Packing up and moving in the Spring happend fast with everything else we had going on. One of my goals was to go through all of our boxes and get rid of things we didn't need/want and make sure we were not wasting space by packing a bunch of air. After moving so many times I stopped worrying about trying to open every box when we moved in some place new, it was also hard because we seemed to keep moving into places that were smaller than the last.

Well we moved into the biggest place we have ever been in, a cute little farm house a couple miles away from the University where Paul is teaching. The goal was to open every box and make sure we weren't holding onto un-needed items.

In doing so I came across this cute little card full of thoughts and advice from the family and friends at my baby shower for Lady A {there are some cute ones for Miss E as well but I put those in a safe spot, you know, so they won't get lost or ruined, and now I just need to remember where that was. Am I the only one that does that?}. 

Even since I did not make it I thought I would try to put together a list of supplies and tools needed to create this.

MATERIALS/SUPPLIES
Solid and Patterened Card Stock
4"x6" Picture sleeves like the ones here or click the link for different sizes.
Decorative Brads
Decorative Embelishments
Archival pens like these ones

TOOLS
Paper cuter {this is the one I use. It travels well and is great for projects that require simple straight cuts}
Small Hole punch/needle {pretty much anything that will help puncture the layers of paper and page sleeves so the brads can be placed}
Glue/Double Sided Tape

This week I have been thinking a lot about my Grandpa or Grandpa Great as we affectionately call him. His wife passed away just over a month after we first moved to the East Coast. They had been married almost 20 years, for my younger brothers she was the only grandma they remember. He still has his own place but my parents have given him a room at their place as well so he can be closer to family. My dad also built a huge chicken coup because my grandpa was not leaving his 'ladies'. All the great grand-kids have loved being able to watch and feed the ladies. It has been over two years and the little ones still get excited about going out in the morning to collect the eggs.

I thought it would be a fun idea to send him a card letting him know we are thinking of him this Easter season.

You can find the chicken here. The 'chicken wire' fence is one I designed so that it would be sure to fit the front of the card {a letter size piece of cardstock cut in half then folded}.

This weeks card is dedicated to my little sister. She is a very dedicated mother of two and has done a great job raising her kids. I have been able to look to her example on a number of occasions.

It seems kind of funny as I type that because we could not be more different. We are the closest siblings in age out of six, we look nothing alike and our personalities are very individual from each other. Growing up, friends at school thought on of us had to be adopted.

Recently she has decided to go back to school. I could not be more excited for her and her kids as they take on this new adventure. This will also help her in providing for her kids as they get older.

So I thought I would send her a quick note to let her know how excited I am for her and her family.

To give the card a little dimension and pop I curled the peddles of the flowers.

Designed and cut on my Silhouette Portrait.

My church family is the best. One thing they love to do is get together, and a baby shower is a wonderful reason for us to all hangout. I have been to more baby showers in the short time we have lived here than the rest of my life combined. The games are hilarious and there are a couple of us who are a bit competitive ~ always a good time.

This past week has been  crazy. Paul was out of town and I am just over 36 weeks. My body has not enjoyed this pregnancy and I have been sleeping in the recliner for the last 3-4 weeks. I have been falling asleep every time I sit down so I did not think I was going to get a card up this week.

Tonight {Saturday} we had a dinner before the Women's Conference {Lady A and I went for the dinner part but went home for the conference because it was too late to keep her up} with the ladies from church. I was handed an invitation to my own baby shower next weekend. YEA!!! There were four of us due within about six weeks of each other and I am the last one. We will also be moving shortly after and since I have tried to make it to every baby shower possible, I am super excited for one last get together with these ladies before we leave.

I have pinned a couple of items or shared some things on FB and these cards are perfect. For Lady A we did owls and for Lady #2 we want to do elephants and I will continue with the yellow and grey color scheme, I used them in the afghan I recently finished. Since this invitation was made on my behalf, and because I think it is so cute, I am counting it as my card for this week.

I shared with you that the inspiration for a year worth of cards was my Grandmother. She passed away before Christmas just over a year ago, one thing I remember everyone saying was how thoughtful my Grandma was and that they had already received their Christmas card from her.

Since then my mom and her two sisters have been taking turns going out to spend the evenings with my Grandpa. He suffers from dimensia and loosing his life time companion has been hard for him. Grandpa would love to sit and talk to you for hours about growing up and working for the railroad but his short term memory has suffered a lot. It is hard to look into someones eyes knowing that they recognize you, they know that they should be able to recall your name, but nothing comes to them.

Growing up I remember when my Grandpa built his work shed in his back yard. It was his own bit of space to do whatever he wanted, even if it was to sit there and not work on anything. He loved showing it off and how he had organized it, if there was a project going on he would definitley take you back to see it. This card is for my Grandpa and is designed after one of the many things that reminds me of him......a little red shed.

