Mary Burke

Crazy month!

2007-03-27T23:51:00.000-05:00

Well, my baby is 1! Can you believe it? One whole year ago I gave birth to the most precious little boy. 18 hours of labor, but so worth it. I'd do it all over again (and I guess I get to...haha). We had a party for him last Saturday, and had over my best friend Shannon and her family, my parents and Dan's parents. Just enough people to have a great party, but not too many that I couldn't sit and talk with people. It was perfect. Nicholas had a lot of fun too, and that made the day just splendid. Temperatures outside were in the 70's. Just perfect.

Here are some cute pictures of the birthday boy:
The cake before....

During...Yummy!

Who needs hands?

All done! Frosting in the nostrils too!

What a day! I can't wait to scrap these pics. I just don't have time to do it right now...someday soon I'll do it though.

And since I'm in a generous giving mood, I thought I'd give ya'll a freebie for stopping by. The Muddy Buddy Kit I mentioned one other blog post. Hope you enjoy it, I know I had a ton of fun making it. It's got a cute alpha that I'm really proud of (as brushes too!) Please leave a comment!! I love love love reading them!

Click HERE to download. Happy Scrappin'!

Hello temper tantrums. Welcome to the Burke House.

2007-03-11T21:58:00.000-05:00

Ahhhhhhhh!! I am not allowed on the computer anymore. Nicholas has decided that any time I am within 1 foot of the computer, that a temper tantrum is in order. Oh, this kid! Maybe I need a laptop or something more portable so we can go in his room and play and I can work on my scrapbooking. Or, I'll just leave computer time to nap times, which are far and few between. So forgive me for not getting more freebies up on a more consistent nature. I do have several things put together that I've made. I just haven't had time to upload them.

For my birthday, (30!!) my brother gave me a great gift--Photoshop CS2. AHHHH!! Finally! But now I just have to learn to use the darned program! And with the lack of time, it is quite the challenge. But one of these days perhaps I'll learn a few new tricks. We shall see.

And since it's after 10 pm here, I had better post my freebie and then head to bed. I wish I had more time to mess around with PS more.........but, as you know, morning comes all too early.

Here are some papers that coordinate with the Cute Little Girl Words from last week. Please leave a comment if you pick it up! I love reading through them! :)

Download HERE.

Blizzard Warning.... oh goodie.

2007-03-02T21:50:00.000-06:00

3 days of being stuck at home. In 2 feet of snow. What good comes of this you ask? Well, that'd be the fact that I now WANT to go to work. I want to get out of this house!! And I really need to go make some money. 3 days off of work really hurts the paycheck. I took next Thursday off for my birthday, but I might have to work that evening now just so I can make up some hours. Oh, joy. :)

However, with 3 days off, I've completed a couple of kits, I'm happy to say. I did my challenge for Chark's Swap Crop over at SBB by creating my Muddy Buddy Kit. I love the way the alpha turned out for this. I'll share this with you in a few days. I first want to make some things with it before I give it to everyone else. hee hee. ;)

But, I did make the Cute Little Girl Words for you! Girl stuff is pretty easy to make and always ends up cute. I also have a complete kit that matches these, so come back soon and check and see if it's done. I made cute gingham papers and ribbons to go with it all. I just need to figure out some extra elements to spice it up a bit.

Hope you all are keeping warm. I can't believe it's March and we get to start looking for some nice weather around here!

Enjoy the Cute Little Girl Words! Please leave a comment here if you enjoy them! Your feedback keeps me going!

Download HERE.

What a week!

2007-02-23T00:26:00.000-06:00

Oh man...this week has just been something else! I've been a total basketcase, to say the least. First of all, I found out that I'm PREGNANT again. I really hate typing that out for fear that it's going to jinx the whole pregnancy, but so far it's been okay. I tend to have a big mouth and am totally not able to keep something about myself a secret. So I called my mom to tell her the happy news and I just got overwhelmed by it all and just kinda freaked out. My kids will be about 19 months apart, and while my brother and I are 18 months apart and the best of friends, I know my kids will be too--but for now, it's FREAK OUT MODE. But I'm getting more used to the idea as the week has gone on. It'll be fine........It has to be fine!! LOL

I also took my van to the shop to get the big deer impression out of the fender. I hit him--er, he hit me--about 6 weeks ago on the way home from a friend's 30th b-day party. So in that 6 week time span we've had to deal with insurance and finding a place to take my poor little van and this week it all just came to a culminating head. I'm now driving my dad's big ol' Ford F150 pick up truck.... which I do think may technically be considered a "monster truck". HAHA. Not really..... but jeesh. I am grateful that I get to borrow his truck--but I'll be even more glad to get my van back.

