Reading together

Today I am grateful for little brothers who enjoy "reading" together...

Weston got this cute book from our friend Lauren and he just loved looking at the pictures over and over again. One day I walked in and he was showing all of the animals to Kade and talking to him about them, it was as if they completely understood one another.  It truly warmed my heart and I just had to capture the moment.  Weston and Kade are only 13 months apart and they really love each other so much, Weston can often be found just loving on his baby brother and it's so sweet!

For these pages I used the Calamity Jane Stripe card-stock, and dew drops (my favorite embellishment!!) from The Robin's Nest. You can visit and order from their website at: http://www.robinsnest-scrap.com/  

These are such fun little shots of the boys!  I added random dew drops, punched hearts and stamp shaped chipboard to dress up the page a bit without taking away from the photos.

I just added a few words for journaling down the left hand side and the boys names across the top right.

Here is just a close up of the cute embellishments for these pages.  

Thanks so much to stopping by today and checking out the blog.

Happy Crafting,

Tara

Salt water fish tank

Today I am grateful for our 215 gallon salt water fish tank.

Jeremiah started doing salt water fish tanks about 5 1/2 years ago.  When we got married he had a 90 gallon tank. He loved the tank and really enjoyed taking care of the fish and coral.  He started to teach me all the different things about the fish, feeding, cleaning and over all care of the tank.  I have to admit I wasn't nearly as excited about it as he was.  After awhile I realized how neat it was to see all the different things in the tank and I really began to love having the tank.  We upgraded soon after we were married to our 215 gal.  This is one of our favorite hobbies to do together, and it honestly isn't the same doing it without him.....found this out while he was deployed.  

Here I have done a double layout of just a few pictures of our tank.  I used paper from The Robin's nest.  I used Glitter Pink Coral for the base.  Then my mom-in-law cut out the starfish from the Glitter Black Starfish paper and I glued them onto the corners of my paper.  I also used a few of the little green starfish on each page.  I framed the picture on the right with Glitter Purple Crackle and Glitter Pink Crackle, both from The Robin's Nest.

Above is a picture showing the great glitter paper. I used my Criut with the Paper Dolls Dress Up cartridge to create my teal coral here in the bottom corner.

This is the left page really showing off the beauty of the fish tank and all the cute page details.

Here is a close up of the adorable seahorses I made, again with my Cricut and the Paper Dolls Dress Up.  I thought these were so cute when I added them to the page, there are also a few more of the teal coral I made.  This was such a fun layout to do, and I loved working with all the bright colors!!

Happy Crafting, 

Tara

Craving a burger....

Today I am grateful for receiving a much needed burger from my dad-in-law and Jeremiah, that I have been craving for about a week now.... oh so yummy!!

Okay here is the story, because I know this seems like such a funny thing to be thankful for but you have no idea how bad I just needed this last night.  I was having a rough day, we have been remodeling our kitchen since the day after Jeremiah came home from his deployment. Nov. 5th to be exact.  (We left for a full two weeks to go to Utah to spend time with family for Thanksgiving.)  Jeremiahs mom and dad came into town Christmas day. Today we have all been working around the house.  We scored a double oven, drop in stove top and a microwave today for a crazy good deal.  I was stressed about making the decision to purchase these things as we had not planned to replace them, but the price was sooooo right!!  Anywho Jeremiah and dad were headed to home depot to pick up a few more things for the kitchen and I said, "hey just bring me home a burger, that's all I need."  Anyone who knows Jer and I knows we aren't big on eating out because we love cooking and enjoy our food way more than any restaurant or fast food place.   The guys had been gone for over and hour and I decided to start dinner, about ten minutes into cooking they walked in the door with Burger King just for mom and me...I have to say it totally made my whole day and I was a much happier person.  The boys still ate the shepherds pie I cooked. After dinner we watched a movie together to end the evening and I am sure we will have an early start back to the remodeling.

 Here is just a little sneak peak of the process of our kitchen....

Here's to the simple joys in life :)

Happy Crafting, 

Tara

My best friend Sarah..

Today I am grateful for my best friend Sarah.

