Happy {Second Day of} Summer!

Good morning! I hope everyone has been having a good week so far and staying safe. A lot of ugly weather happening this week- between severe weather back east and super hot temperatures (definitely not looking forward to the weekend of 97 degrees...) I guess summer really is here, or will be soon enough!! With that, it seems only fitting to post a summer-themed card today:

Doesn't it just make you want to sit at the beach, drink a cocktail, and play in the water?! I know I would want to! Although, I guess drinking a glass of wine on the patio at night would have to do... A lot of the pieces are pop-dotted, to add a little pizzazz:

The last picture is of the other side of the card:

I went with a single-sided, notecard-esque design to make sure it would all fit in the matching envelope that you can sort of see (or at least it matched before my plan changed) My new envelope-making toy sure is getting a lot of use this summer!! I have a few more finishing touches to add to them, but that'll happen in time. These took a whole lot longer than I had planned. I was really hoping to get them out before summer began, but I guess the first week of the season wouldn't be too bad, either!
Thanks for stopping by! Please come back tomorrow to see a surprisingly "cute" custom project I finished for an awesome customer!

Summer Vacation, Part 2!

Good afternoon! We hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend so far! It has finally cooled down here, back to 'normal' summer temperatures (75 degrees and sun!), and it makes everything so much more pleasant, although it has been a while since it rained. Oh well, it's quite nice, especially with the welcomed breeze! Anyway, enough of the weather-bragging! As we said yesterday, we are going to continue our story about our vacation back east. I know, not very exciting for our crafting friends, but we'll get back to our fun posts tomorrow! (And we've found that writing it all down here makes it quite a bit easier to scrap later on.)
So, after some time recouping from our travels, we had a family get-together on the 4th of July. We took the opportunity to throw our parents a 'surprise', belated, joint, milestone birthday. After some arguing and getting on each others nerves, it was a success and everyone seemed to have a good time. We made some decorations for the party, but I'm pretty sure all of our pictures were on our dad's camera. However, I know we have a picture of the invitations we sent out:

Hopefully I'll be able to put up some of the pictures of the decorations (because that IS one of the reasons we decided to have the get together!) We were also able to meet our littlest cousin, who is absolutely the cutest! (Not the best picture of any of us, but you could just eat him up! Even though he was about to cry!) He has the biggest eyes and you can't help but smile!

We spent one afternoon with our aunt and mom. We started the outing with a delicious lunch and spent quite a bit of time taking pictures (a handful of which were approved). After lunch, we went for a stroll along the beach:

I must say, it looks surprisingly nice in the picture. We'll leave it at that! After walking and gossiping about boys, we went on a little sight-seeing "tour" as Mom and Aunt drove around their hometown. It was an extremely nice day (except for the stagnant beach smell).

We were also able to spend some time catching up with our friends, which is always fun. We also went up to Vermont to visit the Twin, and spent the morning blueberry picking with two of her little ones (so adorable!) The little boy kept eating his berries, and those that he didn't eat, he kept sharing with everyone. It was so much fun. Seeing our family and friends were the highlights of the trip. We did get some nice color, which is always appreciated! It's all gone now, but it was nice when it lasted! All in all, it was a nice, relaxing week or so!

The hardest part was the time change. It was kind of hard to wait until a reasonable time to messages to our West-Coasters, but it was a nice surprise the morning of our flight back to have an early morning/late night conversation with Boy! The only thing we were hoping for was that the flight back to Seattle was nothing like the one home. We kept checking the weather, to make sure everything looked good to go. It did!

We left for the airport at 4:00ish, and had no trouble in Connecticut, except for a little construction traffic. Once we got to New York, the story was a little different. At one point, we got stuck in traffic, but couldn't figure out why. Turns out, all of the signs that show the height of bridges are there for a reason. Some idiot (sorry...) decided to take his box truck and try to fit it under the bridge. It didn't work for him. Although, now it might fit. There was also one wrong turn, but that was because the road construction was not marked very well. After some choice words, we were back on the road and the only other problem we faced was all the traffic at the airport. Everyone impatiently trying to merge into one lane. 

