3 Days And Counting!!

That's right, 3 days from now is August 3rd also known as my 33rd birthday!!!!!!! Woohoo!

Tuesday's Technique #2

This is an easy way to dress up chipboard alphas and shapes as seen on this layout.
For this project, you will need:

Raw chipboard alphas or shapes, paper glaze, ink pad, fine glitter, clear microbeads (must be clear in order for ink to show through), and wax paper (for easy clean-up).
1. First, completely cover raw chipboard piece with desired color of ink by repeatedly pressing onto ink pad.
2. Place on wax paper and allow to dry 1-2 minutes.
3. Next, completely cover inked chipboard piece with paper glaze.
4. Immediately cover entire surface of glazed chipboard piece with clear microbeads.
5. Gently tap off excess beads and allow to dry for a few minutes.
6. Then, add another coat of paper glaze on top of the beaded chipboard piece.
7. Immediately after adding 2nd coat of paper glaze, use your fingers to lightly sprinkle glitter onto the chipboard piece.
9. Allow to dry completely!
10. Once chipboard is COMPLETELY dried, attach to your layout or project.

Enjoy!

More Balloon Festival Pics

OK here we go...I had to resize these before loading them or else it would have taken forever!

Donovan was in total AWE! This colorful one was my favorite!

Scraplovers.com GDT

Here are a coulpe of layouts I created for my GDT spot at scraplovers.com. The papers are from Tinkering Ink's Gibson line and everything else is from my stash. I loved working with this paper, the colors are wonderful- orange has been springing up all over my LOs recently! LOL! The pics in this one are of my son, he was the broom bearer in my sister's wedding. Check him out all decked out in his tux, chillin' on the couch with his sippy cup!

The photos in this one were taking one day this month. I bought Donovan a bubble machine a few months ago and just opened it. I should have opened this thing a long time ago!! It kept him busy and he was so happy! We all know how much kids love bubbles, right! TFL!

Tuesday's Technique #1

At least once a month, I'm going to post a technique here on my blog for your learning pleasure...LOL! This technique will show you how to create this "Let's Party" Shaker Card.

Supplies:Patterned Paper - Zsiage (The Jewelry Box- Bangles,To Be Or Not To Be?- The Question); Cardstock - Worldwin (Treasures Royal Plum); Chipboard Alphabet- Zsiage; Adhesive - Glue Arts, Thermoweb foam strips; Pen - Sakura; Ink, Stickles - Ranger; Brad - Making Memories; other: Mini beads, Star sequins, Glitter, Party Hat template - Microsoft Word, Transparency

Directions

1. Cut a 7 x 9 piece of cardstock, fold in half and score.

2. Cut a 4 ½ x 7 piece of the Bangles paper, ink the edges and adhere to the front of the card.

3. Use party hat template to cut party hat from Royal Plum cardstock.

4. Cut a smaller shape from the center of the party hat and ink all edges.

5. Apply adhesive to the back side of the party hat and adhere to transparency, trimming excess.

6. Cut four ½ x 6 ½ strips from The Question paper and attach to the top of the party hat with a brad.

7. Apply foam strips to the back side of the party hat making sure that the strips touch edge to edge. (Any gaps will cause shaker box material to fall out)

8. With strip side facing up, add glitter, mini beads, and sequins to the center and remove foam strips backing.

9. Take card and press on top of the party hat. (Shaker box in now complete)

10. Ink chipboard alpha by pressing on ink pad until desired coverage is achieved and allow to dry.

11. Cover inked alpha with stickles and allow to dry completely.

12. Repeat step 10 if desired, ensuring that each coat is completely dry.

13. Adhere alphas to the card.

14. Under the party hat, write “Let’s” and then trace with stickles.

15. Use stickles to draw designs on the party hat shaker box

Enjoy!

More Photos From Jamaica

(Scroll down to the previous post for the first set) I really enjoyed taking all of these photos, too. I want to take a photography class so I can really hone my skills.

I waited and waited for the wind to kick up just right so I could capture the flag! It took a few minutes and a couple of tries, but the wind finally cooperated!

I took this with my telephoto lens while on the semi-submarine. The colorful umbrellas caught my eye.

There were quite a few weddings at our resort. I met a lady from PA who informed me that her daughter was getting married. This alter was decorated for her wedding. The flowers were absolutely stunning!

Told you I loved sunset photos! This is the wedding alter under a magnificent Jamaican sunset.

I love the lighting on this flower. There were so many beautiful flowers on the resort's grounds.

This flower's stamen looks like it's jumping right out of the photo! Love this color, too!

Although I love all colors, blue is my most favorite! Love all of the blues on this boathouse.

I was a little infatuated with all of the sailboats...wonder where they're going.

This one is so pretty and colorful. The wind shifted as I took the photo so I couldn't capture the sail in all of it's colorful glory.

Little man, "...I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean..."

The pools looks so calm and inviting under the moonlight...it's a different story during the day!

Really tall palm trees...Donovan was so infatuated by them. Every time he saw one he'd say "and mommy, there's a pum tree...and another one"!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Jamaica Pictures

As promised, here are a few of the pics that I took in Jamaica. Can you believe I took 470 pics in just 5 days? I enjoyed every moment of it too!

I just can't seem to get enough of photographing sunsets. This one is calling me to come back to Jamaica! (remember that commercial?)