Sarah and I met while working together about five years ago.  We quickly became friends and over time more like sisters in many ways.  Even though we live far away from one another we are still there for the other anytime it is needed.  She was there for the birth of my Weston and I was there for her little girl McKenna.  She and her husband Donnie are two of the greatest people I know and were there for me through some of the roughest parts of my life.  I love you both like family!

I created this page with some of my favorite pictures of Sarah and her cute little family.  Sarah and Donnie were married in June of 2009 and I was able to be there for their special day, their daughter McKenna was born in April of 2012.  I love this picture on the bottom left of her holding her daughter for the first time, nothing more beautiful than a mother meeting her baby and having that first connection with new life.

I used card-stock from Stampin' Up! as well as a red, grey and black card-stock.

Here is a close up of the flowers I used to embellish the page.  I made these on my post about my mom last week. I think they are so cool and since I have five boys I don't get much chance to use the girly things.  I placed a black dew drop in the center just to add a little more to the arrangement.

For Sarah's name I used my Cricut and the Sophisticated cartridge.  I think this gave a perfect elegance. 

Thanks Sarah for your friendship, love and support always!

Happy Crafting, 

Tara

Christmas

Today I am thankful for Christmas.

I just wanted to start by wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas. I am so thankful to be able to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  I use to not really be a big fan of Christmas because I feel it has become far to commercialized and people are not remembering the true reason for this season.  Jeremiah and I have tried to teach the kids why we celebrate Christmas and that it is not about the gifts we get, but rather the gifts, or better yet the service we can give others. They are still young and learning and yes we still hold the fun traditions of some gifts and stockings. Jeremiah shares the story of the birth of Christ first keeping the focus on him, then we have followed a tradition from Jeremiah's family where we open presents on Christmas Eve, and all of the presents are from mom and dad. Christmas morning they get their stockings filled with goodies and such and this is what comes from Santa.  This is our family tradition, what are some of your favorite traditions you do in your home?

Today I thought I would change things up a bit and craft a Christmas card.  I didn't want the standard red and greens so I when with black, red, white and some silver.  I used white embossing powder to really give the pop I wanted on both the red and the black card-stock.  I used stamps from the Holiday Wishes set.  I really love how this turned out.  I added some silver embossing powder with my white on the little snowflakes and tied a sliver ribbon around the card to mesh the red and black better without having a bold line.  I added some black dew drops from The Robin's Nest for the final touch this card needed.

Here is a closer look at the embossed snowflakes, ribbon bow and dew drops.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with family, friends and loved ones, stay safe!

Happy Crafting, 

Tara

Outing to Old Colorado Territory Days..

Today I am grateful for the fun family outing we had last summer with all of the boys to the Territory Days in old town Colorado.

Jeremiah decided it would be fun to have the old fashioned pictures taken while we were there.  The boys loved getting to hold the guns and be dressed up like cowboys.  They all looked so cute too, even little Weston who was just three months old was all decked out like a little stud.  They were all so good and we really got some great shots.  I have had these pictures hanging around my room where I can see them because I have loved them so much and I was so happy to finally put them into a scrapbook.

This one made me laugh so hard when we first saw it, everyone was in perfect character pointing their guns at daddy, and looking at him too.  I used the striped side of the Cowboy paper from The Robin's Nest.  I used some brown mailbox letters for my words.  I stamped and embossed the scallops, stars, and paisleys with the Wanted stamp set and a copper emboss powder from Stampin; Up!.

Just a little close up of the embossed scallop circles.

Again I used the mailbox letters, and this page shows off my embossed paisleys. I placed these on the page with foam pop ups to give the page just a little more dimension.  

We could not have asked for a more perfect picture, everyone is actually looking at the camera, eyes are open and smiles all around!!

  I know we all really enjoyed taking these pictures and they whole day just being together.

I love having pictures of the fun memories we have made together as a family and love to be able to scrapbook them and share it with others.

Happy Crafting, 

Tara

Joseph Smith

Today I am thankful for the first prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Joseph Smith.

