First Bath Layout

Yay! I'm posting again and it hasn't been months! :)

Here's the layout I did forever ago for Carver's first bath. I'm loving the way it turned out and I got to use my Kiwi Lane Designs templates that I've been wanting to use.

 Look how tiny he was! And McKay was even smaller than that!

Portrait Layout

I've decided that part (definitely not all) of the reason for my lack of blogging is that I feel like I need to have all the details of what papers I used, etc. Well, I'm still going to keep track in a spiral notebook that I have, but I'm not going to feel guilty about not having them on here. Let's see if that gets me to post sooner. If you want to know what I used on a project, definitely shoot me a note and I'll let you know. :)

Here's one of the layouts I did way before McKay was born. I'm finding that having two kids is a lot busier than one self-sufficient child. My hands are usually full with a precious little six week old and trying to entertain her older brother. Let's just say that my house is a PIT that I'd be embarrassed for anyone to see.

This is one of those pre-done sheets of paper in a stack that I've always disliked. But it seemed to work ok to throw this layout together.

Induction Day!

Whelp, I guess I should update on what's been going on. I started having contractions (back labor) on Wed June 26th but they died off in the afternoon. Mom decided to come over so that she wouldn't have to drive in the middle of the night if we went to the hospital. 

This pattern continued on Thursday and Friday. Charlie (moms husband) took the airport shuttle over after work on Friday. I had an appt that morning and was 2cm and 50% effaced and Dr didn't think I'd make it to the appt we set up for Monday. 

Chris went to his grandma's memorial service Saturday afternoon and the rest of us went to the mall to try to get things moving. By this time McKay had shifted and wasn't in my back anymore. After we came home my contractions were 3-4min apart but they weren't very painful. We decided I should probably go into the hospital just in case this was it.  So we called Chris (he was at a family gathering by now) to meet us. 

We got to the hospital and at first they put us in Noah's room. After we asked to be moved they checked me and I was 3cm and 50-60% effaced. So they had me walk for an hour. I hadn't made any progress walking so they sent us home. Talk about disappointing and frustrating. 

Mom and Charlie went home Sunday morning and we had a quiet family day. We all got in the pool and I taught Carver to swim (with me still holding him up). That was the most he's ever gotten into the big pool so that was awesome! I also lost my plug and after telling mom she hopped in the car and came back. Haha

And now we're to today. I made my appt this morning and was still 3cm and 60% but there was a room open at the hospital so we did all the paperwork and walked over. Dr had said this might be possible so we weren't surprised. 

So we're here in the room waiting for the pitocin IV to get things started. We'll leave you with the last belly picture and the humongous gown I get to wear. Can't they make them any smaller?? 

What I've been up to...

... just trying to get this baby out! I haven't really been crafting much. I do have some things to post on, but we're currently in Operation Evacuate Baby so I haven't had much energy to post. I'm slowly working on getting things together to make McKay's birth announcements. I still have some projects I need/want to finish before she comes but I realize that she may come before they're done.

If you want to be kept up to date on all the baby stuff, you can head over to my family blog - www.thegarlandfam.blogspot.com



In Thirty-One News:
The special this month is pretty awesome. You get a Large Utility Tote for just $10 (regularly $35 which makes it 70% off!!) for every $35 you spend. It's also available in the Fun Flops fabric (the front one in the picture below) for June only! So you'd better get  your orders in now!! Check everything out at: www.mythirtyone.com/tanagarland and let me know if you have any questions. :)

Memorial Day Special!!! Today ONLY!!!

Happy Memorial Day everyone!!!

Today is a day to remember all of those that paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom and the families they left behind.

Thank you to all of those that have served our country.

Now, onto the shopping that is Memorial Day. May's special ends in a few days, and I'm making it even sweeter. Anyone that places an order through me today (not online) will get one thing personalized! How's that to add a little incentive. Orders must be emailed to me (chris.tana08 @ hotmail . com) by 8pm PST tonight so I can get them submitted tonight and get your products on their way to you. Just put 'Memorial Day Order' as the subject so I can catch it if it gets sent to my Junk folder. Now it's time to do some shopping. :)

www.mythirtyone.com/tanagarland

If you need a little inspiration on how you could use some of the products, head over to my board on Pinterest HERE. I've got a bunch of ideas on how people use theirs.

