JAMSquared

Author Archives: Jennifer

The Yellow Rose of Texas

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Bluebonnets may be our fair state’s state flower, but I often think of yellow roses when I think of flowers and Texas. This is kinda weird, since you don’t see many roses, at least not in west Texas where I grew up or in central Texas where I live now. However, the origin of the folk song “The Yellow Rose of Texas” is tied to the Battle of San Jacinto, which is east Texas. I also know that Tyler, which is located in northeast Texas, is considered the rose capitol of the world. So obviously, maybe I just need to visit those areas of Texas more often to see roses. Or maybe I should plant some.

Since I got to thinking about yellow roses, I decided to use a yellow rose as my main image on this week’s Texas Tuesday card (1st and 3rd Tuesdays of the month). I also need more birthday cards as my stash is down to two birthday cards, so a yellow roses birthday card it is. I started off with the inspiring Mojo Monday #157 sketch, but I decided to nix the vertical panel on the right and the bow, so it doesn’t really follow the sketch. The picture doesn’t really do the card justice, I think. The background really sparkles.

Make sure and check out the cards of the rest of the Texas Tuesday team: Mark, Tina, and Betty. Libby, Geeta, Karen, Linda, Shannan and Steph took breaks this week.

Yellow Rose of Texas Birthday Card

Stamps: Stampin’ Up Dear Friend, Floral (background), and Edgy Eloquence (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Garden Green
Ink: Stazon Jet Black, Stampin’ Up Garden Green (sentiment), VersaMark Dazzle Frost (background)
Embellishments: green sparkle brads
Coloring Tools: Stampin’ Up marker Garden Green; Prismacolor colored pencils; atYou Spica clear (on top of roses)
Tools: Nestabilities Classic Ovals Large and Classic Scalloped Ovals Large; corner rounder

Family Tree Project

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After the big family reunion luncheon celebration, we went back to Granny and Pawpaw’s house to work on a family tree project. The idea for it came from page 214 of the August 2010 issue of my Parents magazine. I think ours turned out cuter since I turned it into a 3D tree. A few weeks before the reunion, I had asked Kay, James’ aunt and organizer extraordinaire, to ask everyone to bring a photo of themselves to the reunion for the project. The adults could bring a couples photo, but I wanted the kids to be individual photos.

Family Tree Project

At the top of the tree is a heart that has a photo of Granny and Pawpaw on one side and on the other side, I wrote their birthdays and marriage date. The top branch is their children. The middle branch is their grandchildren and the bottom branch is their great-grandchildren. I had painted the wooden hearts used for the adults in three shades of green beforehand. On site, we punched out or cut to fit the photos of the adults, mod podged them to the heart and wrote the birthday/marriage info on the back. Some of the adults got into adding decorative touches. Yay Aundra! Kay helped with the photo adhering. I had meant to use an upside down clay flower pot as the base, but I forgot to bring one. The container from an edible arrangment that Granny and Pawpaw had received worked great in its place.

Adult Hearts

The kids, except for the babies and those who didn’t stick around after the luncheon, decorated their leaf or acorn themselves. I had brought glitter glue, sequins and markers for them to use to decorate. The markers didn’t get used and some wanted to paint, even though I hadn’t planned on letting them. I decided that since it was water-based paint, it was okay. Some of the kiddos required adult assistance. Kay, Rachel, Aundra and myself and maybe some others provided that assistance. I wish I had taken more pictures of the ones the kids decorated instead of just the one of my cutie pie, which I decorated. You can see the edge of the one Dawson decorated in the photo below.

Jessica's Leaf

I have to give major props to James. The night before we left for Midland, he drilled the holes in the main trunk for the branchs and cut the branchs to the different lengths. On site, he and his Dad drilled the holes in the hearts, leafs and acorns with Pawpaw’s drill press. Thanks Sweetie!

Jessica Looking at Her Cousin Dawson's Acorn

Evans Family Reunion & 70th Wedding Anniversary

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James’ grandparents, Cecil and Freda Evans, were married September 10, 1940. That’s a whooping 70 years of wedded bliss.

Over Labor Day weekend, all the Evans kids, grand-kids and great-grand-kids plus some assorted nieces and nephews and some others got together to celebrate this momentous milestone. We had a great time catching up with everyone.

Saturday morning, Jessica played on Nana’s living room floor. Isn’t that tongue sticking out cute?

Jessica Playing

"Are you done taking pictures yet, Mom?"

