Saturday, May 26, 2012

Graduation Album (and a trip down nostalgia lane)

My sister asked me "How do you get through this graduation stuff?"
I should be a pro by now.
We are on our fourth high school graduation.  Two more to go.
But I seem to get weepier with every one.

In fact, I have a confession.
I cried at the park the other day.
It was a gorgeous May afternoon so my daycare child and I started out on a stroll...and soon found ourselves at a nearby park.  One where I had spent an incalculable amount of time when my children were younger.
Memories flitted by, almost painful, as I remembered chubby cheeks and sweaty arms and squeals of delight and brown bodies swinging across the monkey bars.  Picnic lunches with Capris Suns and subs and potato chips wolfed down so the play time could continue. Two children walking by my side on the way home, talking earnestly, another lagging behind, three skipping on ahead.
Oh, there are many things I would do differently - such as fret less about a messy house and play instead that millionth game of Candy Land.  But I am so thankful that I got to be a stay-at-home mom, and I would never change the amount of time that I spent with my kids.
So yes, it's an emotional time, a nostalgic time.  But we get through it because it's what's SUPPOSED to happen.  Our kids are SUPPOSED to grow up, graduate and continue their life journeys out from under our protective wings. So we cheer them on, while inside a tiny part of us weeps.
 Here's the first page in the Scrapbook I (almost) finished creating for Matthew:











So proud of this young man and all of the awards he has won during his high school years.  The four cords for graduation are for Highest Academic Honors, National Honor Society, Forensics, and Tri-M Music Society,

And if you have an extra 2 minutes and 43 seconds, here's his graduation speech:
Matt Recites His ABC's...kinda...

Off to his grad party now.  Thanks for stopping by!
Marie with a :)
PS  More of his scrapbook pages are on my facebook page:
Isom Cre8tions on Facebook

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Simple, simple graduation cards

Yikes...graduation season is here and if you are like us, you'll need a number of grad cards. These are super quick and easy ones using the Clean and Simple FTL sketch 191 and the CFC 53: Get Punchy challenges. (BTW - if you are a blog follower and not a facebook fan, check out my fb page - I recently posted more layouts for AS3's grad scrapbook :) )





 inside of cards
Thanks for stopping by!
Marie with a :)

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Lasting Memories/Starting the Matt Book


I have hopes of completing a scrapbook for AS3 before he graduates in 2 weeks...not sure I'll accomplish my goal but I did manage 3 layouts for it this weekend.  This first one uses the challenge from Lasting Memories
Couldn't get much easier than this layout...it took only 45 minutes including deciding on paper and photos! Can you spot the "metal?"
I love these cork letters from Close To My Heart!
Yes, there's my metal...a Tim Holtz clock :)

This second layout is from Homecoming. I always have a tough time taking pictures of layouts.  Anyone got advice for improvements?
The paper is from the Roxie collection (CTMH) and the flower is from a Hero Arts wooden stamp (I, um, think...)  The stars and heart and mini envelope were created with punches.
This mini CTMH calendar continues to be one of my favorite stamps...it's so versatile.  Unfortunately, it's not available any more.

And finally: a picnic in the park layout :)

Here's a photo of the bride and groom per Sharon's request :) Check out her blog - you'll love the work and the wit.  (We don't have any of the professional photos yet :)


Bride and groom with bride's parents. Yep, that would be the HH and me.

Thanks for stopping by,
Marie with a :)

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Some Wedding Crafts

LD1 wanted a simple wedding. And she wanted me to create invitations...simple invitations.


 I also created coordinating thank yous.


 (inside)

 My friend Theda and I also created the programs.

 Nut and mint cups for the tables.

 LD1 and I  talked a lot about a guest book.  In the end, we decided rather than creating a guest book, which tends to get forgotten in a box in the basement after the wedding, we would use a couple of 12 x 12 scrapbook pages. Then they could be added to the wedding scrapbook we plan on making.  In addition,  my friend and I created these little notebook pages with mini envelopes so people could leave notes for the newlyweds.  They really enjoyed reading the notes!


We used a vintage case for people to leave the notes in.

Now that the wedding is over, I need to get busy on graduation invites and a scrapbook for AS3.

Thanks for stopping by!
Marie with a :)