Scrapbook Day- 4/18/09

I recently went to a scrapbook day hosted by our Creative Memories consultant. I'm not very productive at those things, it's just too much fun talking!! But I did manage to complete this one scrapbook page. I entered it into the page contest, but didn't win. Hope you like it!

This layout goes along with a couple others I have already made about EmmaLee's 1st birthday, thats why I didn't think it neccessary to include that many pictures.

I made the button tree and backstitched the trunk and limbs. I also made tons of French Knots along the middle border. I love to sew on my pages! It took a while but I think it's fun to play around and especially when I'm really happy with the result.

365 Cards Day 58- Something's Fishy

They are a set of 3 Birthday Invitations I plan on using on my son's 3rd birthday coming up in September.

Yay! My first Award!!

A new freind I met over at 365 Cards, Rose, has given me an award!! My very first one!! Isn't she so sweet!

The rules for the award:
The winner may put the logo onto their blog.
Put a link to the person who sent you the award.
Nominate 10 blogs.Put links to their blogs.Leave a message for the nominees.

I'm still fairly new in the blogging circuit but I do have a few blogs that I hover around and follow, some of my fav's are:

Leah @ PaperBlooms

Lana @ Sweet Peas Paper Creations

Rosmary @ Free Advice Worth Every Penny

Jana @ I Can't Wanna

Kim @ Angel at my Door

Carole @ Paper Arts

Krista @ Bella and Aidee's Mom

Debbie @ Debbie's ScrapArt

Now why not visit these talented ladies and show them some love? :-)

365 Cards Day 52 & 54

Day 52- Tuesday's Trio

The Challenge was to use a Brad, Blossom, and Circle. I made a circle chipboard album with a paper folded blossom. I made the album using up cereal boxes. I really did double duty with the circle part of the challenge because not only is my album and pages circular, the blossom is also made by cutting out and folding 9 smaller circles. I'll show you how at the end of this post.






Next up is Day 54- Recycled Elements

I hope it doesn't matter that my project wasn't about making a card, for this challenge or Tuesday's Trio, but I love playing with paper so this is what I came up with.



I have been holding onto these little boxes that EmmaLee's medical supplies come in FOREVER!! Well, finally I have a reason to use them. I've wanted to re-cover them for a while but I guess I just needed a good push, like playing along with 365 Cards Blog!! I love it!
...And I made it coordinating to hold the little circle album.



Once I finish the album with pictures and stuff, I will add a title to the front of the box. I was thinking something simple like "friends" or "my friends", then I can use up all my random pictures of friends on the inside with some journaling about them or something.
(Wow, my ribbon is really wrinkled!! Ignore it, I'll fix that later.)

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Short Tutorial- Paper Folded Blossom



Start by cutting out 9 circles, you will use 8 for the blossom, the 9th is just a base for gluing the others onto.
1. Fold all 9 circles into quarters. ( In half one way, then in half the other way) Then on 8 of them make score lines from the left and right horizontal line down to the bottom vertical line. (see picture)



2. Turn paper over and fold up on score lines.
3. Turn paper over again and fold the flat edges you just made by folding, into the center lining it up with the vertical line. Do on both sides and press down firmly.



Then just arrange and glue them to your last circle by fitting two "blooms" into each quadrant that you folded, matching the tips with the center.

Hearing Problems

We have recently have had a lot of hearing issues arise. EmmaLee gets quite a bit of "buildup" in her ear canals that we can't clean completely out and it has affected her hearing. Which in turn affects her speech development. She hasn't had a "normal" result from a hearing test since her birth. We were going in to see the ENT about every 4 months to have him clean off her ear drums, but it still didn't seem to be enough. We have since started going in about every other month to have her ears checked/cleaned. We have been in twice when the Doctor said that they were pretty clean, and he didn't need to do anything. But the times he does, are dreadful!!

He uses a long tubelike vacuum to suction off the debri clinging to her ear drum. The noise is quite loud, and she just screams like crazy. Mostly she's just scared of the noise, but it takes me and two nurses holding her body down so the Dr. can do it. She flails her arms and legs and jerks her head away from him so much that I have suggested using sedation for the times they need cleaned out. I can't imagine that he gets very close to the ear drum if he is constantly worried about her twitching her head and so not getting too close that it could injure her. We havn't had to sedate her yet, but we'll see about the next appt.

So in December we had him put tubes in her ears to help with the draining, and she also had her adnoids taken out. Apparently they help produce a lot of unneeded mucus. It seemed like she always had a runny nose, so it helped with that alot too. Well, the tubes have already fallen out within 2 months and they didn't help with the hearing much. One thing that the Doctor said was that when he was in there placing her tubes, he has never seen anyone with eardrums as thick as hers. The actual Tympanic Membrane is thicker than usual, which he thinks also might be causing her hearing problems. Which makes sense that her ear drums might be thickened since her skin is so rapidly turning over and producing new layers.

