Friday, May 17, 2013

The Everyday Scrapbooker

Hi everyone! Wondering where I've gone? Join me over at www.theeverydayscrapbooker.weebly.com to stay on top of all my crafty endeavours! I also have a group over at Facebook under the same name (the Everyday Scrapbooker) and I'd love for you to join me there too, for contests, weekly challenges and just general FUN!! When you stop by, say hi, so I can say hi back!!

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Non- Traditional


The past few weeks has been in a state of familial chaos the last few weeks with Kyle working such crazy hours. When spring break is finally here, I see him sleeping for a couple days solid to get his body back into a normal routine! Last night, he got up at 1 to head into work. He's got to go back tonight- but this time, he's got to be getting ready at midnight. He'll be heading to Valleyview, which is a good 4 hours form here. Oh, the life of an oilfield worker! (And their families!)

So, other than Thursday night, I've spent a considerable amount of time in my craft room. My mojo must have found me, because I churned out three entire layouts last night. Can you believe that?! I'm slightly flabbergasted! I wonder what tonight will bring?!

Our Easter plans are slightly on hold for the moment; I do plan on baking a cake today- with the girls' help, of course- but otherwise its going to be a normal, quiet weekend for us here. We are hoping to make next weekend our 'Easter' weekend; my parents will be back home (they are currently on vacation right now) and Kyle should be done work. If he isn't, at least it'll be his regular weekend off. He's going to need a break by then!

While I'm on the topic of Easter, as I was heading to bed last night, I wandered into the kitchen to grab a little shot of juice to whet the whistle, and two of my fridge magnets caught my eye. They struck a chord deep within me, but I couldn't say why exactly it was so profound to me. They are two birds- doves (I think. But, I affectionately call them chicks)- and they're facing each other. One is yellow, the other is white. The word "Easter" jumped out at me when I saw them.

Just one of those 'hmm' moments, I guess.

Kyle is big into drag racing. He has his own race truck, that he enjoys tinkering on and plans on (slowly) improving, as finances and time allows. We haven't raced much since moving back to Alberta, but we did occasionally attend the race track in Estevan when we lived in Saskatchewan. Some of you may know that already. He's joked, time and again, that his girls are going to grow up to be funny car race drivers. Yeah.Right. Not if I can help it! I don't mind if they drag race, and start out racing rails, but they are--WILL NOT--race funny cars. They're too fast and too dangerous. He also jokes that I should take up drag racing. I've got a better reaction time than he does (heh heh). It could possibly be on my bucket list.

The first layout I finished last night is a perfect example, in Kyle's defence, of why the kids should learn to drag race. They love speed, they love playing racing games on their daddy's iPhone, and they love pretending to 'race' around the house in a cardboard box. That's what Addison was doing in my 'Race Car' layout. Kyle would push the box up with his toes and make car sounds, pretending to race the kids around the world.

Up until the very last minute, the title for this layout was going to be 'Pretending'. Then, after I got the journalling done, I realized that the title didn't really explain what this layout is all about. Instead, it would have been confusing, and the whole point would have gotten lost in the shuffle. So, I gently peeled off the alphas, and edited the title to read 'Race Car'.

You're probably wondering where the journalling is. Its there, but its hidden! I'm on a flip book craze lately, and this layout is no exception. The layout I scrap lifted this one from (which means copied, basically) didn't include room for journalling, so I had to be creative and make room for it. I made the flip book to 1) save paper- so I wasn't throwing out any paper that could easily have been used up; and 2) I wanted lots of space to write in, since my writing is so big and fluffy. There. Killed two birds with one stone!

The main color scheme I wanted to follow on this layout was kraft (brown), red and blue. The yellow makes a terrific accent color, and actually steals the show. The blue and brown are so muted, while the red and yellow are so intense and dramatic, I love the contrast between them. They also provide a great contrast between Addisons' personality (which is quiet and laid back), while the bright, vivid colors helps highlight the intensity of race car driving.

Also, one last little note: the blue floral paper in the background was created using a Creative Memories paper tearing tool. Remember how I mentioned in a previous post that my paper trimmer is incredibly dull and tends to tear thin paper? Yeah- that's what happened with this patterned paper. To camouflage the torn edges, I embellished with the paper tearing tool. I love the look here!

One of the best things about having girls is that I can have make overs with them! I'm a girly girl. I like having my hair all pretty, some make up on, and pretty clothes. I like to feel good about myself, and getting dolled up and painting my nails (once in a while) helps me achieve that. The girls really enjoy it, too. So, one day, during play time, we sat down to have a little make over. They were all.over.it like a pig in mud. (And, I can hear the girls saying to me 'but, I don't want to be a pig'). We have yet to understand what that phrase means! Heh heh.

I scrap lifted a layout I had seen on the Jillibean Soup blog for this particular project. It works perfectly to frame and highlight the star of my layout: the picture of Addison. This picture is a personal favorite of mine! I'm in love with it! It isn't the best- her one eye is covered, but that's what makes it so great. My blush brush is perfect to highlight the theme of my layout. MAKE UP!!!! (That, and her sweetly, toddler-done smudged lipstick).

The last layout I created was using the newest sketch to be posted to the LCOM (Lets Capture Our Memories) blog. If you want to play along, you can find the sketch here. I'm pretty sure I'm going to submit this layout to their challenge. When I saw that my friend Melissa had posted it, I knew instantly that it would be perfect for this layout.

I am not a big fan of halloween decorations. I'm more of a harvest type of gal. That's what I'd rather decorate my house with, because I love the warm, inviting, deep colours this time of year boasts. Not that I have anything against halloween decorations, or anyone out there that enjoys decorating for the holiday. I just don't like the dark connotations of it. Does that make sense? Anyways, it just boils down to personal preference. So, when it came to creating this years' halloween layout, it wasn't about using traditional halloween colours; it was all about coordinating with the girls' costumes!

The girls dressed up as fairies for halloween. At first, we were going with butterflies (that's what they'd asked for), but since the weather was incredibly cold that weekend, I ran to the dollar store, found tiara's to wear over their toques, and little wands, and VOILA! they were fairies. Later on (after the pictures in the layout were taken), I put the girls in snow pants. It slowed them down quite a bit, but at least they were warmer!

I had a lot of fun creating the title cluster on the bottom left portion of my layout. I love the mixture of alphas and sticker phrases, journalling spot, buttons and tags. Its very eclectic and personally a lot of fun! IMHO. To help draw the eye around the page, I included the date in the upper right corner of my layout. A goal to always keep in mind when you're creating is to follow an invisible grid in your mind; divide your layout into threes and try to embellish where those lines interect, to create a design 'sweet spot'. Its effective, but a technique I sometimes find hard to do.

What do I love the most about this layout? The non traditional color scheme! The colors I used are everything opposite to halloween and fall, and I think its fantastic!!

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Lifestyle Photos


Good afternoon! How is your Thursday going? Its another beautiful day here- we're above 10 degrees again this afternoon. The windows are cracked a bit again today, letting some of that wonderful fresh air into the house to freshen things up again. I love it!! We waited until nearly noon for Kyle to come home--he was gone for a good 16 hours last night! Yikes. He says there's a possibility he could be going out again tonight; if not, he's got a rig move going on tomorrow. In a way, I hope he doesn't have to work until tomorrow. He's going to need the rest. Switching from day to nights to days again is going to wreak havoc on his internal clock. I don't envy him at this time of year at all!

