Young Womanhood Recognition Layout

When you look at this month's Stamp of the Month, your immediate thoughts are probably, "Birthday or wedding."  Today (and next week!), I am hopefully going to show you a few other ways you can use this stamp set.  This stamp set is only available in May, and is only $5 ($12.95 savings) with every $50 ordered (before shipping and tax). Order $100, get 2...and so on. When ordering on my website, you'll be prompted to add your set(s) before checking out.

May Stamp of the Month  - Celebrate with Cake

These photos are from a long time ago.  Our daughter, Kori was a sophomore in high school and had just earned her Young Womanhood Recognition Award. In our church, this is a goal setting program for teenage girls that includes setting and achieving goals in several different areas (Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice and Accountability, Good Works, Integrity and Virtue). In order to earn their award, the girls have to complete six goals in each area, and then do some sort of 10 hour project in each area.

We were so proud of Kori for earning this award.  She received it with 2 other girls. I don't know why I had never scrapped this before, probably because they photos were blurry.  The older I get, the more I realize that even though beautiful photos are wonderful, the memory is what counts.  Anyway, I digress.  I chose to use the flower stamp in the May Stamp of the Month to bring out the roses in the photo. I also used the "Celebrate" stamp as a background on the title piece. There are lots of things besides weddings and birthdays to celebrate...for instance, the great accomplishment of earning your Young Womanhood Recognition!  I used Whisper Cardstock and Whisper ink to get that tone on tone, subtle look so that I could still layer the hand lettered title on top an have it be the 'star'.

Note the tone-on-tone "Celebrate" background on the title piece.

The roses were a perfect compliment to the roses in the photos. I stamped them with the Black Memento Pad and then watercolored them with my paints.

I have included a complete products used list at the end of this post, complete with photos and links for your convenience.

Think outside the box. What else can you think of to use this stamp set for?

Celebrate with Cake�May Stamp of the Month	Black Memento� Ink Pad	Whisper Exclusive Inks� Stamp Pad	12" X 12" White Daisy Cardstock
12" X 12" Whisper Cardstock	12" X 12" Poppy Cardstock	12" X 12" Glacier Cardstock	Watercolor Paper
Boardwalk Washi Tape Pack	Marvy® Uchida® LePen�	Watercolor Paints	Paintbrush Set
1" X 1" My Acrylix® Block	1" X 3 1/2" My Acrylix® Block	Surecut� Deluxe Craft Paper Trimmer	Non-Stick Micro-Tip Scissors
3L® E-Z Dots® Adhesive	3-D Foam Tape

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Stade Justus Roberts, Our Newest Grandson

Seconds after Stade was born

Stade Justus Roberts entered the world, Saturday, June 6 at 10:56 pm, weighing 7.15.2 oz. and measuring 20" long. He's a handsome little munch with lots of dark hair.  He already has my heart.  Oh, and did I mention I LOVE his name?

I was honored to be asked to be in the delivery room with our daughter, Kori and her hubby, Rick as Kori gave birth. I will never cease to wonder and be in awe of this miracle of life. 

hanging out with Kori in the early stages of labor

Grandpa Dan-the-Man is smitten!

Being a grandparent is one of the BEST things I've ever experienced in life. Stade brings our grandchildren number to 5, and we have another one on the way, set to debut his/her little self in January.

Welcome Home, Dawson and MORE!

All the crew who were there to welcome Dawson home.

This week has been cray cray (in a good way) at the Pedersen home.  I hope you'll indulge me as I share a  little bit of that with you.

1.  Our son, Dawson, came home after finishing his 2 year LDS mission to Sydney, Australia on Tuesday.  For those of you who don't know much about how this works, I'll give you a little explanation.  Most LDS boys, at the age of 18, go out somewhere in the world to give full-time service and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. They do this 24/7 (okay, they do sleep...lol) for 2 full years. While gone, they get to email their families once a week, and get to call or skype with their families on Mother's Day and Christmas.  It is a huge sacrifice for the boys and their families, but it is also one of the most awesome blessings our family has ever received. Dawson is our third boy to serve. Our first son, Easton, served in Houston, TX (Spanish speaking). Our second son, Tannon, served in Malaga, Spain (obviously Spanish speaking).  Dawson was called to Sydney, Australia. He was also assigned to serve in the Spanish language but got very little chance to use it.  He did, however, serve much of his mission among the Tongan people in Australia and came home fluent in Tongan.  As we have watched our boys serve, we have realized that although it is hard to say goodbye and turn your son over to the Lord for 2 years, the blessings far outweigh the sacrifice.  The people they become in this 2 years of service is absolutely amazing.  Let me clarify: they were already awesome people, but they came home changed in a way that would be hard to do in any other way.  Anyway, I'm rambling. I guess I'm just saying how happy I am our boys served, and how HAPPY I am that I am done sending missionaries!  *wink*

That first hug.  Heaven!

