My boy turns 12, Summertime, and a Challenge!

This past weekend my oldest son turned 12. 12! It seems like yesterday he was carefully placed in my loving, anxious, and exhausted arms for the very first time. In just 2 short weeks he will be pulling even further from my protective arms to enter Junior high. While he is probably just a little nervous, I'm freaking out. I have no idea what to expect. I know he's a good kid, but it's almost high school... My hope is that he meets a great bunch of kids and forges a bond that will last through the years and hopefully a lifetime. (I met my bff at the same age, and after humm xx # of years we are still bf's.) That he will continue to get almost straight A's, knowing that hard work will get him everything he wants. That he will fit in, that he will be every one's friend, that he will find his niche, whether that be sports, arts, or something else. Finally that he will always know we are his biggest fans and that he can come to us with anything.


This past weekend my family, my mom, and a group of our friends packed up our cars and headed to the beach. 13 in total. Yep 3&1/2 hour drive to the beach! It was worth every. single. moment. We had a blast. The kids played in the water for hours, we had a BBQ on the beach with tons of yummy food, and I got a wicked burn... Yes I applied sunscreen. I'm just really fair and should have re-applied every half hour. lol. The beach was wonderful. Sandy shores, beautiful water, and not a cloud in the sky. (Hence the burn.) Here are a couple of pics of our kids playing.

Here's the birthday boy!

The little miss and her friends who paid no attention to me. haha

Mr. Q "saving a lady bug from the water. There were a bunch of them, all over the place...

The kids had so much fun with all the blow up floating toys I brought. I was a little out of breath after finishing that one.

My little man splashing the girlies. Trust me this feisty little one gave it right back!

So moving on to the challenge, if there are any takers. It will be just like last week. I know mama never said there would be days like this will play. 3 techniques and 3 embellishments. they are. photo clips, transparencies, and dies(cuttle bug for example). Distress everything with ink, YAY, emboss, and only use cardstock. No patterned paper at all. Have fun, leave a comment when your done.

A challenge for myself.

In my attempt to keep the mojo going I thought I'd make up a little challenge for myself. I started by writing down a list of supplies/embellishments that I have, and a list of techniques to do. After I had them all in these bowls


I choose three out of each.


I ended up with use felt,pearls and waxy flax. Then I got random stamp paper, paint, and distress nothing with ink(those of you that know me KNOW this is a stretch for me) love those dirty pages!
I got my pictures and basic supplies together and the ones I was required to use with this layout. The challenge is to just use paper with these embellishments and techniques. This is what my random stamped page looks like.


The ink colours are:
Orange
Bamboo
Chocolate
Heavenly Blue
Clover Meadow
The stamp sets are:
Circle Around
Today's Date
Treetops
All by Close to my Heart

These are the completed pages.

left

right


Products used: pp sassafras, bungle jungle-treetops
heartfelt shapes in whimsy(ctmh)
ceramcoat in magnolia white
pearls Kaiser in Lush
Waxy flax in colonial white
This challenge only took me around one hour to do! If you would like to join me, use the three embellishments and three techniques I used and make your own(it can be one or two pages). Then leave me a comment so I can come see! Hope you like them. Have a great Friday!!!