I am grateful for Joseph Smith for having the faith to do the things he did to restore the fullness of the church to the earth today.  I have a testimony that he saw God the father and his son Jesus Christ at the young age of 14, when he prayed to know which church to join.   I am truly grateful for this because the gospel and being part of the church brings a happiness to my life that nothing else in the world could ever do.

Not sure if you can read the journaling I did here with this picture, but it explains where this came from.  This is an actual photo hanging in mom and dad O'Crowley's spare bedroom. This is Jeremiahs favorite photo of Joseph Smith and in person it is quite a neat one to see.  It felt fitting to use it for this page.  I used The Robin's Nest paper called Service.  The words printed on this paper were perfect to describe Joseph, patience, service and brotherly love.  

I found this picture of Joseph and his wife Emma Smith and thought it was perfect to add to the page.  I added some dew drops to embellish and it added the perfect bit of elegance I wanted.

The bottom left is a picture of a statue of Joseph that I believe is at Temple Square.  It is a beautiful representation of the Prophet and really looked good with the other two photos I had chosen.  

I was grateful to be able to post this today as it is not only my dear handsome husband and his twin Jessiciah's birthdays but it is also Joseph Smiths birthday as well. 

Happy Crafting, 

Tara

Braxton's Art...

Today I am grateful for Braxton's Artwork!!

I just love all the artwork this little Braxton does.  He seems to be drawing pictures daily now.  I wish I had saved more of all of the boys artwork, nothing can replace those first innocent creations.  You know the ones where are are at least 10 times thinner or 10 times fatter than you really are, and they somehow manage to point out all the best features they see in you. *wink-wink*

These pages were so fun to preserve some of his art.  I went "loud" on these because anyone who knows Brax knows he is LOUD.  So this worked perfect.  I really wanted to highlight the art so I left things with a little less detail than I normally would have, but it looks good and keeps the focus on the awesome drawn picture.

Here is the original picture, this seriously makes me smile so big every time I look at it.  I asked Braxton to tell me about this picture and he says this is our whole family....I love how much he loves his family and really loves to draw them out, especially his brothers. I thought for sure I was the red peanut looking one with the belly button, but he just laughed and said, "no silly that's dad, I gave him a belly button. You are the one with the hair."  (The purple fuzzy looking one to the left of the peanut...I mean dad)

For the other page I kept things fairly simple and just added a few pictures of him coloring and painting on one of our school days here at home. I added some smaller sticker circles in various circles and like what it did for this page.  I also added number stickers under the bottom pictures.  I used my cricut to cute out the letters in the same polka dot print to really tie it all together.  I sure love this four year old and I cherish his sweet creations!!

Happy Crafting, 

Tara

More functional and usable space..

Today I am grateful for more functional and usable space.

The left page is the cubby space and closet in our master bedroom when we bought our house last year.  We have since painted the room a beautiful midnight blue with white trim, as you can see in the pictures on the right page.

It only took one look at this wasted space, for Jeremiah to say he was going to open it all up and put some shelves in.  That is just what he did last summer.  We wanted to make the space really feel like a part of the room and so we carried the colors over into the bookcase area and it really looks like it has always been there.  He gave the shelves a beautiful curve instead of just a plain straight across.  We have so many books and various decorations and items from places of travel.  It is so nice to have all this space to store and display so many of the things we love.

For this layout I used just some nice textured blue card-stock. Lined my pictures with a red.  For the before page I used a lot of rub-ons and a few dew drops for some dimension. 

Here is a close up of the bookshelf. We hung some rope lights around the inside where they can not been seen and have them on a timer so they light up the room very well in the evening hours.  

I really struggled at first scrapbooking these pictures.  The colors in the before pictures are just awful and they aren't exactly exciting.  I ended up really liking them when all was done and said but it sure took some creativity for me to be happy and feel like they were actually complete.  I used a journaling tag from The Robin's Nest and made a darling clothes line with items hanging from it, I kept laughing at this cause I just thought it was so dang cute!