To keep myself busy last night, I created another layout, and the finished product came about by chance. Sort of. I desperately need a new blade for my paper trimmer, but Walmart doesn't carry the replacement blades (yet they carry the paper trimmer, itself. Go figure). Grrr. (On a tangent, its like training pants. They have potty training underwear for the littles, but don't carry the plastic liners that a toddler wears over top of them. S.M.R.T. If you ask me.)

Cutting regular weight patterned paper is taking chance into your own hands- the cut could be crisp and clean, but more likely, its going to be ripped and torn and plain messy looking. Which, it was. So, I decided to roll with it. I broke out a piece of sand paper (which I haven't used in a coons age), and distressed the edges of all the paper in this layout, including the pictures. I was going for a shabby chic sort of look. I don't think I mastered it at all, but I do like the distressed look. Actually, I love the distressed look. I need to do it a little more often. I love the personality and character it adds.

I began with a plain piece of white card stock, and used a tooth brush (of all things) to paint on the background. I like the dry brushing look it lends. I tried the splattering technique first, but haven't quite gotten the hang of it. I scrapped that idea and just painted the old fashioned way (except for the tooth brush part). I cut the squares of patterned paper to the same size as the pictures, which is 2x3--which I find works incredibly well for an 8.5x11 size layout, if you want multiple photos--then embellished them a bit using stickers, a photo corner and what was left of the patterned paper I used behind the white card stock.

Lastly, the numbers of the date didn't match my color scheme (which I pulled inspiration from Pinterest for), so I painted them up, too. I used a small paint brush to add color, then took a dry paint brush and dry stroked them to help some of the color pop through, but not too much. It also adds a bit more texture to the layout, too. IRL it almost looks like wood grain.

The inspiration for my layout came from Pinterest (it originally came from the JBS blog, I do believe), but there was no way I was going to be able to stretch my title work across the top of the page. I split it up- part of it along the top of the spread, and the last half along the bottom of my spread. It helps carry your eye right to the bottom of the layout. I think, though, if I were to tweak it a little more, I'd add some more deep brown accents to my layout, as another way to help draw a persons eye around the page. I can't help but feel the eye gets stuck on the date.

Meh, oh well. Work place hazard :) I'm still in love with my layout!!

I may or may not attempt scrapping again tonight. It all depends on what my husband wants to do and how he feels. If he needs more sleep, I'll be back in here crafting up a storm. But, if he feels lively enough, I'm going to chillax with him, instead. I've missed him these last two days!

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Fulfilling Project


I am finally nearing the end of our boudoir/lifestyle photo session scrapbook pages. In a way, I'm kind of sad that I'm at the end (I have only one layout left in this series), but in a way, I'm incredibly satisfied. Not only did I scrapbook these pictures for the girls to look back on, and see what fun their mama and auntie A had, but I also got a special mini album and layout done for my best friend. That's about as fulfilling as scrapbooking can get. And, nothing is more rewarding!

I'm now contemplating making a layout of our day just for myself, to hang on one of the walls in our house. I just might have to do that!

The layout I completed last night, the one you'll find here, finally deals with the whole point of our day: our photos! As part of my package, I got to have a few lifestyle photos done, so those are in plain view on this layout. I wasn't comfortable sharing my boudoir photos with the world wide web, so I got creative with the sketch I used, and the layout I created.

This is my favorite part! In the sketch, a tag with journalling was added to the right side of both pictures. Since this layout didn't require any journalling, I switched it up and made this cute little flip book, which is tied closed with lace ribbon. I used the lace ribbon to mimic the outfit I was wearing in my boudoir photos, which is partly white lace. If anyone wants to see the hidden pictures, all they need to do is untie the ribbon, and flip through the book. For a little bit of a teaser, I made each succeeding page a tad bit longer (also so the pages are a bit easier to flip). I also switched the placement of the journalling tag- rather than the right side, I put my flip book on the left side of the layout.

The outfit I wore for my boudoir photos is black and white, so I wanted to stick with a color scheme that highlighted those two colors. I found a color scheme (on Pinterest) that added yellow as an accent color, so used varying shades and tones of yellow and light brown/ to accent this layout. Once again, I carried the lace theme throughout the layout, using a lace doily in the background.

When it was time to add the title work, I began wondering what type of alpha would be best to use. I wanted to add a bit of a glamorous air, since both A and I felt pretty glamorous all dolled up, so pulled out my dollar store glitter alphas. There wasn't a second 'O' in black, so I cut a part a lower case 'd', to make the letter 'O', and consequently a letter 'I', since I wasn't able to find that in black, either. Once in a while, it helps to think outside the box!

Its a very simple design, but that's the way I like it!

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

All About Family

Once again, time has gotten away from me! Where does time go?!

I want to highlight a few of my favorite layouts from my scap binge last weekend. I got so many done, that there's just way too many to post here.

You'll be able to find all my layouts in various places- either here, here or here. My Pinterest also includes all the items that inspired me, too.

First up, First Snow. Way back in October, the first flakes of snow fell. The girls and I got all dressed up and headed outside to make our very first snowman, and attempt showing them how to make snowballs. Both turned out to be a project for mommy only, but we still had fun. They love catching snowflakes on their tongues- that was something else mama taught them while we gallavanted in the snow.

I absolutely love the papers I chose to use on this layout. Blue and red is another fave color combo. And the patterns on this one? Out of this world! I just LOVE it!!! All papers used are Jillibean Soup, from the Winter Tortellini collection. Oh, except for the one strip of blue polka dot paper that's punched. That's from Carta Bella (Merry and Bright Collection).

Another favorite is my Family layout. The content is fairly intimate; its another layout dealing with my struggle with Post Partum Depression. A song that has come to mean a lot to me during this period in my life is I Will Not Give Up, by Jason Mraz. I wanted to find a design that saved a lot of room for journalling (so I would write out the lyrics to the song), and the one I chose for this layout met that requirement beautifully.

My favorite part about that layout is all the white space! Its short and sweet, and to the point. A lot like me, now that I think about it.

You are Beautiful. We frequently tell our girls that. We may be a little biased, but I think its 100% true. My hope is that if the girls hear it enough throughout their lives, they'll believe it, and not think less of themselves. Part of that hope is also instilling in them the trust that their mama and daddy are incredibly proud of them (which we are), and we tell them that often, too. I never heard it much from either of my parents growing up; I don't want my children growing up without hearing those important words from the most important people in their lives.

The sticker sentiment that makes up the title on this layout sums up how I feel about both of the girls perfectly. I couldn't have said it better myself!

Next comes my Cozy layout. Its another layout of Neruda, the cat we're taking care of for my sister. She just looks so snug and cozy all curled up under the curtains like that! All I had to do was lie on the floor (a short distance from her), zoom in, and snap away. She didn't even notice a thing! Lucky for me :)

The title is my favorite part of this layout. It has a real home spun, cozy sort of feel. LOVE!!

Lastly begins the Boudoir photo layouts! I won't actually post any pictures of my boudoir photos, but I will post (and scrap) some of the lifestyle pics I had done with my bestie (I was able to sneak a few of those into my boudoir shoot, too). All the layouts I've done of those up to date are located in the three links I provided at the top of my post.

Enjoy and take care!

~a

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Four

Happy Wednesday, all!