And then the end of our week here in Good ol' Iowa we're supposed to get a doozy of a winter storm. Up to a foot of snow or more. Oh goodie. This means I get to sit on my hind end making scrapbook stuff. But it also means that I might possibly miss out on a day's work. Which I really need (refer to first paragraph). EEK.

So, in honor of the impending snow storm, here are a few flakes for you. I need to make some TOU's to put in my freebies. But the main part is I have to thank Atomic Cupcake for the use of some fabulous actions. I could never do these cool things without her awesome work. Enjoy! And stay warm :)

Download here.

Thank you so much!

2007-02-15T11:27:00.000-06:00

I have to first off say thank you to all of your wonderful comments. It really does make my day to read through all of them and see what you have to say about my work. Makes me want to work twice as hard to make something for you. And I have! Today I made a sketch of my Layout that I posted yesterday. I'll post it at the end of this post.

I'm currently sitting here at my computer watching Nicholas walk around pulling a duck behind him. (okay, so he's chewing on the cord that happens to be attached to the duck *LOL* and walking around, but it's still cute nonetheless.) It's amazing how in 10 1/2 months he's made our lives so much more wonderful. All the effort put in to getting him was totally worth it. We tried for him for over 15 months, and just as I was about to go to the doctor to see if something was wrong, I found out I was pregnant. The girls at work call me the papparazzi for taking so many pictures of him, but I CAN'T HELP IT! I have to get every moment on camera that I can. And I love looking back through his 4 *ahem* photo albums and seeing how much he's grown.

I looked through my pictures from yesterday and today and thought I would share these. See? How could you not just keep the camera on him? ;)

And then pulling around his duck:

And since you've been so kind to endure my babbling, here's your freebie sketch:

Click HERE to download. Happy Scrappin'!:)

So it's VDay...

2007-02-14T14:44:00.000-06:00

Just any other day, right? Yep. I bought Nicholas this really cute doggy at the Dollar Store last night. He thought it was totally huggable and has been playing with it on and off today. SO CUTE. Dan's mom sent him an adorable card and $2.00 for his piggy bank. I'm glad Nicholas got some stuff today:). My mom did bring me a candy bar and a shirt. That was nice of her, and totally not expected. She's taking me shopping on Friday...*sigh* I love my mom.

Of course, I've had scrappers block today, but I did manage to come up with this (TOOK ALL DAY). I do love it though. It may be right up there with my faves. Most of my faves are simple designs. Things that really accentuate the pics.

Anyway, I suppose I had better get ready for work. I'm working on some new freebies, so check back before the end of the week. Happy VDAY again!

Valentine's day...just another day here.

2007-02-13T10:13:00.000-06:00

Unfortunately, when Dan & I started dating, I made the huge mistake of saying that Valentine's Day is just another day, and flowers are just something that die. *sigh* Yes, I said that to him. WHAT WAS I THINKING? Of course, 6 years later, I do wish I wouldn't have said that outloud. It'd be nice to get a card or flowers or even just a quick peck and a "Happy Valentine's Day". But no. And really, I'm alright with that. Really I am. But like I said, it'd be nice to be surprised just once with something sweet. Of course, Dan's not a romantic kind of guy. He proposed to me after I'd worked a 12 hour day at Sears Portrait Studio (Saturday after Thanksgiving--busiest day at the studio!) I'd had no lunch break, so of course, when I got home I raided the fridge. He yells from the living room, "Mary, come here, I got something for you." For me? What could he possibly have for me? And right there, in his icky old blue armchair, he sat with the ring popped open. He said, "Here." I said, "What's that?" of course knowing full well what it was. He just held it closer to me and said, "Here." And so I said, "Yeah, so?" And then he finally said, "Will you marry me?" And then I quickly said, "YES!" And then he snapped the box shut and said, "Oh, that was too fast." *haha* Yeah, too funny. "Give me the BOX!" and then I ran and called my parents. So that's our story. Not romantic, but cute in a lame sort of way ;). Tee hee.

In light of the lack of romance here, though, I made some cute little valentine words to add to your pages. Hope you enjoy them! I have to give credit to Chark for inspiring me on these. She gave out the cutest little freebie at our MiniSwapCrop and it flipped a switch somewhere in the hallows of my brain to do these. I'd love to see your pages with them! *hugs* Mary:)

Click here to get your freebie! And Happy Valentine's Day!