Thanks for supporting me and helping me out. It means a lot. :)

Sand Castle

Today is my baby shower for McKay at my mom's house. It'll be fun to catch up with everyone and celebrate this little girl. :)

Here's the last of this set of cards I made. They were a lot of fun to make and I got them all done in one sitting which is big for me right now!

Details:

Value Pack - Purple

My Minds Eye - A Happy Heart

Cuttlebug - D'vine Swirls embossing folder

Pink by Design - Just Beachy

Sun

Today is my fifth wedding anniversary!! We're heading to my mom's house today for my baby shower tomorrow. Hopefully we get there in time so that Chris and I can go out to dinner to celebrate. :)

Details:

Value Pack - Yellow

My Minds Eye - Playdate

Tim Holtz - Rays embossing folder

Pink by Design - Just Beachy

Fishy Fishy

Here's the third in the set of five cards I made with this layout and stamp set.

Details:

Value Pack - Orange

Little Yellow Bicycle - Hello Spring

Cuttlebug - Seeing Spots embossing folder

Pink by Design - Just Beachy

Sand Pail

Happy May Day!!! I love this day because it means that my birthday is exactly a week away. :)

Here's the second in the set that I made with this stamp set. I love how they all look the same but are all unique in color, embossing folder and patterned paper.

Details:

Recollections - Red

Echo Park - Happy Days

Cuttlebug - Spots & Dots embossing folder

Pink by Design - Just Beachy

Sailboat

I've had the Just Beachy stamp set from Pink by Design sitting on my desk, staring at me, ever since I got it. So I finally sat down and made a set of five cards with them. They're all the same layout but with a different stamp and color scheme.

Details:

Value Pack - blue

My Minds Eye - Quilting Bee

Sizzix - Hello Friend embossing folder

Pink by Design - Just Beachy

Keep Calm and Drink Coffee

This one doesn't really need an explanation. :)

 

Details:

Core'dinations - Coffee

Recollections - kraft

Argyle - stash

Pink by Design - Craft On

Rhinestones - Michaels $1 bin

Baked With Love

I'm loving the Fresh Goodies stamp set from Pink by Design!!

Details:

Pink by Design - Fresh Goodies; Tags & Treats

My Minds Eye - Playdate

twine

Keep Calm and Teach On

I did a craft show at a high school in the beginning of March. I knew that there would be some teachers there so I made these cards. All the teachers loved them!

Details:

Recollections - Kraft, Red & White

Imagininsce - ?

EK Success - Notebook punch

Notebook paper

Pink by Design - Craft On

twine

Courage to Face Tomorrow

I needed a few sympathy cards and didn't have much time to make them. So this is what I came up with. I find sympathy cards so hard to find inspiration for.

Details:

Creative Imaginations - Neutral

Little Yellow Bicycle - Swoon

Core'dinations - Elephant

Pink by Design - Sympathy

Twine

Good Friends are Like Stars

Here's the third and final set of thank you cards I sent to a friend of mine. I love the simplicity of these cards.

Details:

Recollections - Kraft; Bright & Basic stack

Pink by Design - Wonderful Life

Marvy Uchida - star punch (green)

Gratitude Stars

Here's the second set of thank you cards I made for a friend of mine. I'm loving the blue/green combo!

Details:

Recollections - Kraft; Bright & Basic stack

Pink by Design - Definitely Definitions

Marvy Uchida - star punch (green)

Thirty-One Gifts

Hey everyone!!! Just a quick post to let you know of a new adventure I've embarked on.

I signed up to sell Thirty-One Gifts the end of March and I'm really excited about this new venture I'm on. Don't worry, this will still be a crafting blog. I just wanted to let you all know about this.