After our quick goodbyes, we got into the airport and into the (much longer, but quickly-moving) security line. I got stopped after the metal detector/body scanner and the lady goes, "Ma'am, I need to check your head". Well, I don't know how much you can really hide in a head of braided hair, but I'm pretty sure it was my glasses that set it off. Or, at least I hope so. While we were waiting for our flight to board, we were sitting near a group of three ladies and a boy who were clearly Lawng-EYElanders. Not the quiet ones, but those that talk at a loud volume constantly. We looked over to one another and both pretty much said, "As long as we're not near them". We finally board and we have the two aisle seats. Robyn's seat is next to an older lady who kept to herself. I find myself next to a little boy, maybe four years old. Pretty sure you can tell where this story is going. And who should come ten minutes later? The group of ladies who were near us. Great. Before the plane took off, he tried to fall asleep and kept kicking me. Once he decided he wasn't going to be comfortable, he started watching a tv show on the screen. But his sound wasn't working. And he didn't like the headphones. And he couldn't hear it. Once the show was playing, he was quiet and no problems. Once each episode ended, he spent five minutes yelling at his dad because it wasn't automatically going to where he wanted. But then he'd be quiet again. This went on for the entire trip. Oh, except for the 5 minutes they were in line for the bathroom. That was so quiet time, as well. Until they came back and the kid's tooth was loose and there was blood and tears everywhere. I kept scooting over towards the aisle so I'd be away from him. I did feel bad for his dad, though. He wasn't very happy with him and it was a long flight for both of them.

We finally landed on time without any problems! It was nice to be back on the West Coast (I'd say 'home', but I know how much Mom and Dad don't like it when we call Washington 'home'...) We made it back to our apartment at like 11:00am with no problems and fell asleep for the rest of the day!

The next few days were spent catching up on some things we started before we left. There has been quite a bit of classroom decorating, some favor making, some cleaning, and a lot of relaxing! Hopefully we'll have another project to share with you tomorrow! There's one that is just about done (only two months late) that is so cute and I wish I could keep it for myself!

Have a great night!

Oh, It's Been Awhile!