It was an incredibly productive scrappy kind of weekend for me. If you can believe it, I completed 22 entire layouts, some of which I've submitted for publication to Canadian Scrapbooker, and the rest of which are slowly being uploaded to my online gallery at Scrapbook.com. Its too much work (and unfair to everyone there) to bomb them with that many layouts at once! Ha!

And, instead of starting at the beginning, I'm just going to share with you the four I uploaded tonight. If you'd like to see the rest of the layouts I made, just head over to my Facebook page or my online gallery at Scrapbook.com. That'll be way easier- for all of us!

The first one up tonight, is of my sisters' kitty, Neruda. We are babysitting her. I'm sure I've referenced her before. Anyways, I'm glad I'm starting to get some layouts in of her, because next week she's going back home to live with her mommy! I'm sad! I don't want her to leave. She's crazy, but I like having her around. I'm sure I've mentioned that before, too. She's added a lot of color to our household- more than there was before. I've told Kyle that the next pet we own needs to have a larger than life personality like this cat. I'm not sure we'll know what to do with ourselves after she's gone.

The sentiment at the bottom of this layout, Each day, my heart grows fonder, is sooo 100% true. We took to each other like butter on bread. She's been my little pal these last 7 months. She hangs with me every night when I scrap, and when there's a quiet moment without kids hanging around, she's cuddled in my lap. Or getting stuck in my drawer.

I'll share that story another day. Its worth a little chuckle, if not a belly laugh, for sure.

The next layout, Addison the Builder, has a bit of a story behind it. Just lately, we've been coming across signs and whatnot all over the place that references Bob the Builder. On our way home last Friday after dropping the kids' at their grandparents, I happened to see a sign for a welder entitled Bob the Welder. LIke, seriously. So, when I came across the sketch for this layout, and began thinking about a title, I couldn't resist playing on the Bob the Builder theme.

Addison is our little builder. She'll stack anything and everything, and when it tumbles over, it just makes her giddy with delight. She squeals and shrieks with incredible happiness. She loves it! She may just grow up to be our engineer! Or someone that destroys buildings for a living. Who knows.

The card sticker at the bottom of the layout, on the right, is actually symbolic of Addisons' age when this picture was taken (2 years old). I'm glad I thought to put that on there, considering it was just recently the girls' birthday. If I hadn't, we'd be wondering come next year, how old she was- two or three? I can just see it. LOL

Finally. That's the title of my next layout. I'm not sure, but I think this might be a cycle that every little girl goes through. At first, they didn't want me to touch their hair, unless I wanted to unintentionally start world war 3. Then, they gradually grew to be ok with it, and now they finally like it. They might not let me do their hair every day, but more often than not now, I'll be able to get a pony tail or two or three into their hair. I'm a happy mama!

On this layout, I punched the butterfly 5 times and stacked them to give it more dimension, and journalled on the circle. I also included some stamping in this one- the purple card stock has flowers on it, and the pink card stock has the hearts. All of which (both stamps and ink) are Stampin' Up.

The last layout I'll share tonight is one of my absolute favorites. Ever make a layout that you're so incredibly proud of, you think you need to frame it? Yeah, that would be this one.

Its all entirely Jillibean Soup- from the Country Pumpkin Chowder collection. The only thing that isn't Jillibean, is the tiny scallop sticker border on the journalling spot. That's Stampin' Up, I do believe. If not that, then its Creative Memories. This one is called Thanksgiving. And yes, its all about Thanksgiving!

What's so special about it? Everything :)

Go. Go now and check them out! You won't be disappointed. {I hope}.

Till next time,

~a

Monday, March 11, 2013

Scrap-A-Thon

Hi everyone! SOrry I wasn't around this weekend- I was scrapping my heart out!!!

Literally!

This is going to be an uber short post--I'll be back tomorrow night and for the next couple of days, sharing all 22 layouts I made over the last three days.

Yes, you read right.

Twenty- two layouts. Phew!!

And, I could make another 22 more if I had three more days...

Love you all, and thanks for dropping in!

~a

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Whole Lotta Sharing

Hello peeps! Its our weekend, FINALLY!! Its been an incredibly long week for us- Kyle's been on the road between 4 and 6 every morning, and has come home after 8 pm every single night since Monday. Tonight, he was home shortly after 6. He deserves a break!

The kids are heading to their grandma's (with Taco) for a couple of days, and we're planning to get a few minor things done around the house, and take it easy. We differentiate between grandma's because there's three sets of grandparents- two of which have pets in the house. We're all pretty excited about it.

Having said that, I'm taking Saturday to scrap. For as long as I want. Would anyone be interested in joining me for a simple, laid back online crop? Ha. The virtual type. I'd love to have some company, since I don't know of anybody near me that likes the same hobby I do!

So, I want to share those two layouts I forgot about last night, and two more that I made today. I want to share the cards I made too, but the computer isn't cooperating right now. They won't upload. So, I'll aim for sharing them with you tomorrow or Saturday. Whenever I get back to the computer :)

The first layout is about a bookshelf that's been passed down to Kyle. His paternal grandfather made it, and it means a lot to him. He has fond memories of his paternal grandfather; it sounds like he was quite the character. The bookshelf is starting to show its age- its cracked nearly half way up one side, and there's dings and dents all over. I like the bookshelf too, but I wanted to spiff it up a little bit.

So, one day in September, while the weather was still warm (and while the kids were out visiting their grandma with Taco), I got to work. I sanded the entire thing down, mixed half and half paint with water, then got to work. I wanted to give it a vintage look, so used steel wool after it had dried to give it a worn look. I love how it turned out. We did the same thing with our bed. It looks phenomenal! I almost want to give all our furniture the same treatment!!

I used February's sketch from the sketchy challenge over at Canadian Scrapbooker for my layout entitled Heirloom. Even though the month is over, I'm not sure if I can add it to the gallery over there. I would like to. At the very least, I submitted it for publication. I'd love it if it were published! But, we shall see.

The sketch includes a half circle, which I incorporated into my layout too, but I went one step further and added another half circle ring. I cut a doily in half and used both portions of the doily to create two rings. To make the top ring stand out a bit more, I slipped a brightly colored piece of scrap patterned paper between the doilies. I love the way it looks! In fact, except for the doilies, this entire layout is made from scraps. Oh, minus the kraft card stock base.

I tried a new technique on my second layout, Home work. The sketch came from SBE. All the patterned papers on this layout are Carta Bella (True Friends collection); the card stock is plain grey, that I punched to add some visual weight and interest. LOVE this color combination!!! I need to remember this one!

I took my wooden alphas that I found at Walmart, and gave them an Island Blue base coat using acrylic paint. Once it dried, I found a patterned stamp (which, in this case, was foliage themed, which I thought worked well, considering my layout is about yard work and maintenance), and stamped each letter in antique white ink. It isn't the clearest and crispest (...), but I still love the way it looks. I'm definitely going to try this technique again. I didn't have the letter 'O' in wooden alphas, but I did in glittery white, so I used that instead. I also took a Jillibean Soup label and added (in Bean alphas- Country Pumpkin Chowder collection) the word 'work'.

Voila, there's my title work!

In the bottom right corner, I added the date, and journalling is in the upper right corner of the layout. You'll find the layout that inspired me here.

My next sketch was found on Pinterest. Again. It inspired my Curiosity Killed the Cat layout.