If you get a chance, head over to my website (www.mythirtyone.com/tanagarland) and check out everything Thirty-One has to offer. There's a great special going on this month. We're offering two sizes of duffel bags for a great deal. They aren't in the catalog and will be gone, gone, gone as of April 30th. So get them while you can! And, if you spend $35 you get the small duffel for $10 (regularly $35) or the large for $25 (regularly $80!!!). That's a screaming deal!!!

Anyways, thanks for your support. :)

Oh, and I'm still looking for my camera cables to upload the layouts I did on Saturday. I think a little monkey moved them for me. :/

Thankful for You

I made a bunch of thank you cards for a friend. Here's one of them. As you can tell, I've kind of been in a anti die-cutting phase. I think I get like this when I'm pregnant because I have to stand at my Cricut and Big Shot, and that puts a lot of pressure on my belly and takes energy. It just seems easier to sit. Hopefully this phase will end soon because I need to cut a bunch of elephants for McKay's birth announcements and the invites for Carver's birthday party.

Details:

Recollections - Kraft; Bright & Basic Stack

Pink by Design - Bountiful Blessings

Marvy Uchida - Star punches (blue & green)

Old-Fashioned Hello

Since I had my stamps out for the Valentine's Day cards for my boys, I figured I'd make an extra card.

Details:

My Minds Eye - Quilting Bee

Pink by Design - Call Me; Canvas background

Gems - Michaels $1 bin

All My Love Jar

Here's the card I gave Carver for Valentine's Day. I don't think he loved it as much as I thought he would but that's ok. I had a lack of inspiration for him this year.

Details:

Echo Park - Happy Days

Pink by Design - Fresh Goodies

Ribbon - Michaels

Call Me Maybe

I'm baaaaack!!!!! This pregnancy has kicked my butt in the energy department. But since today was National Scrapbook Day, I figured I should get a few layouts done. I actually got four one-page layouts done!!! But... I can't find my camera cables. :(

So here's the card I gave Chris for Valentine's Day. I'm really going to try to catch up on all the projects I've done but not had the energy (or as Carver calls it: engine-ee) to post.

Details:

Spellbinders - Standard Circles Large

Pink by Design - Call Me

My Mind's Eye - Quilting Bee

Twine

In the baby department, I'll be 30 weeks tomorrow and everything is progressing perfectly!! Oh, and if you hadn't heard, we're having a girl! It's been a big mind set change but we're really excited. :)

Owl Baby Shower

Hey everyone!! I hosted a baby shower for a high school friend last month and it was so much fun!!! She's having a little boy and is due in a short 3 weeks. The nursery theme is owls so I took it from there and did a blue and grey theme. Loving grey right now!!!

Here's the invites. I love how it stretched my creativity to do something different and the end result was exactly what I had pictured. On the back I put a bigger owl silhouette with her registry information.

 Wishes for Baby. This is becoming a staple for all baby showers. I love peaking at some of the answers people come up with and it will be something to treasure for years to come.

 Cover of the Words for Baby

Words of wisdom for the mommy. I put them on a book ring so that she can hang them in the nursery for those moments when she needs a little advise.

 Banner

 Favors - I did smarties and the tag says "Thanks for giving a HOOT!"

 I made three of these to put on the food table. Even though my thumb was numb when I was done, they're just so cute! Oh, the gummy bears in the background were because she is craving them. And just so happened I crave them too! :)

 Wreath for the front door. My mom has a thick (think 3-4" thick) door so we a traditional wreath hook wouldn't work. I picked up a magnet wreath hook thing that I thought would work since most of the door is glass. That didn't work either because the glass was thick too. So I turned to my stand-by... packing tape. Worked like a charm and wasn't too noticeable.

Details

Invites:

Core'dinations - Jet Stream & Elephant

ColorBok - Aqua Stripe

Create a  Critter 2.25 & 3"

Peachy Keen - Bird Faces & More

Spellbinders - Labels Eight

Words of Wisdom:

Core'dinations - Jet Stream & Elephant

Create a Critter 1.25"

Wise Words for Baby:

ColorBok - Aqua Stripe

Core'dinations - Jet Stream & Elephant

Spellbinders - Labels Eight

Cherry Limeade 2" shadow

Create a Critter 2.5"

Can you help?