Happy Friday! I know, it's been quite a while since we last posted. We've been rather busy the last month or so. Who said summer was a vacation?! The last month or so saw the end of a successful, yet sometimes trying, school year, a bump in on-line orders, and a trip back home to see the family. Now that we're back on the West Coast and just about all caught up on everything, we figured now is as good a time as ever to get back on here and maybe share a few of the projects we've been working on since!
Our mom wanted us to update our blog when we were home, but it was so hot that we didn't really do much of anything, so that's where we'll start as we play catch-up. After spending weeks on the road for the last three summers, we decided to take 'easy' and take a non-stop flight home. After waking up at 4, leaving at 5, we got to the airport at 6 and got through all of the chekpoints without any issues. We were able to find the bathroom (you know, just in case, because who would really want to use the airplane bathroom unless it was a real emergency?!) and by the time we got back, they were already boarding the plane. We waited in like for all of like 5 minutes and it was pretty great. After spending $400+ on tickets, they treated us quite well. Like, surprisingly well. We got some breakfast wraps (meh, but something was better than nothing), snacks, and a frozen yogurt pop. At this time, you know, about 4 hours into the flight, it's just about time to need the bathroom again. But you think, "Oh, I can wait another hour until we land to use the bathroom". And then the pilot comes on the loudspeaker and tells you that you are in a "holding pattern because of a wall of severe storms in New York and Pennsylvania, but it should only be an hour or so". Ok, maybe you can hold it, but the bathroom on-board is looking like a necessity, but you push on. So then after an hour, the pilot comes back on and says, "Well, we need to make a pit stop in Buffalo to get some gas". Now all you want to do is run off the plane and find the bathroom. Oh, but wait, we have to turn back around to go to Buffalo, and then sit on the plane for 45 minutes to an hour waiting for the air traffic controller to tell the pilot what the plan is. Finally, the pilot feels bad and lets you all out (politely, of course) and you run to the bathroom. And wait. We walked around the Buffalo Airport for a little bit, longing for that first cup of Dunkin' Donuts coffee (and only the second one of a long day) that we've been waiting for for the last year, but unfortunately we didn't find any. It was another hour until the pilot came back and told us to get back on board. It was rather impressive how quickly that went. One would think that it would be a pretty straight line from Buffalo to NYC, but oh no, they had us swing over towards Cleveland and Virginia, and then back up north. That was an additional two hours. At this point, all we wanted to do was land, but then we noticed that the "time to destination" on the screen didn't change too much. We were stuck in another holding pattern over New York. After like 12 hours (the whole flight was supposed to be 6ish), we finally land amid a torrential rain storm with thunder and lightning (oh, how we missed that summer sound!) The lady next to us made some comments about the weather, and we were like, "Oh, no, this is natural". She was rather friendly, so it was good. We sat on the plane for another 30 minutes or so because there weren't any gates free to drop us off. Once they found one for us to disembark, the pilot told us that we were the last flight to get in for the night because of the storm. That would have been terrible, to be stuck at some airport so close to home. Fortunately, we didn't have to get on any additional flights, like the couple going to Milan or the family with a 6-hour delay to Maryland. When we got into the airport, there was an international flight waiting to leave, but they weren't going anywhere. It was hard not to feel bad for them.
We decided to rush through the airport to find the kiosk for the shuttle to Grand Central. As we're sitting there, waiting for someone to show up at their post, trying to charge phones, not get on each others' nerves, and burst into tears (that'll come later), we figured we just missed the last shuttle to leave. 45 minutes later and there's still no one at the kiosk. There were two or three shuttles from Connecticut, and I was totally tempted to lose the money spent on the two tickets and hop in their vans.  We decided to wait it out and went outside, and after finding the small sandwich board, stood with a group of people who were apparently going to LaGuardia. After three unmarked shuttles, and one bus go by (you know, since the bus was "only dropping people off") we started to get really frustrated and with tears on the verge of falling, we asked a driver what we were looking for. He was quite helpful, but it was still like another hour that we had to wait. In the meantime, Robyn ran inside to charge a little and not two minutes later, the bus pulls up. He was in an apparent rush and I told him to wait so I could get Robyn. He gave me an attitude and said "No, catch the next one". I'm not proud of how I reacted, but I ran inside to grab Robyn and we made it. We ended up waiting for like five minutes anyway. Pretty sure the driver almost got into a few accidents on the LIE, but we finally made it to Grand Central at about 11:00.
At this point, we were just happy to know that we only had one more leg of the trip to go and that this was going to be the easiest part. We were able to get our tickets, found the track it was supposed to be, and waited. We went back and checked the board, just to be safe, and they had changed it. We walked over to the other track and spent the time determining where people were from (you know, the guys wearing pastel shorts, button down shirts, and boat shoes were most definitely Southern Connecticut). With three minutes to go, they alerted us to a change in tracks, (oh, back to where it was supposed to be originally) so everyone rushed over to that track. And of course, it's like 11:20 and no one wants to share a seat. (Or, should I say, it's New York to Connecticut, so no one wants to share a seat?) So we were scrunched in with a fella going to Southport. After not eating anything since the first part of the flight, we were beyond uber excited to find a granola bar in my bag from the day before we left. Thankfully we got to BPT without any more issues and our awesome daddy was waiting for us. At 1:00 in the morning. What a trooper! Once we were finally home, we spent another hour talking to the 'rents (Mom was also a trooper for staying up so late, and only got on our nerves once, as she called while we were at the airport). After such a long day, it was finally bedtime, and I'm pretty sure we slept in until 10:00ish, but then again, it was only 7:00am on the West Coast.
Phew! I'd say that this post was way too long, but it was a looong day of travel. I will continue the rest of the trip round-up tomorrow. I need a nap after writing this!
Thanks for stopping by! For those looking for our crafting projects, come back Sunday (or maybe Monday) and we'll start posting our crafts again! Have a great day!

Everything's Just Beachy!

I just want to start by channeling the camel on the Geico commercial- It's Hump Day!
Now that that's out of the way, here's today's project. It's a beach theme layout with the title "Just Beachy."