After some time spent at Granny and Pawpaw’s house, we went and had a somewhat early dinner at Tampico, a great little Mexican food restaurant that we seem to go to at least once whenever we go to Midland. As this was not the official reunion/celebration, not everyone made it to dinner. However, I was able to take a photo of everyone who came except Randy, who doesn’t do flash photos, and Dawson, who didn’t want to be in a picture for some reason.

Jessica and James

Larry III and Denise

Boyd and Jamie

Freda, Cecil and Norene

Kay and Larry

Jane and John

Jason and Dory

Boyd, Braiden and Barrett

Braiden is always game to have his picture taken.

Barrett, Rachel, Braiden and Howie

Aundra and Lyle

Carson almost didn’t want to have his picture taken either; however, we were able to convince him. I’m sure that it didn’t hurt that I didn’t say anything about him giving Fallon rabbit ears.

Carleigh, Fallon and Carson

Olivia and Joe

James and Jennifer

Jessica and her Aunt Tami

The big reunion/celebration was held on Sunday at Clear Springs Restaurant in one of their side rooms. After a late lunch, cake and ice cream were served. Jessica ate ice cream for the first time and loved it. Group photos followed on the patio.

The Whole Gang

This next photo is of Granny and Pawpaw with their kids and their spouses, their grandkids and their spouses, and their great-grandkids. Four generations of Evans.

Four Generations

I like this next photo of Granny and Pawpaw with their kids. The only one missing is David, Tami’s father who died when she was three.

Dale, Kay, Boyd, Cecil and Freda

Siblings

The group photos were taken on my camera using my Dad’s tripod. A nice waitress snapped them after I got everyone in the frame. After the group photos were done, Howie seemed really interested in my camera, so I let her take some photos (no fear of a 6-year-old dropping the camera when it’s on a tripod). This next photo is one she took of her Mom and 2nd cousin Braiden.

Rachel and Braiden

After the luncheon, we went back to Granny and Pawpaw’s house and worked on a family tree project, which I will share in my next blog post.

Overall, we had a great day Labor Day weekend spent with family. The weekend was a little extended for me, but I’ll go into that more in another post. So stay tuned.

A Happy Joyful Mousy Birthday Card

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One of my friend’s birthdays is this Thursday. So I decided to make three birthday cards: one for Amitis, one for my dwindling birthday card stash, and one for my Operation Write Home stash that is probably just about ready to mail out. I decided to use this cute little mouse image that I had picked up at the Paper Craft Planet. I made these cards to meet two challenges. First up is a Fab ‘n’ Funky Challenge #39 to do what’eva and it is sponsered by Meljen’s Designs, the designer of the image I used. The second challenge is a sketch, Stamptacular Sunday Challenge #76. Initially, I wasn’t sure about making a square card, since I prefer the A2 size, but it worked great with my image since I had printed it a tad on the small side.

Amitis' Birthday Card

Stamps: Meljen’s Designs PCP400MemberFreebie; Stampin’ Up Small Sayings (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Real Read, Cameo Coral
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Pink Flamingo
Ink: Dell printer; Stampin’ Up Chocolate Chip (sentiment)
Markers: Stampin’ Up Rose Red, Regal Rose, Garden Green, So Saffron, Barely Banana, Blush Blossom, Certainly Celery, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel

A Birthday Card for Jason

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My brother’s birthday was last Wednesday, but I was a little slow in making him a birthday card. It worked out okay since he and my SIL Julia went to San Francisco on Thursday and they won’t be back until later today. His card and gift will be waiting for him when he gets back. I’ll have to get some pictures of him using his gift. I think that will be hilarious.

I was doing some browsing in my google reader of all the challenge blogs I like to see if there was a good challenge or two for a card for Jason. I found two. First off, I used Phindy’s Friday Challenge #22 to to go green. I used both the color green and reused some ribbon binding a pack of washcloths I bought a while back. Second, I used Our Creative Corner Sketch Challenge #32. The sketch was perfect for the Phindy’s Place image I had picked out. The image isn’t definitively a birthday image, but my brother likes to cook and he’s been posting pictures of food he’s eating in SF on their blog, so I thought it suited him. I can’t put my finger on it, but I feel like something is missing or not quite right. Maybe if I had some silver cardstock for the punched sentiment, that would rid the feeling. Hopefully, Jason likes the card and doesn’t find the bow too girly.

Jason's Birthday Card

Stamps: Phindy’s Place Soup for 500; Stampin’ Up Party Punch (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Wild Wasabi, Pacific Point; Basic Gray
Ink: Dell printer; Stazon Jet Black (sentiment)
Embellishments: recycled ribbon; Inkessentials Glossy Accents (on soup)
Tools: Stampin’ Up Designer Label punch; atYou Spica clear (on sentiment); Prismacolor colored pencils