep, I messed up the journaling on this layout. Am I changing it? Nope. You know why? Because I have spent years NOT journaling because I can't spell worth beans, my handwriting is horrible, and my 3rd grade teacher told me I would never be a writer. It's sad that I don't have little snippets of my life written down for my kids. Plain sad. So I'm going to really work on that. Anyways, isn't this paper the best?!? It's Basic Grey Scarlett Letter, I'm loving it! Very fun to work with. One of my art group friends sent me the vintage milk cap and I think it looks super cute on this page. Thank you Kelli!

I altered the background paper with ink and paint then added Basic Grey papers for a different Fall layout.

Scrapbooking is my first paper love. I've been collecting paper and supplies for a over decade. I admit I am lured by the bright colors, pristine pages and sentimental idea of it all. The picture perfect pages with smiling faces and clean shirts. However being the mom of 3 boys has made my idea of beauty a little different than most. I love a little scuff of dirt on things, the grunge of life. My car is never without crumbs and dried mud, I find dirty socks under the couch and finger prints on the walls. I guess that is why I feel better when I rub a little brush of paint over my scrapbook pages, a little ink in the crevices. American Crafts paper and 7 gypsies tag.

deco pages for yahoo deco group

I just love Traci Bautista's new book Collage Unleashed. I bought it a few weeks ago and have been pouring over page after colorful page each day, trying to decide which technique to do first. I did a little doodling, dry brushing, stamping in my journal today playing with colors.

Take two. I think I like this one better than the first.

Delving into some unfamiliar territory with this mixed media piece. Water colors, charcoal, and LuminArte' on foam core. I was inspired by http://www.rachelkoepke.com/index.html recent project on HGTV That's Clever. A link to the directions and materials here: http://http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/cr_painting/article/0,1789,HGTV_3282_4487989,00.html

Playing around with altering photos. Using sandpaper block, Lyra watercolor crayons, colored pencils and walnut ink. The image is from http://melanisage.com

Art Squared Skeletons, for a swap at Embellished Circus yahoo group. I altered a photo I took last summer and layered with a stamp image from http://melaniesage.com then mounted it on hand painted collage paper and chip board.

~LOVE~

To keep one scared flame
Through life unchilled,unmoved,
To love in wintry age, the same
As first in youth we loved,
To feel that we adore
Even to fond excess
That through the heart would break with more,
It could not live with less.
-Thomas Moore.

Shades of cinnamon deco page. Cinnamon increases your metabolism, and boy do I need that after the holidays. We don't even celebrate Christmas around here and I still manage fluff up quite substantially. Altered and distressed paper layered with script stamps in chestnut brown. Aged further with antique paper ink applied with a baby wipe. Sanded then embossed with copper embossing powder. Her eyes say it all, don't they?

Grungy little deco page. Black and White can be so crisp and perfect looking I just had to mix things up a bit. Altered paper and aging techniques. My Grandpa, the silly man that he is, always gave us kids a hard time when we would hurt ourselves playing. Trying to toughen us up, I guess, he would suggest we rub some dirt into our boo boo to make it feel better. This page reminded me of that.