There are three mats for 4x6 pictures, perfect for showing off those beach pictures. I used some shiny papers for the sand and water.

This layout was entered in the BBTB2 Beach Time Challenge here.

And here's today's holiday project.We made some fun Halloween cards to share with you.

The frames were embossed with our new embossing toys. Do I need more excitement in my life if watching the powder heat up is fun? The silhouettes in the middle were also embossed, cut out, and mounted with puffy adhesive to give them more dimension. And all frames need a little bling, so we added some around the outside of them.

Thanks for stopping by!

Just Chillin'

I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far! We've been pretty busy with all of our fun new toys from the Scrapbook Expo on Friday. Here's a picture of some of the goodies we bought.

And today's project uses some of that good stuff.

So my picture isn't straight, but that doesn't take away from the adorableness of it! We got some a bunch of different colors of glitter, and a heat tool for embossing, among other things. We've had different embossing powders, and have used our hair dryer, which definitely doesn't work as well. I don't know how we've done without it! The little penguin is stamped and embossed, and the paper is super glittery, since everything needs glitter! The inside sentiment says, "Just Chillin'"- perfect for a sunny summer day.

Thanks for stopping by!

Flip Flop Kind of Day!

The biggest misconception about the Pacific Northwest is probably that it rains all the time. This is definitely not true. Our summers are absolutely gorgeous! When everyone else is sweltering in hot and humid grossness, we have sunny 75-80 degrees. I'll take rainy misty winters if this is the summer we get in return! All this weather talk really does have something to do with today's post, I promise! I have a fun little summer card to share with you.

It has been a tank top and flip flop type of summer. And "wool-socks-and-sandal-dude" can wear just his sandals. Don't know what I'm talking about? Find out more here: http://northwestspecialties.com/article/pemco-sandals-and-socks-guy

The inside of the card has some of the lyrics to Kenny Chesney's "Flip Flop Summer." Today's card is linked up with the FCCB "Set the Scene" challenge here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Full-Time Floatin'

Hey there! Today we have an underwater layout to share with you. We wanted to use Ariel from the Disney Princess cartridge, and thought this was the perfect reason. We took the lyrics to one of the songs from the movie for the title of the page, and added Ariel's friends along with her. It holds two 4x6 photos on the photo mats.

We've entered this post into CWC's "It's Hot Outside" challenge here.
Thanks for stopping by!

Today's Party Trivia:
- Today's date, 6/28, is the only date each year that the month and day are two different perfect numbers. This means that if you took all of the numbers 6 and 28 are divisible by (except for the two original numbers) and added them up, you would get the original number (6= 1+2+3; 1x6, 2x3; 28= 1+2+4+7+14, 1x28, 2x14, 4x7). The only day in the year that has the same perfect number is June 6.
- The saxophone was patented in 1846 in Paris.

Sand Pail Gift Card Holder

Today's project is a sand pail. But not any sand pail. This one holds a gift card for the birthday person! I really like the microbeads we used to make the sand look like sand. It definitely adds to the card, as long as they don't all roll off the table when you're putting them on.

Thanks for stopping by!

Today's Party Trivia:
-The US government declared Christmas a federal holiday in 1870.
- Coney Island's roller coaster, the Cyclone, opened in 1927. It is now considered a National Historical Landmark.
- The first product to be scanned using a UPC was a pack of gum

Splish, Splash!

You're invited to a beach birthday bash!
We hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and are ready for another week! Here's something that might put a smile on your face!

 Today's project is a birthday party invitation. How cute are these invitations for a beach party?! The outside of the card has a cute paper doll who is ready for some swimming and we designed the invitation itself to look like a beach ball. The petal fold opens up to give you all of the information for the party.

 

The invitation will actually keep itself closed, without the need for the band. We thought that the dolls added a nice touch, though!
Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day

Today's Party Trivia:
- Virginia ratified the Constitution in 1788. It became the 10th state.
- Anne Frank's diary, The Diary of a Young Girl, was published in 1947.
- Bugs Bunny made his theatrical debut in 1949's The Long-Haired Hare.

Sea You Soon!