The first hug at the airport is the BEST!  I can't even begin to tell you how it feels to see your son for the first time in 2 years and have him wrap his big arms around you and sqeeze!

2.  My hubby, Dan the Man, celebrated his birthday yesterday (Wednesday).  Although celebrating by having Dawson home was the best birthday gift ever, he has experienced a REALLY hard last 5 weeks. He injured his back and has been flat down for 5 weeks.  It has been horrific.  He has been through MRI's, several series of injections in different areas of his spinal joints and back, 3 different doctors, and so much more. He has been in constant pain and hasn't been able to walk more than 20-200 feet (depending on the day) for that whole time.  There is one very specific position he can sit in and one he can lay in with minimal pain. Walking, standing, or any other sitting or laying positions are impossible.  We honestly didn't even know if he would be able to go to the airport on Tuesday to welcome Dawson home. We had a family fast and have been praying for him and we had our own little Pedersen miracle.  He was able to go to the airport on Tuesday and welcome Dawson home.  He couldn't have imagined a better birthday gift!  He still has a very long way to go to be fully functional again, but we are getting there. Thank heavens!

Dan (and Tannon) waiting at the airport for Dawson's return. We had to bring a funny, portable chair for Dan but we somehow made it work!

3.  Our daughter, Kori is expecting her 4th baby any day.  We are so grateful he didn't decide to make his debut on Tuesday when we had Dawson coming home.  Any day is fine now.  I'll be sure to announce it when he arrives!

You're Loved Maternity Layout

Remember last week when I shared a maternity layout of our daughter, Kori?  You can see that here.  I am back again today to share another layout I made at the same time; at the Close To My Heart Making Connections event that was held for Consultants in the Salt Lake City, UT area.

The Close To My Heart Art Department designed these layouts by taking apart one of our darling "My Crush For Her" books and using the 4" x 6" pages to create 12" x 12" layouts.  The second I saw the maternity photos Kori had taken, I knew they were perfect for the two layouts we created.

We just simply took the book apart (what a brilliant idea!) and used the pages, coupled with a bit of cardstock, stamps, ink and a few embellishments to create gorgeous full-size (12" x 12") layouts.  I will be sharing the 2nd layout next week.

Here is what you need to know about the darling "My Crush For Her" mini-album:  It has 30 - 4" x 6" pages in a mix of styles (printed cardstock-weight paper, mini-page protectors, printed vellum) and is bound with a darling white spiral metal spine.

Here are a few details of the layout up close.

All supplies we used on this layout are listed, complete with photos and links for your convenience, at the bottom of this post. All of these products can be purchased on my website.

 

My Crush� For Her Book	Documenting Moments	Sorbet Exclusive Inks� Stamp Pad	Black Exclusive Inks® Stamp Pad
12" X 12" White Daisy Cardstock	12" X 12" Whisper Cardstock	12" X 12" Glacier Cardstock	Coral Reef Sequins

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She Glows 2-Page Maternity Layout

May is National Scrapbooking Month and what better way to celebrate than to SCRAPBOOK?  I recently attended an awesome Close To My Heart event, and one of the projects we created was two layouts featuring pages from the darling "My Crush - For Her" book. This mini-scrapbook was introduced in the Seasonal Expressions II mini-catalog, which you can order from through August 31.

I chose to populate these layouts with photos from our daughter, Kori's recent maternity shoot. This is baby #4 for her and she couldn't look more beautiful!

We just simply took the book apart (what a brilliant idea!) and used the pages, coupled with a bit of cardstock, stamps, ink and a few embellishments to create gorgeous full-size (12" x 12") layouts.  I will be sharing the 2nd layout next week.

Here is what you need to know about the darling "My Crush For Her" mini-album:  It has 30 - 4" x 6" pages in a mix of styles (printed cardstock-weight paper, mini-page protectors, printed vellum) and is bound with a darling white spiral metal spine.

 

Here are a few details of the layout.  As you can see in the photos below, we even used one of the plastic photo sleeves from the mini-book to create a layout with a little bit of interaction (and room for a few more photos!). Since I had tons of beautiful photos from our daughter, Kori's maternity shoot, this was a great way to showcase more of them!

All supplies we used on this layout are listed, complete with photos and links for your convenience, at the bottom of this post. All of these products can be purchased on my website.

My Crush� For Her Book	Shower Flowers	Documenting Moments	Flaxen Exclusive Inks� Pad
Sorbet Exclusive Inks� Stamp Pad	Black Exclusive Inks® Stamp Pad	12" X 12" White Daisy Cardstock	Lagoon Cardstock
12" X 12" Flaxen Cardstock	12" X 12" Sorbet Cardstock	Coral Reef Sequins	Gold Shimmer Trim

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