We are still babysitting Neruda, my sisters' cat, and unfortunately, by the end of the month, she'll be back at home with her mommy. I'm going to miss her immensely. That cat is one of a kind. She makes me laugh on a daily basis. She's my little pal. She hangs out with me all the time- our place is my scrap haven. We trade spots continually while I'm playing.

Late one night, Kyle and I were talking in the kitchen, and he quietly redirects my attention from our conversation to the hallway, which is directly across from the kitchen. Here we see Neruda trying to figure out the humidifier. It was the funniest thing I had seen in a long time, and I HAD to get pictures of her trying to make sense of it.

The title? Totally describes Neruda. She's incredibly curious and inquisitive. Its kind of fascinating watching her, actually. She finds so many things fascinating. Especially the outdoors, but I'll save that story for another post.

The brightly colored papers in the background are perfect to her nature, too. She's one lively, talkative, neurotic animal. That's what I like about her so much. Even her own shadow makes her growl and hiss.

Lastly, the journalling spots were meant for another project, but it just didn't feel right. I had cut them in half, but I didn't like them on that particular project. They work perfectly here. I also added Neruda's name in Jillibean alphas (Country Pumpkin Chowder) to draw a little more attention to the journalling.

My last layout tonight is a total prize. To me. I love it. Probably because I love the subjects in the picture so much. Maybe because I love the collection I used so much. Maybe because of a mixture of things. Ha. I used all Jillibean in this layout. I wanted to keep it masculine, because it is all about my husband. The only papers that aren't Jillibean, are the blue and brown card stocks. Also, part of the title work is Carta Bella.

A layout I found at Scrapbook.com inspired this one. Hmm...I think I may have to frame it. I'm in absolute love.

Enjoy your weekend, everyone! I'll catch up with you again as soon as possible.

~a


Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Changing Gears

Good evening! If you haven't already heard, there's a few giveaways happening at a few different places. If you're interested in getting in on the goods, head on over to my Facebook page. You'll find all the deets there! Also, I've got a link up at my FB that gets you the chance to (possibly) have your scrap room featured on Canadian Scrapbookers blog. You should check it out!

I've got two layouts to share tonight, and two cards. I am feeling as though I'm running out of steam (a tiny little) on the layouts, so wanted to give the old attic a bit of a rest and create something different tonight. A very dear friend just got engaged, so I whipped up a card for her, and a family member recently gave birth to her first child. So, there you have my two cards! You'll be able to find them here and here.

The first layout I want to share is entitled My Big Girls. And boy, they are BIG girls! From the day they were born, they put on weight and never looked back. They are a full foot taller than all their playmates (the same age), and have always been at the top of the growth charts. My mom says they look like they could be at least 6 years old. Well...maybe four or five. They most.definitely. take after their parents. I grew like a weed until school resumed after summer break in grade 8. Grade 9--I was in the middle of the pack. I don't think Kyle ever stopped growing. He's a big guy! At 6'3 or 6'4, I'm curious to see how tall the girls grow. J, his sister, is also tall. We shall see!

This past September, we converted their cribs to beds. It was a bit bumpy (literally) at first, but it didn't take long for the girls to get accustomed to sleeping in a bed. Now, they love it. Now, we are looking for bigger beds for them- and actual bed sets! Not that they're too big for their beds. Yet. Just like pull- ups, it won't be long before they're grown out of them. Then what will we do?! We're trying to get prepared.

Some of the patterened papers I chose are actually baby themed, but I liked that the circular pattern mimicked the circular pattern that is found in the bed sheets on the girls' beds. The color scheme that I went with when the girls were newborns was pink, green and brown, and those colors are reflected in my design as well. There's also a touch of orange in their fitted sheets, which is how the orange ties into the design.

I found this sketch over at Scrapbook.com (the one I used to make my Big Girls layout); in Gentlewood Farms' gallery. She's got some fabulous sketches posted there. You should check them out if you're looking for inspiration. And, its a fave. Its also on my Fave board over at Pinterest.

The heart embellishment? Martha Stewarts layered embellies. At Michaels. Love. them!!

The second layout, The Proper Way to Eat an Oreo, was inspired by a layout I found over at Scrapbook.com. I thought I'd change it up a bit and scrap lift a layout that inspired me. I had a lot of fun coming up with the title for this layout. The girls are eating double stuffed oreo cookies, and I showed them how to take them apart and eat them (without dunking them in their juice. If they had been sipping milk, I would have dunked it for them). Maybe next time.

There's a mixture of Jillibean Soup and Carta Bella on this layout. Most of the title work was made with Jillibean alphas (from the Country Pumpkin collection), and the punched and layered strips are Carta Bella (the True Friends collection). Love both these collections! I'm in love with the turquoise and yellow and grey color combo. Yummy!!

Oh!! I'm getting ahead of myself! There's a couple other layouts I need to share with you. I suppose they'll be shared tomorrow. My bad.

Lastly, the two cards. Both cards were made with one sheet of 12x12 Carta Bella paper (Alphabet Junction collection). For the one card, I left the colourful dear little dots paper showing, and in the other, the blue dear little dots is showing. Seriously, they are so cute. Go and check them out. You won't be disappointed!

See y'all again tomorrow!

~a

Lastly!

I'm just going to take a quick detour this morning, and share with you my latest design team assignment for Miracle's Momma's Designs.

Sketch #33 was seriously fabulous. I absolutely loved it! My most favorite aspect of it was the layered scallops. I think it marked the beginning of my love affair (just recently) with a lot of punch work and layering. Looks great, right?!

I had to pare down all the elements in my layout because I felt it would wind up too cluttered and busy otherwise, so stuck with a fairly simple, linear design. True to my nature, of course.

Lastly, I added just a bit of room for journalling, because there was a bit of a story behind the photos in my layout. Kyle was sick for a couple of days over the summer, and upon emerging from his sick room to visit with us for a bit, Addison wrapped him with a blanket and gave him a gold medal to try and make him feel better. He has such a big, tender heart, he teared up immediately afterwards (you can kind of see it in the first picture on the left). Both my girls have huge hearts, too. They must have inherited that from both of their parents. Its what makes them so incredibly sweet!

And back to our regular programming.

The last two layouts that I created around our nieces wedding are finally up. You can find them here or here.

In my Eye Spy layout, both girls caught sight of a play park just outside the doors of the community hall where the wedding reception was held. I think both of us would have taken the girls out for a little while, except that it was raining cats and dogs that night! I caught Addison standing in the doorway, wistfully looking out at the playground. My heart breaks for her every time I see these pictures. Its just so sweet.

I absolutely love the sketch that inspired this layout. It's now located in my Fave Sketches board over at Pinterest. I love the linear, clean lines (yet again), and I love the playfulness the banner adds to the design. As for my take on the sketch, I LOVE the papers I chose (which are K&Co) and the color scheme. White, blue, yellow and green just seems to be such warm and calming colors to me. I mostly wanted to pick up the colors in Addisons' dress, which is why I chose blue and white papers. To compliment them, I added bits of green and yellow, and just a touch of pink. (I had to work the pink into it, because even though its faint, there's pink in the title alphas).

Finally, the last layout, Winners, is just to document who won the silly hat contest, and what the prize was that each recipient won for their silly hats. Kyle was one of the winners, and we now have our bottle of wine (the prize) displayed in the entertainment unit in our upstairs living room. Its too pretty to hide away and never look at!