As for the closet, we took off the bulky doors.  When they were open they hit the bedroom door so we decided to just take them off.  Shortly before Jeremiah left for his deployment he finished the closet.  I swear we have become pros at figuring out how to get more functionality and usability out of small spaces, and this was no exception!  He built these great square boxes in the top part of the closet that have fabric boxes in them, this allows for storage of the smaller clothing items or things that are worn less often. At the bottom where there was so much space that seemed wasted he built a couple more boxes and shoes racks.  You can see that he left a section on the far left so that my dresses still hang nicely without getting bunched up.  

All in all both of these projects turned out very well, I have plenty of space for just about everything!

Happy Crafting, 

Tara

My Mom

Today I am so grateful to the woman who gave me life, my Mother!!

As a little side note, today was a perfect day to honor my mother as it is her birthday.  

Happy Birthday Mom!! I love you gobs and gobs!!

For those of you who are just joining me on my blog I am doing 365 days of things I am grateful for.  We are now on day five and these are in no particular order.  

So this is my mother Kathleen, she does not like to be called Kathleen, she prefers Kathy.  My mom is a wonderful woman and I love her so much. She gave birth to six children and cared for each one of us everyday, she was lucky enough to be a stay at home mom.  We loved having mom there when we returned home from school, church activities, work, a date, and being with friends.  She was always there to listen and help with any problems we had.  She loved our friends and many called her mom as well.  She is loved by so many. She has been able to be there for the births of all of my babies and I have been especially grateful to have her there in the room with me with the last three, and all the help she was with them after they were born.  She is in Utah and I am in Colorado now so it isn't as easy to just get together any more and I do miss that, but we still talk often.

 It was so nice to go through some older pictures and gather a collection to do a layout on my mom.  I am very happy with the way these pages turned out.

I added this beautiful quote that comes from George Washington, "My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw."  I loved this and felt the same way about my mother.  I made these awesome flowers out of four scalloped circles attached to one another by a brad in the middle, I went with yellows because it is her favorite color.  They really made a great look on these pages. Thanks Jeri for teaching me how to make these lovely things!

I love this picture of my cute parents!  I added the word mom with some brown mailbox letters, they fit perfect in the space I had available.  I also added little metal tag words in various places, like the one in the right top corner that says "joy".

Again I am truly grateful for my mother and wish I could be with her to celebrate today, hopefully this post helps fill my absence.  I love you mom!!!

Happy Crafting, 

Tara

Buchholzer Sisters

Today I am grateful for some of my best friends, my sisters by blood and maiden name!!

I come from a family of six kids I am second youngest.  There are five girls and one boy.  Grateful to say that my brother married a wonderful woman who added another sister to our bunch. 

I am so pleased with this layout in every aspect, it was fun finally putting these pictures together. They are like seven years old, even though we have all had more kids since these were taken, we all look pretty much the same...only thing I see different is my hair is long now.... ;)

The picture on the right has our precious handicap sister Shauna in the center, she was the only one out of the six kids that got brown hair.  We are all redheads.  There are not a lot of pictures we have of all of the girls together, but I loved that she was in this with us. 

With these pages I had a lot of fun adding various details.  I loved the puzzle pieces for my words as they were just letters until put together they created sisters, and friends.  So perfect!

Here are the girls up close, from left to right let me introduce you to my sisters, Tammy, Shersten, Jamie, Tara (me), and littlest sister Rachelle.  

I loved the butterflies and what they added to these pages.  I was able to use my cricut for the letters, butterflies and the white scalloped circle I wrote our names on.  I used some brads in the butterflies and added some orange buttons as a final pop of orange.

"We are sisters by fate , best friends by choice."

Until next time time, Happy Crafting!

Tara

O'Crowley Sisters

Today I am grateful for the amazing sisters I received when I married my husband.

This was such a fun page to create and I just LOVE how it turned out!!

Here are the O'Crowley women, a force to be reckoned with for sure!  What a great group of girls and I am so happy to be one of them.  From left  to right we have Rachel, Jessiciah, (Robin - mom) Robyn, Tara and Brittany.  We took these photos on Thanksgiving day and unfortunately Brittany was unable to make it, fortunately enough we saw her and her family a few days earlier and had this picture of her to combine with the other sisters.  I love the accent flower in the upper left corner made from tear drops and a small dew drop in the middle.

