Kellso Collage

A very girlie D.T. project!

I knew right away what direction I had to take once I saw this paper from Melissa Frances.  It is ultra feminine, and beautiful.  Without hesitation, I pulled out Eden’s hospital picture, and got to work.  With so many soft patterns and colors, I decided to make the page look like a quilt.  Here’s the technique I used:  I cut the paper into squares to form the ‘quilt’-  Each square was 4×4 inches to cover a 12×12 sheet of scrapbook paper with 3 rows and 3 columns.  I sprayed each square with water, and gently crumpled the paper to give it a well-worn fabric look.  After highlighting the wrinkles with Bundled Sage Distress Ink, I glued the squares down onto a larger piece of paper, fixing the lace edging in place as well.  I did some stitching along the edges of the squares to ‘quilt’ them in place, and I made this process go much more quickly by pre-punching the holes and then just following the holes as I sewed.

All the lace, from the flower to the edges of the page, are from an old shirt I was ready to part with.  But, I couldn’t let the lace go without putting it to some good use!  The flower was inspired by another online tutorial, and it was so simple-  just cut circles out of the fabric in varying sizes, and singe the edges!  My flower is a bit over-singed, but I was happy with the results.

I also put together a quick mini book to give the Melissa Francis products more of a chance to shine.  The pictures doesn’t show the fun scalloped edges from one of the papers I received, but I wanted to put every piece of the material to good use!   All of the papers and embellishments are available at Mystic Paper!  All the hard work of the Design Team is on display, as well-don’t miss checking out Holly and Sheri’s blogs to see their Melissa Francis projects from this month.

Today is the perfect day to update my blog with this project, because Eden’s newborn picture was taken exactly 3 years ago-  Today is her birthday, and we are so glad we have this girlie girl in our family!   Happy Birthday, Eden!

Two first days…

This was a week of big events as Noah started Kindergarten at Crossroads Christian School, and (the next day)  Jonathan began his 4th year (3rd grade) at CEE.  I was a little emotional going into Noah’s first day, but my primary concern was for my 2 boys.  Noah listed his #1 apprehension as being afraid he would cry at school like last year.  I reminded him that he learned to love school last year!  However, you’ll notice I said my 2 boys:  The day before school started, Jonathan started getting emotional because it would be the first time (for one 1/2 day) that he would be home without Noah.  Or, as he put it “I won’t get to play Lego’s with Noah anymore!”  I assured him that he would, indeed have more opportunities to play Legos with Noah-  ”Well, not as much!”  Jonathan sobbed.   ‘Dude,’ I was thinking to myself all that day, ‘If you start crying when we drop Noah off, I’m going down.  Hard.  And it will not be pretty.’  Thankfully, both Jonathan, Noah, and I managed to keep it together.

Noah’s school is a hybrid of 3 days a week in school, and 2 days teacher planned Home Schooling, or HBL (home based learning).  I am getting really excited as I get more comfortable with the idea, and more and more I am certain that God provided just the right solution for Noah’s kindergarten year.

Jonathan was, of course, an old pro by the time his 1st day rolled around.  His teacher (Mrs. Quinn) seems really sweet, and a few of his close friends as well as several familiar faces, are in his class this year.  Jonathan was not interested in my taking the camera to school- way too embarassing!  BUT- I did see his best friend, Tristan’s, dad PEEK around the doorway of their classroom to take a stealth 1st day picture.  Very sneaky, Mr. Duggar!  And diabolically brilliant.

Jonathan is being ‘bumped’ up to 4th grade math this year, his math scores last year proved he was more than ready!  It should be a great year!

1 Corinthians 13:12

Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Congratulations, Abdi!

August DT

For this month’s DT project for Mystic Paper, each of us girls were given papers and product from Melissa Francis.  They were so beautiful and easy to use!  The papers are so ruffly and feminine, I could think of only one direction to take this project, To Be Revealed, soon!  Make sure to check in on Shari and Holly (who got the Kitschy Kitchen collection, sniff, sniff, boo!) to see their goodies for the month!