This layout is incredibly simple. Maybe I was a little less inspired than I was in other layouts; maybe I just wanted to keep it this simple. To bling it up a tiny bit, I added clusters of rhinestones in various places throughout the page. To help the focal photo stand out a tiny bit more, I matted it with a 4x6 sheet of journalling paper that I've had in my stash for ages.

And, that sums it up! I do have two more layouts to share; I'm not sure if I'll be around again today to share them; it may have to wait until tomorrow. One of the girls has already scribbled all over one of my new layouts- I'm debating whether I should print out new pictures to cover the scribbled on ones, or just leave it. One day I'll look back on it and treasure the age they were at, but right now, I'm incredibly distraught over it. And, now the girls are fighting...

Signing off for now...

~a


Sunday, March 3, 2013

Wedding Series

How is everyone keeping these days? I'm good, but finding it hard to make time to blog! I'd rather be sitting at my scrap table playing! Ha!

There's a swack load to catch up on tonight. I'll try and make it as brief as possible!

There are 10 layouts to be posted in this series. Two of them have already been posted about. You can find them here and here.

The next one is entitled, You Didn't Know...The family didn't know that two close family members that reside in Holland had travelled to Canada to celebrate S's wedding. I managed to capture the moment L, the mother of the Bride, saw her cousin had shown up. I absolutely love the picture. There's so much emotion in it. There's so much beauty in it.

I didn't do anything really special in this layout, just kept it low key, making the photo the focus. I tied some Dear Lizzy ribbon around the bottom portion of the picture, and added the title work and journalling spot right next to it, to keep everything centred on the photo. Even though the present chipboard sticker (Carta Bella Merry and Bright) is meant for Christmas, it fit the theme here; nobody knew that the best wedding gift of all was going to be E and A's presence at the wedding. And, as a bonus, it worked with the colors I chose. Like it was meant to be!

Next, is another layout of my daughters. They were in heaven when the lights began flashing and the music playing when the fun part of the reception started. Quite a few guests thought the girls were cute, and indulged them with some dances. Including their grandpa, daddy and mama. I stuck fairly close to the sketch I used on this one. One slight change: the hearts in the top left corner were machine stitched in the sketch, but since I am afraid to use my sewing machine (and don't know yet how to use it), I stuck to creating my own 'stitching' lines.

I absolutely loved the center pieces on the tables. So much, in fact, that I brought one of each style home, and they work beautifully as decor in our bedroom. Ha! I wrapped some ribbon around the centre photo, and added a tag with the wedding date on it; I added more hearts with faux stitching through them, and blinged up the page a little with a K&Co bird, and a sentiment banner with some pearl rhinestones. This one is one of my favourites in this series.

HOw much Asian goodies do you have in your stash? I have virtually none, and decided that I should think about investing in more. They're a lot of fun to work with! My next layout is about the wedding supper. The bride and groom ordered Chinese food! I should have done something like that at my own wedding. LOL. Low key and low stress. What a smart idea!

So, to celebrate the asian aspect of their wedding, I used whatever Asian supplies I had in my stash. The floral paper isn't, but I felt that it had a bit of an Oriental flair to it. The red in it worked really well, and that's the color I wanted to focus on in this layout. Red has a lot of meaning in Oriental culture, I do believe. The patterned papers I have had in my stash for eons, and never had a reason (or knew how to) use them until now. I'm going to have to make more reasons to use stuff up like this! The first thing that came to mind was the Konnichiwa collection. I may have to invest in it.

I stamped the circle; I've had that stamp in my possession for eons too, and it came in uber handy on this project. I thought the strips of burlap patterned paper would work well here, too; if only to add a little more texture.

Lastly, I wanted to pull some blue into the layout, to keep it true to the wedding and the wedding colours, so used alphas from Carta Bella's True Friends collection for the sub title on my layout; then added a small blue flower that was among old SU stickers I've got in my stash. I should note, that the title was made out of alphas from Jillibeans County Pumpkin collection.

The star of my layout? Well, its two fold: the 'Specials' patterned paper- I liked the menu aspect of it, and had to include it somehow; and C's expression in the focal photo. Every time I look at it, I giggle. Whatever she bit into just isn't to her liking. Cracks me up!!

Well folks, there you have it! 6 layouts in a fairly reasonable blog post. I'm pretty proud of myself!

See you again soon,

~a

Friday, March 1, 2013

This Kiss

I had the song 'This Kiss' running through my brain while I created today's layout. The entire theme of my layout today was the wedding kiss at N and S' wedding. I have a paper kit that's all wedding- and in the correct colors for their wedding. I think its K&Co, but I don't know what the collection name is. Anyways, there's a pop dotted accent with the word kiss on it, so I added that to the bottom left corner of the photo, then added the word 'this' with Carta Bella alphas (from the Alphabet Junction collection). I wanted something with a cursive font, so this worked beautifully!

I realized after printing out my photo, that it should have been a landscape photo rather than portrait. So, to make it work with the sketch I used for my starting point, I made a photo mat that was double the size of the photo (which is 4x6). To bling it up a little, I cut some strips of patterned paper, punched one of them, then adhered the sentiment to the bottom of it, and a flower accent to the right of it.

I hope you drop by my Pinterest, or my online gallery at Scrapbook.com for a little peek of my newest layout!

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

~a

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

On This Day...

Wow, I have some catching up to do again! The two layouts I mentioned in my last post seem to have figured themselves out, and cooperated when I tried uploading them to my Scrapbook.com gallery. I'll come back tomorrow and indulge you on those two layouts!

Tonight, I completed the second of a few layouts detailing our nieces wedding this past September. The first was the Silly Hats layout. I have permission to post my layouts of her wedding to my online gallery, so feel free to head on over and have a peek!

The color scheme S chose for her wedding was mainly black, white and blue, so I naturally stuck with those colours in this layout. I love the effect you'll see on the title mat and under the bells; taking a sponge dauber, I filled it up with Not Quite Navy ink (SU), and literally dabbed at the paper to create a spray painted-ish look. Love!!

On the grey card stock matting the photos, I used Whisper White Ink, and an Easter SU stamp that reminded me of rain, and stamped the background. Yes, it was a wet and rainy day, but it cleared up enough to make for some beautiful sunset photos during their photo shoot. It didn't matter that it rained. The day was still beautiful. ANother little element I included to tie the rain aspect into my layout is the little blue umbrella brad (Carta Bella Alphabet Junction).

The May your joys be many is actually a Jillibean Soup Christmas tag (Winter Tortellini), but I thought it worked beautifully here. The blue circle matted underneath that is Creative Memories, and both hearts on the page are K&Co.

Once again, Pinterest to the rescue! The sketch I came across there is what inspired this layout. I love how many pictures I was able to fit into it! Rather than using 3x3, which is what it called for, I re-adjusted the size to 2.5x2.5, so it would fit nicely on an 8.5x11 size layout. I think I could have gone a bit smaller, but I'm happy with the final result!

S, hopefully you like it, too!

Have a great night.

Hope you drop by again soon.

~a

Monday, February 25, 2013

Birthdays

Good evening! Did y'all get snow today, too? It was warm, but we still got a couple centimetres of the white stuff. I didn't want to go out and shovel it- I didn't even want to brush it off my car! I guess other things around the house were more important.