Another week means it's time for another theme! All of this week's projects will be beach-themed. There are two big differences in beaches here and at home. 1. The water is much too cold to go swimming, which is fine, since I'd rather just sit on the beach and enjoy that, anyway. 2. The beaches here aren't sandy. They are made up of teenie-tiny rocks that get bigger as you move away from the shore.

Today's post is a card we made for some of our friends back home. Since we'll be making another cross country trip back home next week, we thought we'd make something to show how excited we are to see them! It will definitely be nice to be around family and friends for a while. The inside of the card says, "Sea You Soon!"

Thanks for stopping by!

Today's Party Trivia:
- The first female actress to sign a million dollar contract was Mary Pickford in 1916.
- The longest professional tennis match in history took place two years ago. The 185 games played lasted just over 11 hours.
- Today is National Pralines Day. Maybe something to do with all of those pecans...

Cupcake Saturday!

Welcome to another Cupcake Saturday! We hope that everyone has had a wonderful week and that it hasn't been too hot. We decided that for our summer week, we needed a cupcake that tasted like summer and sun. We went with a Key Lime Pie cupcake. Since the Key Lime hails from Florida, we thought it would be a perfect summery flavor!

Doesn't it look like a mini pie?! These cupcakes are lime-flavored with a whipped cream topping. After a handful of failed attempts using Jello in our cakes, I think we finally figured it out! Technically, it probably should have had a meringue topping, but we thought the whipped cream was more of a summer flavor.
Thanks for stopping by!

Today's Party Trivia:
- In 1611, Henry Hudson's crew mutinied against him, leaving him and a few of his loyal crewmen in a boat. They were never heard from again.
- Canada's first national park, Banff, was created in 1887, after the passing of the Rocky Mountains Park Act.
- The dirst SAT test was administered in 1926.
- Today is National Pink Day! (My favorite day of the year!!)

Kid-Friendly Friday!

It's Friday again! Another weekend is upon us and we need something to keep little hands busy. So let's get them outside. Today's we are going to make paintable sidewalk chalk. This was really cool to use. Yes, that is a 26 year old saying it. I bet kids would love it! And it's really quick and easy to whip up in the kitchen.

Materials:
Cornstarch
Water
Liquid food coloring
Bowls
Spoons
Paintbrushes or spraybottles
Plastic stencils (optional)

Step One:
Mix equal parts cornstarch and cold water. I made four colors and therefore used four bowls. You could make one big batch and then split it up later to add the color.

 Step Two:
Add food coloring until you reach your desired color. Make sure to mix thoroughly because it tends to separate.

 Step Three:
Go outside and have some fun! I didn't have any spray bottles, so I just used a paint brush. Here are some of my pictures. (I am not an artist by any stretch of the imagination. That is a red dog with blue legs on the grass. Sad, I know...) If you want to, you can use plastic stencils and sponge paintbrushes. If you do use spray bottles, run it under warm water to unclog the nozzle every so often.

This  is what it looks like when it's dry. And the great thing is that it rinses right off with water. The colors here are really light because I needed to do it out on the patio. I think it would've been suspicious if an adult was out on the sidewalk painting.



 Thanks for stopping by! Come back tomorrow for Cupcake Saturday!

Today's Party Trivia:
- In 1633, Galileo Galilei was forced to change his view that the Earth was not the center of the universe.
- The GI bill was signed into law in 1944 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Today is National Chocolate Eclair Day!

Sunny Days!

Happy Thursday! We hope everyone is enjoying their first full day of summer, and like we've said, it seems as if it's been summer for a while.Everywhere but here! Although it looks like summer is right around the corner and it's supposed to be gorgeous for the next few days! Today's project is a mini album we whipped up to keep some of our pictures from the summer. The first picture is below, which is the cover:

 The entire album is full of bright colors and cute little accents! Right now, there are 5 pages. Each page has a spot for a picture and some journalling. The nice thing about it is that we can always add more pages in, since we didn't finish off the back and they're connected with rings.

 

 

Also, we've done some embossing on each page. each I don't know, I think they're all pretty cute, so I can't pick a favorite!
Thank you for stopping by! Join us tomorrow for a super-fun kid-friendly project! It's sure to get the inner artist out!