My happy little family on the last day of our vacation. I love my guys so much!

Another shot of the sun setting...I took about 17 shots of the same sunset but from different positions and I love how most of them turned out. I totally understand how you can get different perspectives of the same subject just by moving your feet.

Jamaica is for lovers! I can see 2 people sitting in these chairs, holding hands and reminiscing about the days past.

I got up early on Sunday morning and wandered the entire resort to capture it without a lot of people in my way and managed to get a few shots of the vendors setting up shop!

There were 2 formal restaurants on site (Asian and Italian). Troy, Donovan, my mother-in-law, father-in-law and I all had dinner together at the Asian Restaurant. I fell in love with the lighting. The best part about being a tourist is no one looks at you like you're crazy (well except my husband) when you whip out your camera in the middle of dinner to snap a picture of the ceiling...what can I say, I was inspired!

There was a water park at the resort, this was Donovan's paradise found! I probably have about 60 or more pics of him taken on 3 different days at the water park!

I looooove this pic that I captured of Troy. You will definitely see this on a LO soon! He so freakin' handsome! I love how true to character this photo is, my boo is a thinking man.

Me and my baby! He's such a momma's boy! Hey, there's nothing wrong with loving your mommy!

He could barely contain himself! He ran and jumped and screamed and just had an all around good time! So happy we were able to take this vacation together!

Thanks for looking!

I'm BAAAAAAACK!

Just back from our vacation in Jamaica...it's good to get away, but even better to come HOME! We had a such great time, though we didn't do the really touristy things this time around. We took Donovan on the semi-sub boat ride, a shopping trip and did a lot of the activities at the hotel. He had such a good time he could barely contain himself. I found myself telling him a few times to stop screaming, but I know he just had to get the excitement out. He will gladly tell anyone who will listen that he played in the pool (for hours), he played golf with daddy and pop-pop, he played chess and checkers with mommy (the giant beach-sized version), he played hop scotch. DH and I took a trip down memory lane when we passed the hotel that we stayed at 11 years ago. We even ended up going out to the same "club" we went to, which I now know was Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. So much has changed...Jamaica is a lot more "Americanized" now than it was then, but I guess some change is good! There are so many more shops and everywhere I looked there were fast food restaurants! When we were there 11 years ago, I just remember Burger King, now Pizza Hut and KFC have set up shop and there are Chinese Restaurants all over the place.

I can't wait to get settled (I have lots of laundry) and sort through the 400+ photos so I can print them, upload them and create some LOs! I promise to share pics soon!

Seven Seven Oh Seven!

Day 1 of my Jamaican vacation: I've been reminded of the reason why I don't care to go on vacation with large groups- just getting everyone organized with minimal complaining seemed to be too much. Our day started early as heck...in order to leave by 4:15, we had to get up at 3:45. I had to nurse a nose bleed - probably irritated due to my allergies. We were late getting to the airport, but everything went smoothly once we arrived.

The plane ride was OK - Donovan thoroughly enjoyed himself! We arrived at the hotel long before the rooms were ready. Hate that, but it happens. The day was pretty uneventful, we walked around the resort and had lunch and drinks. We were so tired that all we really wanted to do was take a nap. We finally got to out rooms around 3:20 and crashed! I slept for about 5 hours, Troy woke up an hour after that and Donovan an hour after him. At 10pm Donovan and I were walking around. I had one of those parental moments when I realized how judgemental I was as a non-parent. If (before I was a parent) I saw someone walking with a 3 year old at 10 or 11 at night, I would have thought something like "she know she need to have that baby in bed" or "it's way past bedtime". Now as a mother with a 3 year old who just slept for 7 hours...well let's just say it was one of those Aha moments!

Let me tell you how my "aunt" followed me to Jamaica...the little heifer! You know that aunt I'm talking about, we all have her or have had her. She's the one who shows up unannounced on your wedding night or on your graduation when you're wearing all white or on your vacation! I was so pissed, I guess you can say I was seeing RED, literally! Good thing I came prepared...I just need to find some advil!

Today the 3 of us went on the semi submarine boat ride and it was amazing! We were able to go underwater and watch the fish through windows! Love it!

HAPPY 4th OF JULY

I'm stuck at work today, but the good thing is it's a light day and my manager is out (which means I can spend lots of time visiting my e-friends)! If it doesn't rain, I'm going to take Donovan too see the fireworks display at Nomahegan Park tonight. I'm a little leery as to how he will respond to the loud noise, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed and my camera ready!

The count down to my vacation has begun! In less than 48 hours Troy, Donovan, and I will be on a plane to sunny Jamaica (along with 7 of my in-laws). I am so excited as I need a vacation really bad! This is one of those proud moments for me as a parent. I'm a strong believer that each generation is supposed to be better than the last. My baby's first trip out of the country is to the same place as his father's and my first trip out of the country. Troy and I went to Jamaica when we were 22 and 21 years old, respectively and now Donovan is getting to experience that at 3. Growing up as a chlid, taking a drive down south was our vacation and when my mom was growing up...well let's just say that there weren't any vacations as there were 15 of them! Can you imagine?

I love to travel and although I haven't been to nearly as many places as I'd like, I want my son (and any future children) to experience that same passion. By the time Donovan is my age, I hope that he has travelled to even further corners of the earth!

But anyway, enjoy celebrating our nation's birth, grill safely and don't get too close to those fireworks! Have fun!