Here I added a beautiful silver embossed emblem saying "friends", the picture doesn't fully do it justice,  it is bright and shinny and really adds to the page. I placed a pink flower cut out with a punch I had and added another tear drop flower to coordinate with the one up on the top portion of the page.

Using the same punch, I made this cute trio of  flowers next to the picture of us girls.  I feel like it really gave the page the final balance it needed.  

Here is the complete page again.

 These are great women and I truly consider them all to be not only sisters but friends!

Happy Crafting, 

Tara

Home cooked foods...

Today I am grateful for home cooked food. 

 This is something that I have always enjoyed.  I grew up in a home where there was always a home cooked meal on our table every night and a wonderful one at that.  These four meals were actually made while my mother was here staying with me after I had our last son Kade, this past April.  Jeremiah was deployed and my mom and I enjoyed a couple weeks together and we ate some really yummy food.

Here we have Garlic Spaghetti, Crepes and Omelette.  I used The Robin's Nest - Veranda Explore/Stripe card-stock.  I also accented with some dew drops, round and diamonds. I wanted to keep things simple and used just a few little frames I had in my craft room to highlight the name of each food.

On the second page we have BBQ Chicken Pizza and Honeymoon Delight.  I used a fun journal card-stock, again from The Robin's Nest.  I went with a black border and sponged the edges in a brown. I really like adding some personal handwritten message to my pages when I can.  

 I am really happy with how these pages turned out, especially since I do not think I have ever crafted pages just around food. :)   Thanks for checking in today.  Until tomorrow...

Happy Crafting, 

Tara

My husband, Jeremiah

Hello, hello.  Welcome to Hidden Scrapper!  My name is Tara O'Crowley, I am married to a wonderful man named Jeremiah and we have five handsome little boys. I have the privilege of being a stay at home mommy to three of our five little guys.  Our older two boys live in Utah with their dad and step mom.    I am very excited and a bit nervous to be honest, about FINALLY starting my actual blog.  

  I will be posting at least once a day for 365 days!!  That's right, everyday for at least one year is what I have committed to.  To give a little detail about the blog.....Jeremiah challenged me a few weeks ago to start my blog, but there was more to it than that.  He challenged me to blog and scrap about something that I am grateful for and each day has to be something different with no repeats.  I took a minute to think about it and decided this would be a wonderful thing for me to do.

 So without further ado lets get things started!

Today I am grateful for this man...

This is my husband Jeremiah.  He is truly my best friend.  He is a wonderful father.  A dedicated and honorable Army Officer.  He is a loving son, brother, and uncle. Those of us who know him, would consider him to be very sarcastic, and playful.  He is one who would truly do anything for anyone, at anytime. He is far to often misunderstood and read wrong.  He has a love for gardening, our 210 gallon salt water fish tank,  working on the home improvements and our soon to be newest adventure, sailing. He is so talented and can honestly do just about everything, and do it well!  

Fist page and a close up view of the dew drop swirl.

  These 12 x 12 pages were done on The Robin's Nest Olive/Stripe card-stock. 

The dew drops (cute little embellishments all over the page) are also a Robin's Nest product.

I created a nice accent swirl around the top corner picture with the dew drops.  I also added a Time Flies rub-on from The Robin's Nest.

You can check out their store at  http://www.robinsnest-scrap.com/  I will be using a lot of their products on my blog so keep their website handy in case there are things you would like to order for your own crafting needs.

Second page and a close up of the words, ribbon and dew drops.

I used some brown stickers for his name. I found an Army rub-on and added it to the corner of his military picture in his dress blues. With my cricut I cut out in brown the words, Soldier, Husband, Father and Friend.  I placed a small piece of Stampin' Up! ribbon behind each of these words & added a few dew drops.  Then I drew stitches on each letter to complete my look.  Scattered a few dew drops in various places on my two pages for a final touch.  Here is my two page layout once again.

Thanks so much for joining me today.  Until tomorrow.

Happy Crafting, 

Tara