Originally we assumed the hearing loss was caused by the debri "buildup" in her ear canals and on the surface of the eardrum itself. The "buildup" mostly consists of dead skin cells, but then with her bathing process everything in her ear canals gets wet and waterlogged turning it into a kind of "goop". I clean her ears out thoroughly every day with a looped ear curette, but I won't ever go in deep enough that I might injure her ear drum. We love the ear curette, it works so well with getting out the debris and skin that gunks up in her ear. We use the white looped one that is second to the bottom in the picture.


At one point we were using a lighted ear curette that was amazing and prevented me from getting too close to the eardrum, but it was a sample and when the light burnt out we couldn't get insurance to buy a replacement for it. It worked like a flashlight, but used an led light that shone up the base of the ear curette and lighted up just the tip that was inserted into her ear. Oooh, I found some pictures to explain it better. I really wish we could afford to buy her a new one of these, it was great.

Well now that the hearing loss might be due to the thickness of the TM, we have started to discuss hearing aid options with the Doctor. But about a month ago we had another hearing screen right after a cleaning at the ENT and it really made a difference. For the first time we received a "normal" test result meaning she can hear at normal ranges. I have been so happy thinking that things are going to get easier for us, we wont need to look at hearing aids, and she will start to talk better and understand us better.

Well yesterday we went to the ear Dr. and he was very pessimistic about the "normal" audio results. He basically said that he thinks they did it wrong. If she's never had a normal reading before, why does she all of a sudden hear perfectly? I was at that Audiology appt. myself. I watched them do the tests, and I don't think they did anything "wrong". I can tell that her hearing has improved alot since we bumped up the cleanings at the Dr.'s. The Doctor, however, wants a "second opinion" and we will have to get her re-tested. So much for getting my hopes up.

365 Cards Day 45 - Tri fold card

I just made this today to try and catch up on all the challenges for Scor-it week. I love this blog and am having so much fun playing along and blog hopping to see everyone's beautiful work, I am feeling a little inferior, but very very inspired! Thank you for all your sweet comments! I'm trying to leave some love everywhere I look for you too!

I'll probably end up stamping a sentiment on the green tab once I know who to give it to. Same with the inside, I love to decorate and personalize all the accessories, like the inside and the envelope.

I saw this tri-fold idea in a card folding book I bought, I love the little belt thing that holds it closed. Just slide the tab under the flower.

I am obsessed!!

So from the way I understand it, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder has many degrees and varieties. Well, my particular brand has Everything to do with CRAFTS!!

I have gone through so many different obsessions lately, first and always it has been scrapbooking and cardmaking, then I found glass etching and went absolutely crazy with it for about 3 weeks. Next I moved on to Plastic Canvas crafts, I really loved making cute little boxes for trinkets and stuff. I even have this cool idea in my head to make a plastic canvas play mat for my son to drive his cars on, and I can make 3-D buildings and things to attach onto it for him to re-arrange and stuff. Well, we will see if that ever happens. If you look back through my blog I have also gone a little crazy making dozens of trinket boxes, then handmade notebooks.

Right now I am loving to sew! Sewing. It is so weird to me that I have found such an interest in it now, I was taught how to sew when I was young. I even made myself some clothes like during my elementary and jr. high school days. I made a vest, skirt, and pajama pants, you know things like that. I learned originally through 4-H, but my mom is a very skilled seamstress and has always made me and my sisters things growing up. My mom made my Jr. Prom dress, and lots of our Halloween costumes. My younger sisters were even in a Renaissance Fair and she made them the most beautiful dresses for it!!

Well, despite all of my mother's efforts, I never really picked it up, until now. I found some adorable patterns at Joann's and thought I would give it another shot. Plus I recently got a new sewing machine for Christmas and have been so excited to give it a go. When JoAnn's has pattern sales I can't help myself! I got 20 new patterns this week for only $.99 each!! On my receipt I saved over $150 dollars!!

Okay, thanks for being patient through my ramblings. Here is what I made first, keeping in mind that I have since made 2 more little girls dresses and am cutting out my most recent pattern of a little boys' dress shirt, vest, and bowtie!!

The dresses are for my daughter EmmaLee and our friends' daughter Lucy. I made them in a 4T and 24mo/2T. They are basically the same dress, but I varied a few things.

I didn't think EmmaLee would like the sleeve elastic scrunched up on her arm, so I made hers with flowing sleeves, and a bow right on the front center. Lucy's has bows on the sleeves, and one on the bottom left front. Also not shown, on the back of the dresses they have 2 buttons, EmmaLee's are round and kinda big, and Lucy's are small and heart shaped.

Of course, they had to also have matching purses!! I can't believe how difficult it was to read the pattern for the purses!! I had a little help from mom with that, but then had a blast putting it all together. I love to use up every last bit of something, so it was a great way to use the small scraps of fabric.

365 Cards Day 46 - Matchbook Card

I ran across this awesome blog and have wanted to join one of their challenges for weeks, but have been having a hard time finding the spare time to make a card. I happened to have just made this a couple days ago!! Hope it will count!

I think I made this on the day that they had the Gift Card challenge, but didn't enter it in time. I wish I could get into this whole blogging thing better!! I stink at posting! Thanks for looking.