Here is a little tip about how I placed the stickers. I wanted them to be on the same row but I wanted to letters to be crocked. For this technique place a ruler {I like using a clear one so I can see everything under it as well} over the card where you want the letters to go. Place the letters along the edge of the ruler however you would like.

Lift the opposite side of the ruler up and as the stickers start to touch the paper use your finger to press down the tops of the stickers, then carefully pull the ruler away and press the rest of the sticker down firmly. It is as simple as that. The letters are all on there but look a little wind blown or crocked from the door opening and closing.

This is a bit of a different one from a traditional card. My little one is only two and has some time before starting school but I still keep all of our Box Tops so we can send them to our niece and nephew who take the competition at school very serious. They have both been in classes that have won for their different grades a couple of times and get so excited about it. I also love it because I get to help them do something they want but I do not have to break the bank.

I love when a project is completed and it turns our just as good or better than I had it imagined in my head. Well, this is one of those projects, I love how they turned out. After spending some time playing around with the program I still have not figured out how to save an .SVG file from Silhouette Studio, instead I have a BoxTopsTent.studio file for you to download from here to make a little packet for your kids to take their Box Tops to school. The different lines are colored differently so you can see what's-what.

Items used:
Silhouette Portrait
Cutting File
Glue dots
Pink & Black Staedtler pens
Metallic Silver Sharpie

PLEASE let me know if the file does not work, this is my first time trying to share a file and I would hate to find out it never worked and I didn't know it.

My cousin and her family have moved out of the country for her husbands work. We used to talk all the time, some of those phone calls would last hours. It didn't matter how short we were planning on making the call, we could always find something to talk about. Phone calls are not so easy now, are are in completely opposite timezones, but I want to keep in touch with her and let her know that I am thinking of her.

She is a very gifted quilter, one of my favorite quilts is one that she made for me as a gift when I came home from my mission. The cover of the card is designed after the Log Cabin pattern.

I have never thought about cleaning bathtub toys....they sit in the clean water with the kiddos....but I noticed a little build up on some of Lady A's bath toys so it is time to get working on cleaning them. After all they are in the bath to get clean, it does not make sense to have them play with dirty toys.

Plug the holes for those that squirt water or have squeek holes. The kiddos might not be too happy about this but it will save you a lot of work and mold in the long run. Simply use hot glue to place a water proof seal on those toys.

Here are a couple of options to cleaning those toys that can help keep bath time a little bit easier:

• Boil them ~ place them in a pot of water and boil them in hot water. Squeeze the water in and out of the squirt and squeaky toys to get the yucky mold out.
• Place in bleach or vinegar bath ~ The bleach kills mold but if that seems a bit harsh you can use vinegar instead. Mix about 3/4 C. bleach {vinegar} with 1 gallon of water.
  
  • Let the toys soak for 5-10 minutes {or overnight if they need a little extra attention} making sure that any of the squirt and squeaky toys get some of the water mixture in them to clean the inside of them as well.
  • Squeeze them a number of times to work out the yucky.
    
  • Rinse in hot water and allow to completely dry, this would be a good time to plug up the squeeze toys if you want to.

• Place them in the dishwasher. Make sure to place them on the top shelf and only place those that you are sure can handle it. The dishwasher will sanitize them and help to kill any mold or other gunk both on the inside and out.

Just a couple of thoughts....

• If the inside of the toy is too gunky just throw it away and get a new one. The health of our little ones is not worth trying to save a couple of bucks.
• Be sure to take the toys out of the tub after every bath. Allowing them to fully dry in between baths will help keep the gunk from moisture loving mold to build up.
• Normally if it is plastic and will stand up to water I would let Lady A take it in the tub with her. From now on I will make sure to have certain toys set a side so I don't have to deep clean all of them and they will be ones that I would be fine to toss if/when they need to be.
• If you need to, use a soft brush to help clean the toys.

My Grandma had some of the sweetest sisters there ever where. Aunt Ivie, Aunt Grace and my Grandma all had the same sweet personalities. They loved unconditionally and where always there with open arms.

Once, after recently getting my drivers license, I had the chance to drive my Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Ivie and Uncle Max out to an event. Honestly, I can not remember for the life of me what it was, possibly a wedding reception, but I do remember meeting a lot of family from Aunt Ivie and Uncle Max's family. I still have the letter my Aunt sent to my Grandparents thanking them for coming and there was a bit in there for me. Oh man, I felt so special that she thought of me and she had such nice things to say.

Christmas time of 2012 I got to see my Aunt Grace again when she came out for my Grandma's funeral. This past Holiday season she has been on my mind a lot and I don't want to miss the chance to tell her I am thinking of her and that I love her.

Did you ever get 'the ultimate scarpbook and card kit' by Lisa&Becky? I've had mine for a few years and love it. Over the years I have added different items to my kit so that everything I need it right where I need it.

This is a New Family Tradition that came about from procrastination and not getting Christmas cards out on time.

Full article here.