Last weekend, and the weekend before, were fabulous. The girls thoroughly enjoyed their grandpa M's 70th birthday, and they enjoyed even more their own birthday, which was the following Friday. We spent the day at home, just by ourselves, and spoiled the girls rotten. They got their most favourite foods at every meal on Friday, they got to open their presents, and their mama made them each a birthday cake (one cake mix, but two round cake pans) with the color of icing of their own choice. It was a really good day.

Saturday was an absolute blast.  We threw a party for them, and invited the rest of the family (grandparents, aunties and uncle, and some new friends- to the girls). We had quite a few guests grace our house (and spoil my children rotten), but it was a really great time of visiting, catching up with old friends (and making new friends in the process! Our children had never met, and they're only a week apart!!), eating fabulous food (and no, I'm not trying to toot my own horn! LOL), and beating a pinata senseless. It was just very simple affair- a fruit platter, veggie platter, grilled cheese for lunch, some finger foods, and the best.idea.ever. for a birthday cake.

Dairy Queen blizzard cupcakes.

Ever heard of them?? Ever had one??

I think that was the biggest hit. The kids loved it, and I'm pretty sure the adults enjoyed them, too. There's still a few left over, and one of them is calling my name. Unfortunately, its too late at night to enjoy them!! Maybe tomorrow night...

Now that I've caught you up on the events in our lives this past week, I can share with you a new layout that I made.

Not that long ago, I decided to go out and buy acrylic paint from the Dollar Store. I wasn't sure how much use I would get out of it, so I only stuck to purchasing a couple bottles. (I wound up having to buy another one, because one of my girls got a hold of it, and emptied the entire bottle on herself and the love seat in the living room. It was the end.of.the.world.) No word of a lie. There's still some faint blue stains in the carpet (leading to the bathroom), but every ounce of the blue stuff came out of the love seat. Phew!! I know that both can be replaced, but I'm not as concerned about the carpet as I am the love seat. I don't want to replace the love seat any time soon; one of these days I would love to replace the carpeting in the living room with hardwood or something else. One of these days, we do plan on tearing out the carpet on the main level of our home. Having said that, though, I'm elated that most of the blue paint came out of the carpet, too. We need it to last until we CAN replace it!

Anyways...

On the last few layouts (two of which aren't being posted because they are not cooperating), I've been using my acrylic paint. I've been using my acrylic paint to paint wood veneers that I've been finding down at Walmart recently. In the scrap candy aisle. They're only a $1.00 each, and there's maybe 6-7 pieces in each little packet. I've got everything from leaves to crowns to helicopters and wedding dresses. I urge you to go and pick some up if you haven't already! They make great accents to any project!

So, on this project, I found a crown and painted it Island Blue (DecoArt brand). Its such a pretty colour! I had done part of the title in blue alphas, so I wanted to pick up more of the blue throughout, which is why I chose to paint the crown blue. To bling it up a little, I added some Recollections pearl rhinestones, and a clear rhinestone.

The centre part of the layout originally was dedicated to journalling (on the sketch that I used that inspired this layout), but as I was trying to figure out how I was going to make the journalling portion pretty, I came up with the idea of layering a few strips of scallop punched paper, on an angle, for some interest. I liked the way it looked so much, I decided not to cover it up (after adhering journalling strips and not liking that it was covering up the prettiness). Instead, the smaller blue half circle that's beside the larger circle (matting the crown) is actually a pull tab for hidden journalling. It also includes the date of the event we attended.

You're probably wondering what the deal is with the hats. Our niece got married on the first of September (2012), and silly hats were encouraged at the ceremony. The guests that came up with the most unique/goofiest hats would win prizes (which wound up being a bottle of wine. Pretty nice prize, actually!) There's a story behind Kyle's tacky piggy hat, but that'll be shared in a future layout. The girls, and their cousin Chloe, all got hats from the Dollar Store, so they could participate, too. Not that the hats lasted long.

I'm also trying to use up some of my older paper lately. The patterned papers I used on this project came from K&Co's Best Of Collection. There's 360 sheets of paper in it, and its great, but my only issue with it is its thin. Not always very functional if you want to...say...die cut something with your Cricut. Grr. Minor pet peeve. Sometimes even my paper trimmer messes up the paper. Anyways, there's a lot of gorgeous patterned paper in there, and I wanted to find something that would work well with red card stock, since red is the color of love, and since the major theme of this particular layout (though maybe understated) is a wedding.

You may or may not see more of it in future layouts. We'll have to see!

You WILL see more paint in the future- and in more colors than the three I currently own (blue, green, and antique white). Eek! I feel a Dollar Store shopping spree coming on!

See you next time,

~a

Thursday, February 21, 2013

First Time

My track record has been pretty poor lately. Sorry for that!

There are a couple new layouts that should be added to my Pinterest in the near future; for now, I'll share my most recent layout (which I haven't uploaded yet, so look for it late tonight or tomorrow).

Back when Addison was still a little baby and we were trying to cope with her Colic, we brought her to the lab in Arcola to see if her blood work would turn up anything (because at that point, we had no idea what was bothering her so). Of course no little ones like having sharp objects stuck into their arms (or tied around their arms, for that matter), but she was a trooper. The girls at the hospital (naturally) thought Addison was adorable. I don't think its often they have little ones grace their lab, so it was a highlight in their day to see someone so sweet and wiggly.

To reward Addison for her bravery, the lab tech gave her a purple stuffed teddy, and its been a favourite stuffy ever since then. I just had to scrap it!

I absolutely love how this layout came together. I love the papers together, and the colors are gorgeous. I began with the half circle banner (which is from Carta Bella's Merry & Bright collection), and based the colors I chose on the colors in the banner. I also began with a sketch that I found on Pinterest.

What I love most about this layout? The clustered elements. It draws your eye in and keeps your focus on the picture and keeps it there. Next, it would have to be the colors and how the patterns weld so beautifully together.

I hope you enjoy this layout as much as I do!

Take care, and until next time...

~a


Monday, February 11, 2013

China Dolls

I couldn't resist scrapping a layout dedicated to the beautiful, perfect, tiny little girls I gave birth to. I wasn't sure I had made a layout documenting exactly how tiny they were, so that's how this layout came to be! It was also the result if flipping back through all the older pictures, hunting down shots of the house we owned in Manor.

I can happily report that my next layout WILL be of the house in Manor. Watch for it!

The layout of my preemie babies is pretty busy. It's a bit busier than I wanted it, but I think that the main focus still remains the photos. And, that's the most important to me!

A piece of scrap paper with multiple hearts punched from it, that was lying on my scrap table, inspired the row of punched hearts at the top of the photo mat. I used some of those hearts for the banner along the bottom portion, alongside the journaling spot. For a little extra something-something, I cut a small piece of green patterned paper and layered it behind one of the hearts. I also punched a circle from that paper, and created a date tag, at the top right of the page.

I wanted to add more detail to my layout, without making it too heavy, so I pulled out the cuttlebug and embossed away. I really need to buy some more of them! It felt a little boring and flat without any patterned paper, so I added a larger piece of (SU) patterned paper. Add some punched borders, as the sketch that I lifted shows, and you've got the layout I created!

I hope you enjoy, and thanks for dropping by!

~a

Friday, February 8, 2013

Looking Back

While the kids napped this afternoon, I pumped out two layouts. I'm quite impressed with myself, actually. When you've got your groove on, a lot can be accomplished! And, not only did I get two layouts done, I also vacuumed, cleaned the bathrooms, and re-organized and cleaned out the front entry closet this morning. It was a very productive day!