Darned DOGS!

2007-02-12T09:38:00.000-06:00

Oh, I love my dogs......... but some days... some days... *shakes head*. In case you don't know me that well, we have 2 dogs. Ginger is a LARGE lab/bassethound mix. Skippy is a little rat terrier. Both of these dogs were inherited from our family after our beloved dog Chuck had to be put to sleep. We've done okay with them (Thanks to Ginger I got a new couch... long story... I may tell it someday...but you can probably figure out what happened.) We put in an electric fence a few years ago so that we wouldn't have to put them on leashes. At first, I thought this was the meanest thing because they'd go near the end of the yard and get a little zap. However, after a few days they got the hang of it and wouldn't go near that part of the yard--and then they had the whole yard to run free. AWESOME. LOVED IT! Well, 2 years later the fence must not be working, because Ginger keeps running off. I'm so frustrated with her! And as of right now as I type this, she's off again. Dan was scooping snow, thinking she'd stay by him... um, nope! GRRR.

So, I'll just do what makes me happy--which is give you another freebie. ;) I made this sketch on Saturday--my first ever! So let me know how it works for you! I'll even post the LO I did with it.
Here's the sketch:

Download it here.
And this is what I did with it:

Stay tuned tomorrow for a special Freebie! (can you tell I'm having so much fun doing this?)

2007-02-10T20:04:00.000-06:00

Wow. It's been a long time since I've blogged. I haven't really gotten into the swing of making it a regular thing, but I'll try to now that I'm doing more designing. I'm really liking making some of this stuff, so this will continue. It also helps that it's below zero weather here -- doesn't make me want to go outside. I can't wait for spring! Spring fever is setting in really badly here. No, wait, I take that back. I turn 30 in March. I'm not ready for spring. LOL.

A couple weeks ago, I attended a Subscribers Swap Crop at SBB (Scrapbook-bytes.com). Chark used my little guy's pics as inspiration for the color swatch, so of course I had to join in. I made a cute little alpha, but made these to give to you! Hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them.

Click here for your Freebie! Please leave me a comment if you pick it up:)

Tomorrow I'll try to get more stuff uploaded. I've been thoroughly enjoying using templates for scrapping, so I thought I would try my hand at one. I'll show you the results tomorrow (or soon!)

Thanks for stopping by!
Mary:)

2007-01-10T20:26:00.000-06:00

January 10, 2007...posin' for the camera!

2007-01-10T20:25:00.000-06:00

First Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Keepers.

2007-01-10T20:23:00.000-06:00

Daddy & Nicholas all dressed up!

2007-01-10T20:22:00.000-06:00

Meeting Santa Claus! Nicholas got to meet Santa in Britt at the Ambulance shed. They had a really cheesy set up, but Nicholas won't remember it, so who cares! HAHA.

2006-07-31T00:06:00.000-05:00

One year ago today, I saw the best word EVER!! Well, the test was missing the disappointing word "NOT" that I was very used to seeing! What a year this has been!

2006-07-31T00:04:00.000-05:00

What's that you say? Mom has a new Blog?

My Scrapbook Pages

2006-07-30T22:08:00.000-05:00

Here are a few of my pages that I've completed since beginning Digital Scrapping. I'm very excited to share them with you!

2006-07-29T16:19:00.000-05:00

One thing that I've always loved is jewelry. My mom has given me several jewelry pieces over the years, and when I see any kind of jewelry anymore, I think of her. She always tells me when she buys a new item that someday all of her stuff will be mine. I laugh and tell her that I hope I never get it.

So today, while browsing the Tiffany's website, I was inspired to make a few jewelry pieces for my scrapbooking pages, although with a little boy to scrap for, I really don't need them. Therefore, I thought I'd make it my first freebie on my blog. Now I just have to learn how to post it and make it available. I'll give it a try:

Click Here for Freebie! Enjoy! :)

New Blog!

2006-07-11T00:18:00.000-05:00

I've started digital scrapbooking about 2 or 3 months ago, when my son, Nicholas, was born. I had a lot of free time on my hands because he was a good sleeper when he was teeny, so I learned how to do all of this, with the help of some very good friends and some great resources. I guess you can call me an addict already. I spend several hours per day (while Nicholas is sleeping) working on my digital scrapbook.

Most recently (like last weekend), I started learning how to design papers and elements for scrapbooks. I would have to say that I'm most excited about this new venture. It's so much fun and already I can see it's another thing that I'm going to be addicted to.

Soon I'll have some freebies available here. I can't wait to share my work with everyone!