A blogging friend, Debbie from Workin' Scrappin' Mom of 4, lost her husband to cancer earlier this week. I know that the coming weeks will be extremely difficult with not only the grief of losing her husband and their four children losing their dad. But also having to go through all of the decisions that go along with losing someone. They could really use our prayers over the next days, weeks and months as they process and grieve this loss.

Also, if you would like to make some thank you cards to send to Debbie for her to use, or just send her a card, you can mail them to her at:

Debbie Butcher
1623 Gruenther Avenue
Rockville, Maryland, 20851

I had time to prepare with Noah, but it is still difficult and I used way more thank you cards than I thought I would ever have to use. It's something you don't really think of but this would be a great blessing to her if we could take care of this and make it one less thing that she will have to think about.

Hello my name is...

Hi! My name is Tana and I'm a neglectful crafter. Ok, maybe more like a neglectful blogger. I haven't stopped crafting, I just run out of energy when it's time to post. So please accept my sincere apologies for my absence. I'm going to try to be better at posting, but it won't be an every day occurrence like it was in the past. I haven't been sleeping well so by the time Carver goes to sleep, I'm a vegetable on the couch. Hopefully this sleep thing gets resolved because I'd like to have my life back.

With that said, here's what I made for Carver's teachers for Valentines' Day. I picked up the mugs and chocolates from Target and cut a 2" heart out of chalkboard vinyl.

 Here's the Valentines' we made for Carver's class. There are 7 girls and 5 boys (not including Carver) so I decided to make two sets of toppers. The front says "Tweet tweet, you're sweet".

Details:

Straight from the Nest 2.75"

Core'dinations Jet Stream & Lipstick

Recollections white & kraft

Pink by Design - Just Sayin'

Clear Bags - 4.75 x 6.75

Cuttlebug - Diamond Plate & Heart Blocks

Teacher Christmas Gifts

I made these cute 3x3 cards for Carver's teachers to go with a small Christmas gift. I love 3x3 cards but I never seem to make them. Maybe if I had envelopes for them... hmmm... :)

Details:

Pink by Design - Elfed

Spellbinders - Labels Eight

Teresa Collins - Christmas Cottage

I also made toppers to go on a bag filled with Smarties to go with their presents. For some reason I can't find the picture I took of them. But the sentiment said "Thanks for making me a Smartie!"

Merry Be Your Days

I wanted to challenge myself to make a one layer card. I don't like to make them because they don't seem finished to me but I actually kind of like how this turned out. I did have to add the ribbon so it's not truly one layer but close.

Details:

Pink by Design - Merry be your Days

American Crafts ribbon

A Cup of Friendship

 When our Bible Study ended before Christmas, I organized with everyone to collect money to go towards a Nordstrom gift card and have this card for everyone to sign to thank Erica for hosting and leading us. 

You know when you have a piece of paper that you love so much that it ends up sitting there and never gets used? Well that was this coffee paper for me. My local scrapbook store doesn't carry it anymore so I'd have to get it online. It actually hurt to cut into it! :) But the end result was definitely worth it. This was a 5.5 x 8.5 card (just fold an 8.5x11 in half) so that everyone had room to sign it.

 

Details:

Love You a Latte 7"

Recollections kraft & whtie

Bazzill Chablis

Canvas Corp - Coffee Stamps on kraft

Spellbinders Grommet tags

twine

I originally cut the coffee cup to small for what I had in mind for Erica's card so I decided to use it on another card. The fun stamp is from a new set by Pink by Design called Extra Hot.

Details:

Love you a Latte 6"

Recollections kraft & white

Pink by Design - Extra Hot

Canvas Corp - Coffee Stamps on Kraft

Calendar 2012

I made six calendars for Christmas presents. I don't know how next year will look because the company I get the blank calendars from closed. So if anyone knows a good place to get blank calendars, let me know. I like the 6x6 ones since that maximizes the amount of paper I use.

These are 5.5x8.5 which worked out pretty well. This is the front cover. I used What's Your Number? by Pink by Design to create the collage.