Every day, for the month of February (and then some), I'm tackling one room or cupboard- anything that desperately needs some cleaning and organization, and I'm getting this beloved house of ours straightened up. The girls are going to be three- I've decided I've lived in a baby proofed house long enough, and its time to start bringing out some of my prized possessions. My wedding pictures made it out onto the sofa table, along with my wedding bouquet; my prized hand made table runner for the sofa table (that I bought while visiting Michigan a number of years ago- specifically an Amish town, but I don't remember the name of it), and the table runner for the kitchen table. I need a centre piece, but haven't the slightest idea what to put there!

I printed out a whole bunch of pictures this afternoon- I had a ton of picture frames that I found in my linen closet when I cleaned it out yesterday, and I plan on putting up the rest of my gallery wall tomorrow, hopefully. If not tomorrow, definitely in the very near future. Its already become obvious that I desperately need more picture frames! Currently, the gallery wall is only on one side of the wall into the basement. It may expand to the other side of the wall, too. We shall see!

Back to scrapping. The first layout, Published, is celebrating my first.ever. publication in a magazine. Every so often, I submit my layouts to Canadian Scrapbooker magazine. I make a lot of one photo layouts, and it would be nice if they accepted more of those, but they don't. Well, they do, but they prefer multi photo layouts. Such as the one that was published. The girls were riding on their little scooters in the backyard last spring. Originally, I was going to title my layout Zoomy, because it was (and actually still is) one of their most favorite sayings. But, once I found the paper I used for the layout, inspiration hit me, and I changed the title to Metro. The lamp post was ingenious, and the girl- well, she was too. It just worked. Beautifully!

I picked up the colors in the girls' outfits- the pink in Addisons' dress, and purple, instead of blue, for Maren's dress. That is all in the original layout that I made. That was published.

The layout about being published was made with papers from the Faded Denim collection by Colorbok. Mostly. The green/yellow patterned paper is from another collection, and at the moment I'm not sure what it is. Once again, I was inspired by a layout I found on Pinterest. How did I ever survive before Pinterest?!

There is a tag peeking out from the side of the picture in this layout- its hidden journalling for the kids. The tag reads, 'don't ever give up on your dreams'. Being turned down a number of times didn't stop me from submitting layouts for publication. I kept hoping that one day my dream would come true. And, it did. I hope they hang onto their dreams and never let go. One day their tenacity will pay off.

The second layout, Great Oma, happened while I was flipping through older pictures, looking for material to scrap about our life in Saskatchewan. I feel its important for the girls to know where they came from, and give them a glimpse of the house they lived in for the first year of their lives. I've been avoiding doing it, and part of me still wants to avoid it. I'm not totally sure why- I miss living in Saskatchewan, and part of me wishes we were still there. The other part of me is uber happy that we're here back in Alberta. I honestly can't put my finger on why it bothers me so much. But, its there.

Anywho, when I saw these pictures of the girls meeting their Great Oma for the first time, I couldn't help but smile. She obviously loves children- which is testimony to why she had so many children to begin with (9, as a matter of fact!!) Every time we visit her at Miller, she brightens right up. The kids are the highlight of her day. The smile on her face, and the obvious happiness they bring her, warms me to the core, and makes me smile in turn. She doesn't know who they are; she doesn't know that they are my children. But, it doesn't matter. They are children, they are full of life and energy and purity, and they give her more to be happy about and look forward to than anything the nurses could give her.

The girls were only 5 months old when they met their Great Oma for the first time. She was in the hospital with a broken hip, and I remember her asking whose kids they were when we walked into her room. She remembered me as a small child myself. She couldn't believe I was old enough to have my own children. And, twins to boot!

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of my Oma (their Great Oma), is Blue and White. To me, they symbolize being Dutch. Most of the artwork in her house, and in her apartment before she moved into Extended Care, was what I call Dutch Blue. I don't know the correct term for it, or what style of art it is. Its just Dutch. Heh. That's where the colors come from in this layout. I thought the yellow would stand out nicely against the blue, so I used a yellow/green combination patterned paper for the journalling spot the title work is adhered to, and for the banner. To tie the red of the title work into the layout, I used a pink paper flower.

I just love how this layout came together. Quickly, seamlessly, and incredibly quickly! And, with the kids (half way through it) interrupting me every two minutes. Of all the layouts that I've made lately, I have to say this one is my most favorite. There is a lot of love, meaning, and sentimentality behind this layout. I'll treasure it for years to come, and I hope the girls do, too.

The sketch that inspired this layout didn't include any room for journalling. I needed to add a little something about the girls meeting their Oma, so added a few lines underneath the title mat, and journalled away. I think I'll have to do more layouts of their Great Oma in the future. They need to know what a good natured, saucy, strong lady she is!

I'm grateful and incredibly glad they had the opportunity to meet their Great Oma. I only wish they could have met their Great Grandmother on their Papa's side (Grandpa). She would have been enamored with them, too.

Till next time...

~a

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Valentines

I have a fun little project to share tonight.

How many of you are racking your brains, trying to figure out what to do for your special someone/significant other for Valentines?

I was, until a couple days ago. My thoughts spanned the Spectrum- what could I buy, do for or make for my husband? Then it hit me. I'm not sure how the idea surfaced. I like to think I thought up of it all on my own, but I may have had some inspiration from an outside source. *Ahem pinterest*. Maybe.

I'm just going to stick with thinking up of it all in my own :D

Valentines coupons! I made valentines coupons for Kyle. Ten of them, to be exact, and they range from sweet little compliments whenever he wants them, to an hours massage (by a professional, of course). They'll never expire, so he has all the time he needs to redeem them.

I needed a little help thinking up of coupon ideas, so I googled it. There's quite a few options! There are a lot of downloadable templates out there. Not so many for creative romantic activities. But, there were enough to make 10 romantic coupons for my dear husband.

And, I'm so proud of it! I can hardly wait to give it to him.

Are you hand making/crafting gifts for your special peeps? How about your kids? There's a ton of ideas for the littles out there, but I'm just going to stick to the store bought route. The kids spied really cute stuffed animals at Wally World, so I'm thinking I just may buy them one each of those.

Till next time...

~a

Monday, February 4, 2013

It Is Done

So, if you've visited my blog and headed over to my Pinterest, you'll notice that there's a few layouts posted there- along with the sketches that inspired me. If you haven't been over there yet, go check it out so you'll know what I'm talking about!!

Sketches really help me out. I feel like I lack in the creativity department all on my own, and as a result, I have come to find that I rely quite heavily on sketches. They're a great tool- may as well utilize them!

So, lets see...where do I begin?

Oh...my Klutz layout. I nearly broke my toe trying to use my foot as my weapon of choice to move the kids' potty out of my way one afternoon this past summer, and I wound up stubbing it instead of gracefully moving it. It didn't hurt so much that I passed out (which has happened to me before), but I sure did see stars! The bruise is testimony to that. I don't bruise often, and when I do, it takes quite a bit of force (or the right end of a certain object).

As far as my design goes, the blocking and the space for journalling really inspired me. I wanted to have enough space to journal about my aptitude for klutziness, and I wanted to find a design that was clean and simple. Lately I just don't want too much clutter or things going on. I've liked the clean and simple design style for quite some time. Now I'm adopting it as my own! You'll find that's true of all my layouts recently. I'm not sure if it will change, or if it does, it won't happen any time soon.