Today's Party Trivia:
 - New Hampshire became the 9th state in 1788.
- In 1984, Columbia Records introduced the long-playing album, or LP (look how far they've come!)
- Today is National Peaches and Cream Day! Sounds like another delicious desert. Click here for our peaches and cream Cupcake Saturday post.

Sending You Sunshine!

Well, the calendar says that summer starts today! And again, it has started everywhere but here. It seems kind of ironic that our cards say, "Sending you sunshine," since they are going out to people in Texas, Arizona, and Virginia Beach, among others. It's supposed to be a really nice day today, so I guess it works.

It's such a fun little sun!

Thanks for stopping by!

Today's Party Trivia:
- The University of Oxford, the second-oldest surviving university in the world, received its charter in 1214.
- In 1819, the first steam-propelled vessel crossed the Atlantic Ocean.
- Samuel Morse patented the telegraph in 1840. 37 years later, Alexander Graham Bell installed the world's first telephone service in Ontario.
- And a great way to end the day- today is Ice Cream Soda Day!!

A Little Home Decor...

Today we have a home decor project to share with you. You can't go on etsy or pinterest without seeing yarn wreaths. So, being us, we decided that we needed to do one too! This was so much fun, but rather time consuming, to make. 

After spending an hour wrapping the wreath form, we headed to the Cricut to cut some summer shapes to decorate it. Most of the ones we've seen only have flowers, but we thought that by adding paper shapes, you can use it for any holiday or season. Wrap it once, use it over and over. Can't wait to make some more of these! So many ideas for them.

Hmmm... where are the people if their bathing suits are hanging up...I'm usually not one toot my own horn, but "TOOT!" I have to say, I think this is really stinkin' cute and can't wait to make some more!

Thanks for stopping by!

Today's Party Trivia:
- The first Father's Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, in Spokane, Washington
- In 1846, the first official baseball game was played in Hoboken, NJ.
- The comic strip Garfield, with his pals John and Odie, made its debut in 1978. It holds the record for the most widely-syndicated cartoon strip.

Summertime Dreamin' Layout

Today's post is a layout to go with the summer theme. When I think summer, I think nice and relaxing, in the hammock with the wind blowing. Things are laid back and easy. Well, this layout definitely gives off that feeling. I wouldn't mind sitting under those palm trees! (As long as those seagulls stay away!)

Thanks for stopping by!

Today's Party Trivia:
-  Amelia Earhart became the first female to fly in an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean in 1928.
- In 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman to travel in space.
- Today is National Splurge Day- what a great excuse to get something you don't really need!!

Happy Father's Day!

Now, I don't think there are too many male readers out there, but I guess we should wish them a Happy Father's Day. And an especially happy day to our dad.
We have two projects to share today. The first project is a fun little card for dad. Our dad used to garden, A LOT. Now he has a small garden that if he's lucky, he gets some tomatoes out of. I don't think we ever had radishes though. Actually, I don't know if I've ever eaten a radish... Well, just because I haven't had them, doesn't mean I can't use them in craft projects! Just remember, "Dad, you're rad!"

We have entered this card into two challenges, at Fantabulous Cricut and SOUS

Today's second project is a "fun in the sun" banner. Since summer starts later this week, all of our projects will be summer-themed, of course! (Now, when I say summer starts, I'm pretty sure that it has already started in most parts of the United States, except here. They say that summer doesn't start until July 5th in the Northwest. I'm not sure if that's absolutely true, but I'm not complaining! There's nothing quite like 85 degrees and 95 percent humidity to really kick things up. Not. I would much rather take this 65-70 and sunny over that.) Enough weather-ranting. Here it is.

Sorry for the picture-heavy post.
Thanks for stopping by!


Today's Party Trivia:
- The construction of the Taj Mahal (the real one, not the one in Atlantic City...) is completed. It was actually a mausoleum for the emperor's wife.
- The Statue of Liberty made its journey across the ocean and arrived in New York in 1885.
- Today is National Apple Strudel Day! (What dad wouldn't like some of that on Father's Day?!)