Ashton turned 5 years old yesterday, and Spongebob party to celebrate! On Saturday we had a bunch of neighborhood kids over for cake, ice cream, a water balloon toss/fight, a pinata, and a great big Spongebob Jumpy House!
Here you can see Ashton in the front window of the jumper, he has the yellow shirt on. (Yes, we all wore yellow and blue; Spongebob colors!). It was a great day. Everyone had fun, even though Ashton got a little emotional and needed a break in his room (I didn't send him there, he went on his own!). Before the party, Ashton tried one of his party hats on Angel. She didn't really care for it .
Angel's still in her pj's here, yes she wore yellow! When I asked Ashton what kind of cake he wanted, he said Chocolate cake AND cupcakes! So, I made both!
You can never have too much cake or cupcakes. I made white cupcakes also, and it was a good thing I did because some of the kids didn't like chocolate! I know! I couldn't believe it either!!! LOL! One of the sweetest things about the day was that Andrew wanted to
make Ashton's birthday card himself. I guess I'm rubbing off on him! He colored one of the owl images that I had stamped for an owl swap I'm in. He thought it was so cool that I let him use my Copic Markers! I watched him like a hawk though, and I kept telling him, "Now don't push too hard! Be careful with the lid! Ok, that's enough of the eraser marker!" (We call the colorless blender pen the eraser marker). He did an excellent job with the markers and with putting the card together! He went through my papers and picked out Spongebob colors, decided what layout and layers to use, and after I cut them all to his satisfaction, he glued it all together. Then, I showed him a little ribbon looking button and the birthday hat, so he colored the hat and glued the button on. He made a little mess with the glue, so ignore the glue spots!
I think he has a real future in the card-making business. I swear I didn't coach him! That adorable owl is from Kim Hughes'
U R A Hoot set at Cornish Heritage Farms, btw. Isn't it adorable? Then, I needed to make Ashton a card myself. So, the morning of the party, with Ashton coloring right beside me, I made him this card.
I had to use the monkey from Melanie M.'s
Just so Hippy set because the monkey reminds me of Ashton so much. I got the idea for the balloon bouquet from Melanie herself. She SENT me the card she made! You can see it
HERE. Yes, I own this card! WooHoo! The heart balloon is popped up on a dimensional. The black frame was drawn in with my zig pen, and then I went back and scored along the lines to make the frame actually pop out of the card. You can't tell in the pic, but it looks cool in real life. I also drew the balloon strings with my zig pen, then I put some shadow under "Ashton Monkey" with a copic marker. It's funny, Ashton opened the card and said, "Hey, I saw you make this upstairs!" and then said "I
LOVE it Mom, Thank you!" But honestly, he loved the $5 in it more! LOL!
So, that it's for the birthday post. Tomorrow I'll be posting about the
tee cards I made, and maybe the next day I'll show you all the Owl Swap cards that I mentioned earlier.
Until next post, be blessed!
I actually signed up for two spots, so this is my first set of cards. I finished my second set of cards today, but it was too dark out to take a decent picture of them. And because my middle child is such a "middle child" I wanted to share this funny picture of him. 
He is such a goofball! He loves to dress up and pretend to be other people. He wears his halloween costumes year-round and he'll wear his costumes instead of pj's most nights too! Well, thanks so much for stopping in again. Until next post, be blessed.
It's a flip album. I got the directions from Jessica Fick. You can check out her blog 
I kept it pretty simple without much embellishment because I didn't want to detract from the adorable pictures, or any of the journaling that my friend may add in the journaling blocks. 
I love the paper that I found at my LSS. It wasn't too "baby boyish" and it had some great blues in it. I used a couple of the adorable animal images from Melanie Muenchinger's stamp sets by paper piecing them into the book. (Have I mentioned how much I LOVE M.M.'s stamps? Check them out at 
They gave just enough embellishment on this section of the book without being overwhelming. Please ignow all the stuff in the background! It was hard to get a picture of the book open this far without having all the background stuff showing! See the 3 center panels? They each open up for another page.
I only had a few pictures, so I didn't fill in all the photo mats. And isn't my friend adorable with her big baby belly? 
Her name is Melanie too, not to be confused with the stamp designer! LOL!
And here are all her boys together! 
She is quite outnumbered in her house being the only female with 5 guys to take care of. And just so you don't need to ask, YES, they are all natural red-heads! LOL! I love you Mel and I'm glad you enjoyed the little gift. I can't wait to meet your little gift in November!
LOL! I know, I need to be a fashion designer, haha! And YES, I am a star! Kidding! I've had a lot of fun messing around with all the different ways to decorate the tees from the Little Tees stamp set. In a couple days I'll be able to post some of the things I've made with them. I did find the most adorable little favor bottles in the wedding section of Party City. I knew they would be perfect for a little project using my rubons. I completely forgot that I had some rubons from DCWV's Rock Star line, so I made this little "potion bottle."
Andrew wants this bottle (of course) so he messed with it, frayed the ribbon and made the cork fall in it. Oh well, I guess it's not so "cute" anymore and it's scarier.
Thanks so much Melanie!
They were hot and sweaty after the long hike up the mountain, but they had a great time regardless. Next up is my gorgeous hubby: 
He's the guy on the right with the blindingly white legs! LOL! He took a 26 mile bike ride with a couple of his buddies. He's in Korea; isn't it beautiful there? Wow, I wish I could've gone to visit him.
Since I obviously don't have any of the brand new stuff, I used what I had. The paper is Summer Picnic Designer Paper and the stamp set is Wild About You. I have to say that this stamp set is one of my favorites. I have used it SO many times for various things.