My By Herself layout is dedicated to Miss Maren, and her eagerness and desire to accomplish things on her own. It makes me really proud (and relieved, in a way) when she grabs the wash cloth from my hands and insists on washing herself after I've done washing her hair. She's growing up and showing her independence while she's at it, and that's what makes me so proud. Sadly, she soon won't need me for anything...I suppose I should enjoy helping her while it lasts!

I really liked the punching aspect of this layout, and think I might try and work more of it into my layouts and cards- especially full page punching. I love the way it looks! My favorite part of this layout: the journalling spot. Such a fun place to put it!

Since I made a layout all about Miss Maren, I figured I should do one all about Miss Addison. Both girls are so unique; I still marvel at how different they are, and they were born only 9 minutes apart! Addison is the thinker. She will sit and figure things out- try and make sense of how things work, or why they do the things they do. Sometimes the questions she asks impresses me- they are so deep for a soon-to-be-three-year-old!!!

She is also our affectionate little sweetheart. She's constantly asking for hugs and kisses and telling us she loves us- and not just loves us, but loves us very much. She's a beautiful little soul!

She's our clown. She's sharp, and often has witty comments in response to things we say or ask.

She's such a neat mixture of both Kyle and I; she's the perfect little package.

Both girls, as I tell them often, are just right.

What drew me to this sketch was the simplicity of the design. Just the picture and banners poking out from underneath. Tons of white space, and I think that's what initially pulled me in. Instead of banners, I wanted to use a round scallop circle stamp, but I wasn't liking it poking it out from the bottom; so, I moved it to the side. I feel it balances the design a bit better, with the third scallop circle functioning as the title mat and journaling spot. I absolutely LOVE the teal paper stamped in white, and then matted on top of the black card stock. That's my most favorite part of this layout!! (So is that sweet little lady bug brad that's hanging from the white ribbon. Way too adorable!!)

Lastly (for now), is my Fork Please layout. The girls are funny- they ask for forks for everything. Seriously. Ev.ery.thing!!!  They would rather eat finger foods with forks than their fingers. They must have inherited their dislike of dirty hands from me. Even though I'll eat certain foods with my fingers and not utensils, I cannot stand dirty hands otherwise. Makes the whole of me feel icky.

I had a lot of fun putting this layout together. I love the stamping in the background- its grungy and terribly imperfect, but I like the effect it lends. I also love the dark shade of teal paper paired with the retro square patterned paper. The colors look fabulous together! The unexpected burst of colour the orange card stock adds is a lot of fun, too. I just wish the orange of the letter stickers was closer in tone to the paper. Oh well. The brightness of it really makes it pop.

My favorite aspect of my design is that giant flower. It came from Rebecca (beyondbzr) over at Scrapbook.com, and I'm finally getting around to using one (of the two) she sent. It was part of a prize I won last year. Whoo! What do I love so much about it? The inked edges of the flower. I used my More Mustard SU ink to color the edges, and I love the way it turned out! It gives quite a bit more dimension to an already beautiful flower. And, the leaf? Love.it!!! That came from a silk hydrangea flower (one of many, actually), that were used in a little project for my house, and I thought I'd hang onto the leaves instead of throwing them out along with the stems that the flowers came off of. The leaf may be a little large for the flower, but it still works well. In my humble opinion.

So, there you have it! I've caught you all up on my last couple layouts- all in one blog post. How about that for efficiency, hey?!

Speaking of winning prizes...I checked into my email this morning, and found an email from Emily Anderson, who works for Scrapbook.com. Those of you that are familiar with SB.com will be familiar with this name. I won $10 off my next purchase, just for uploading a layout to the gallery this week. And, you know what's funny?

I was thinking about just that very thing last night as I was trying to fall asleep in bed. I was just thinking to myself how nice it would be to win something like that from sb.com (though, I was day dreaming of winning $100). Meh, $10 is better than a boot in the pants!

Hopefully Kyle buys me another pre-paid Visa so that I can use up what's left on the one I currently have, AND the $10 off coupon that I just won. Before March 30. I've been hinting that Valentines would be a good opportunity to buy me another one...heh

Till next time!

~a

Sunday, February 3, 2013

My Inner Nerd

I'm dropping in once more tonight before I get my scrap on to share one more thought with you.

For some, it may not be possible to view my online gallery. That would be due to the fact you are not a member of Scrapbook.com. Either I would need to provide the direct link to the layout I made, or I could direct everyone to another site, that requires no (I think) membership.

Such as Pinterest.

I don't know. I was just thinking it might be easier to view my projects, if you're interested.

So, if you're interested in seeing what's inspired me and what I made using that inspiration, follow along.  I'll include this link to every post I make here so nobody has to go searching for it!

I hope that makes things a little easier on you kind folks!

Till next time!

~a

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Scrapbook.com

Well, sorry its been so slow here on the home front! I've been debating whether I'm going to keep my blog going, because I hate that I have no storage left, and my husband isn't keen on spending money (monthly) to beef it up. I'm actually on the same page as him. So, since I said that, I find it annoying (personally), that my beloved readers need to view what I've made in another location.

On the bright side, my blog is still being read! I had two lovely comments, and its encouraged me to keep blogging, despite this minor little blip (and really, that's all it is).

So, without further adieu, here's the link to my online gallery, so you can go and peruse it at your leisure!

Hopefully it works. Let me know if it doesn't!

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Dream A Little Dream

I'm a bit behind here, there's a few projects that I need to share, but for now, I'm just going to share my latest layout.

As I was scouring Pinterest for anything and everything, I came across this layout. Hello, inspiration! I was also inspired by my newly acquired Carta Bella goodies- from the Alphabet Junction collection. I wanted to pick up the blue and green in the girls' dinghy, and the floral paper fit the bill. (You will be able to find my layout here.)

I desperately wanted to use a coral colored patterned paper, but didn't have anything that matched that description, so once again turned to my new Carta Bella goodies, and pulled out another sheet of patterned paper.

After that, everything fell into place beautifully, until I began working on the title. Orange just didn't work with the color scheme, so how was I going to weave that into my layout? With some ribbon, of course! I searched my ribbon drawer for something that would compliment the chipboard title sticker, and I stumbled upon my American Crafts ribbons. Perfect!!!

The intention behind the colors I chose, other than to incorporate the blue and green theme into my layout, was to play up the sleepy/dreamy aspect of the photos. The motion of the waves, and being pulled through the water in their dinghy nearly put the girls to sleep. They've always loved water; they love it enough to be put to sleep by it! Its also where the chipboard title sticker comes into play, as well.

Thanks for dropping by. I appreciate the time you've spent with me tonight!

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Sketch #30

Sketch #30 is up at Miracles' Momma Designs, which means I have another layout to share with you, too!

And, just a reminder, I haven't added more storage to my blog yet, so head over to my online gallery to have a little look see at the project I created (and others too)!

I hadn't sat down to scrap in quite a while, and my first attempt at it in the New Year was completing sketch #30 for Heather. I'm still working away on August long photos, and this layout was no exception. I thought I'd change the focus a bit, and create a layout about the girls first best friend- their cousin. They often get to see her if they're having sleep overs with their grandma- Chloe is usually there, too. They get so excited at the opportunity to see her! It warms my heart that they love their cousin so much.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years, and wishing you all the best in 2013!

~a