This was such an event-filled Easter weekend! My brother, Frank, and his family came down for the weekend, which meant that every possible minute was spent in some family activity, so that all us siblings and our kids could get together.

On Thursday morning, we all went to my sister Helena's house for a major playdate-15 cousins in total! Here are some photos:






The kids had so much fun! It was a beautiful spring day, not too hot, not too cold (not that it ever really gets that cold!) so everyone spent the morning outdoors, playing in the playground or on the terrace. It was a perfect way to celebrate the start of Spring Break!

On Saturday, we dyed some Easter Eggs at Becca and Richard's house. The men, of course, upon arrival began to play some weird combination of football, soccer and frisbee. The whole point was to be on your toes and catch whatever was being thrown at you without getting hit. It's definitely a guy thing.




While the guys were doing their thing, the kids were playing in the backyard (some narrowly escaping disaster by walking into the guys' game) until it was time for pizza. After the pizza, of course, it was time for the egg dyeing. The kids had such a great time, making a huge mess, of course. I'll post some photos of the egg-dyeing tomorrow. Right now, I'm going to bed!

In addition to being on my 3 CTs, I also decided to join Brownie Scraps' Design Challenge. It's a challenge with tutorials and no eliminations other than failing to upload your work on time. In other words, a perfect way for me to start learning how to design my own kits. I was unbelievably intimidated (still am, a bit) when I got the first assignment, but I'm happy with how the kit came out. We were given 4 color palette options, and then were told to design a kit with 6 solid papers, 4 patterned papers, and at least 6 unique elements.


The good news for all of you is that it's a FREEBIE! So if you want to grab my mini-kit (along with plenty of other free kits, head to Brownie Scraps. If you want to grab my Home is Where the Heart is mini-kit, click here! Don't forget to leave a comment if you download, please! Thank you and I hope you enjoy it!

Today was a special day for the kids. When Juan came home from work, he brought home early Easter presents for the three kids. Each of them got a small stuffed puppy. The girls (especially Carolina) flipped for them. They immediately started preparing little beds and food for them and when we went outside to play (We had a cold front come in today--I think we got down to the 60s! It was a gorgeous day!) the puppies had to come along. Of course, I had to take photos of them (I'll post some tomorrow). Even J.J. was carrying around his puppy, holding on to it for dear life, as he climbed the mini rock wall. The puppies were introduced to the swings, the slide and the playhouse. Too cute!

It's so nice that I'm on Spring Break and don't have to worry about rushing playtime outside so that I can leave for work. Too bad it's so short!

Anyway, right now I'm working on some layouts for my CTs, but here are a couple of layouts from this past week.

First, Go Digital Scrapbooking has a fabulous Collab kit called Spring Blessings. It is huge! The color palette is gorgeous--perfect for all your spring and Easter photos. There are also some templates included, and the best part is that it's free with any $10 purchase! So hurry on over to snag it before the end of the month! It's so worth it!


And here's my first layout with the kit. I made this during last Friday's Speed Scrap. They're so much fun! If you haven't done one yet, definitely sign up!:


Enchanted Studio Scraps also has a wonderful April Mega Kit called Overboard. It is great for all your summer and boating photos. The colors are bright and vibrant and the elements are just adorable!


I've made two different layouts with this kit so far--one for a Speed Scrap at ESS (are you seeing a pattern here?) and the other for this month's Mystical Mottos Challenge.

Okay, I know it's been a long, long time, but I decided that it was time to restart the blog. First, a bit of an explanation for my absence. Right around the time of my last post was when I discovered that I was pregnant with Juan Joaquín, and right on the heels of that exciting news came the dreaded and very expected, ubiquitous morning sickness. Then, as if that weren't enough, I got the one-two punch of extreme exhaustion. I don't remember ever being so tired before--but then again, I'd never been pregnant while raising two toddlers before. Then, the next thing I knew, I was giving birth and, well, newborns and blogging don't mix very well, either. Now, Carolina is almost 5 and is in Pre-K, Susanna is 3 and J.J. is 15 months old. I'm still at home with the younger two, and finally feel the motivation to get re-started.

Despite the tiredness and pregnancy and newborn stage, I still found time to scrapbook, of course! Besides traditional paper scrapbooking, though, I also discovered digital scrapbooking. I, who had always insisted that there was no way that I could ever like digital scrapbooking, am now addicted. I started digi-scrapping as an easy way to make gift albums. I was tired of always making albums for people and never keeping one for myself. Then I discovered how easy it was to use quickpages. Soon, I realized that it wasn't very difficult to create my own pages.

For the past year, I've been spending more and more time digi-scrapping. Besides being able to create multiple albums quickly and easily, I found that I had much more time to scrapbook when I didn't have to worry about taking out and putting away all my supplies. Everything is nicely organized on the computer. No fuss, no muss, which means that I started getting a lot more done.

In March of this year, I decided to check out some digital scrapbooking sites to see if I could learn more by participating in different challenges. I always work best when I have a specific task and deadline. I had so much fun and learned so much that I decided to enter into a contest at Go Digital Scrapbooking for a position on their Creative Team. Amazingly enough, I made it! I also applied to a few other CTs and accepted positions with Kenna's Designs and Enchanted Studio Scraps, all three of which officially began this month. I'm so excited to be working for all of them and have already met some great people. The next 3 months will be busy but so much fun.

So there you go. A general overview of what's been going on scrapping-wise with me since last we met. I promise I'll be updating regularly now.

Before I go, over the next few days, I'll be posting some of the kits I've been working with and the layouts I've done with them.

Here's the first kit I worked with for Kenna's Designs. The kit is called Afternoon Playdate and is great for scrapping photos of your kids!


And here are two layouts that I made with the kit:

Carolina has always loved drawing with crayons or markers and writing her "letters", but today she officially stepped into the title of "crafter". I went to Joann Fabrics today to get her and Susanna some large beads and lanyards to string them on. Carolina and Susy had a great time making their necklace (granted, Susanna was in charge of handing over the beads while Carolina was the one who actually strung them up).

When they were getting ready for their naps, I asked Carolina to get in bed and wait for me to tuck her in while I put Susy down and when I came into the room, I could tell something was up. I asked her what she had under the covers and she pulled out one of my spice jars filled with buttons that she wanted to play with. I put them on the shelf and told her that she could play with them when she woke up from her nap. The minute she was up, she decided that she wanted to make a necklace out of the buttons. She strung the buttons through the lanyard ALL BY HERSELF! All I did was tie on the first button so it wouldn't unravel. After that, she sat quietly on her bed for over 45 minutes (!!!!!!) stringing her buttons to make a necklace for Abuela Mary. (I was told more than once that the necklace was NOT for me. Eventually, she said she would make me one later. Apparently, her grandmother is more important! )

When we left to go visit Abuela, she took more lanyards and MORE buttons from my stash so she could make another necklace. Helena was there with the kids, so Carolina was so excited to "share with Nicole." (She loves to say that she's sharing with Nicole. She always says, "Nicole is my friend and we share.") When I left to come to work, the two of them were having a blast making their necklaces.

Needless to say, I took tons of pictures of my little crafter and some close-ups of her works of art.

Looks like I'm going to need to buy some more buttons!

I've neglected the blog this past week, but hope to make it up in the following weeks.

I have been having such a wonderful time working on my altered journal. Writing about my life has really made me remember so many wonderful memories. It's so nice to just look back at my life and remember all the good times I've shared with my family. It also helps that I've been going through my parents' photo albums (secretly, of course) so that I can scan photos for the scrapbook I'm making them for their 35th wedding anniversary. It's so amazing to think of 35 years. It's not easy, I know, but they have definitely made it look easy. I am so grateful to them for their example of a loving marriage and for their example of parenthood. If Juan and I can be half the parents that they were, I'll consider myself blessed.

I read this on the Donna Downey blog. How wonderful an idea!

"we went to Kroma, a fabulous little hidden treasure. used his paints today and they are FAB-U-LOUS!! dare i say i am a Canadian paint buyer from now on! kevin the owner kept the store open late for us and i am so glad he did! the experience and meeting him inspired me beyond compare...let me tell you why.

so his store was super cute and how could a store of paint NOT be inspiring, but he had a huge roll of canvas suspended from the ceiling, silly me says, "what do you do with that? do you pull it down and paint?" he said no he just pulls it down and cuts it for his customers. then he told us this story!

he had a teacher in college that every night before he left his studio he would gesso a piece of canvas. the next day he would not leave his studio until he completed a painting on it...no specific style or design, just painting for paintings sake and place it on the pile of paintings. gesso a new canvas and start again the next day.

he never assessed grades to his classes, but instead gave them the opportunity to grade themselves citing that if he was not to be judged by his art, they were not to be either.

I LOVE THAT!!

when the teacher retired his stacks of paintings were bought and shown as a collection by an art gallery.

why am i so inspired? i am going to paint a painting everyday, just to paint, just to creatively play, just for me.
what do you think?
lets start a new movement!
a painted page a day!
are you in??"

I love the idea of creating, just to create. What an inspiring way to view art!