Six Month Review

At the beginning of the year I had made a couple goals for my scrapping. The first was to scrap all my 2006 photos by the end of June. The second was a tentative goal to scrap a page a day to help me reach my first goal. Well, 182 days have passed and I still have a 2 inch stack of photos for 2006 left to scrap, but I have done 187 pages to date! Here are the pages I did today that caught me up (I was only 2 behind but I thought I was 5 behind).

This is my favorite layout of the bunch, mostly just because of the colors. They are so vibrant and just make me happy looking at them. This pattern paper was a scrap from the next layout.

Here was the layout I started making. I tried to match the colors in the pattern paper to the closest possible cardstock colors I had. In the above layout I didn't worry about perfect matching and I think it came out cuter ^_~. Hodge Podge and Extreme Alphas used for the title. Anyway, these were done using the Reflections book. Quick, Simple, and a lot of pictures!

And this was the quickie card I made from the scrap of pattern paper and the glistening snow stamp set. The added plus is it's flat so no extra postage when I mail it! My goal this year for Christmas cards is to make flat ones so they will mail out and not get destroyed.

This is another lotsa pictures layout. I used a page maps layout for this one but had to alter the picture sizes to fit better. Plus the sketch posts for 10 pics and I only had 9. These papers seemed to just go so perfectly with that costume dress Caitlyn had. Boomdiada Creative basics papers and a small bit of the Boomdiada paper pack paper used for this layout. Homestead Alphas and From Me to You used for the title.

A Bella card I made from some Boomdiada scraps. She's also flat and mailable as well ^_~

Here's my life delights paper layout. I think if I can do at least one layout a day that uses up my old papers I should be doing good. As it is all these layouts used some of my older papers! This one used another pagemaps layout.

I made this card from the last scrap of this stripedy paper. I finally used the piggies in the nursery bash set! I love this stamp set which is funny since I don't use it too often. The animals are just adorable though!

And this is my last layout. I'm not ecstatic about this one but I think it's just because the colors are pastels and everything else I worked on today was rich and bright. They match the photos perfectly so I have no complaints. I even love the little lady bugs and buttons! So that's what I did today... a ton, lol! Luckily for me the girls were content to stamp with their own stuff during some of the layouts.

Lastly, here is my bella card for the #35 sketch challenge this week. Simple lil' cakeabella and a scrap of cutie pie paper. Thanks for dropping in ^_~

Color Challenge #25

And of course this week's color challenge is inspired by the 4th of July coming up on Friday!!! To play make a new project using at least 3 of the colors and comment me here with a link to your artwork so I can add the link here on my post. And most of all - Have Fun!!


Cranberry
Moonstruck
Lilac Mist
White


Sue's Circle Inspired Summer Cards
Sparkle's Fun July Sparkler Card
Jenn's Lovely Birthday Flower Card
Stacy's Sweet Sending My Love Card
Barb's Layered Summer Time Card
Ramsey's Cheery Happy Everything Card


My Sample:



Just a simple thank you card using SCS's 181 card sketch (SC181). I used the With Love and Say it in Style stamp sets. The red cardstock isn't technically cranberry since I've run completely out of it. It's marachino red for bazzil, I believe. But it is extraordinarily close to cranberry, plus it's textured ^_~ Anyway, have fun with the challenge and thanks for stopping by!

The Weekend's Layouts

Or mostly just Saturday's layouts. I didn't get to scrap at all Friday, but Saturday I tried to make up for it after the girls went to bed. Needless to say both my hubby and I were up until 2 am that night, him doing homework and me scrappin' away ^_~.

This one is my simple scrapbook page since this layout reminds me of the layouts in that magazine, the no fuss kind that go together in a snap and have that minimalist look to them.

I used a Pagemaps layout on this one that I used before on the Hey There Cupcake layout. This layout was the one I did today and was completely unexpected since I was trying to find photos to go with the Life Delights paper. But I pulled these out and felt a 'hey you should scrap these now' feeling. The papers I pulled out seemed odd but still flowed together and the embellies seemed to just tie everything together magically. It came out way cute even though I was so skeptical while making this. I just kept thinking, "I don't really like these papers right now", and "these colors are way too dark", but in the end it matched the photos and theme perfectly!

Using up some of the Sonata papers and a pagemaps book layout. I LOVE these papers, the only thing is they are kind of music themed. Now don't get me wrong, I love music. I listen to music, usually instrumental or piano, all through the day. I play piano as well though not as much as I should since Caitlyn was born, BUT I don't have any pictures of this. Bad me, I know. Anyway, I love the colors and thought the background didn't look too musicish, so let's try it. And I adore the papers with these pictures!





Finally using up some of the life delights papers. I was trying to use up my paper packs one at a time and it worked for a little bit but I think the monotony was starting to hit me and so I've been mixing it up. As long as I'm scrapping up my supplies it's all good right? ^_~ And using up my old stuff is an added plus, I think.

I adore this page. The basic grey I got this past winter, the bo bunny late spring, and the other bo bunny just about a month ago I think so it's fairly new stuff. I figure I should get to play with my new stuff if I'm also using up the old, you know? I think the best part is the pictures on this though. Poor Audrey and that crazy hair of hers!!

Speaking of hair, Caitlyn had decided this week to give Audrey a hair cut. She only gave her bangs, thank goodness, and I think it was because that was the way her cousin's hair was. She had her last visit with us before going back to Colorado two days before Caitie did this. I am still too mortified to take pictures as I hate bangs. Everyone says she looks adorable with them, but all I can think is they are going to be a pain to grow out, lol. We will probably get her a cute a-line bob to help cutify her hair. And that way I don't have to keep putting it up, which could actually be nice. It's been nice not having to put up Caitie's hair (she had it cut last month a little longer than chin length), so it might be doubly nice to not have to put up Audrey's as well. Anyway, next up in a few minutes is my #25 color challenge!

Bella Color Challenge #34

I usually stamp an image a few times when taking it out to play, so this one was already waiting for me by the time I got around to making my card for the bella color challenge. I wasn't sure the colors would really 'match' the theme of the card at first but now I think it went pretty well. Not all undies are pink, right? ^_~ Anyway, to answer a question a few ladies have been asking, all my images lately are colored with CTMH markers. I do wish I had copics :D But they will have to wait for now. Water based markers like to leave streaks, so to get that to not happen I just make sure I color slowly and smoothly to let the ink saturate the paper. It may look really dark while it's wet, but when the ink dries it usually looks the color it ought to be ^_~ HTH!

Let's Get Together Paper

I'm using up more paper again ^_~ This time I finished using up all my Let's Get Together paper. I did this layout first using that stick and go method. I just grabbed all my big scraps, layered the ones I decided to use and then went from there to add pictures, title, then journaling. It went together in a snap, about 40 minutes, and I used up some of the odd scraps I had.

I used a PageMaps book layout for this one. I've used this layout before, but this time I flipped it horizontally. I've been also trying to use up the matching ribbon with this set as well. I actually used up all of this dotted ribbon now :D. This layout came together in about two hours with interruptions. I've been trying to scrap during the day more often since I've gotten behind on my page a day goal.

Using some of the small scraps I just threw together this card. I got a couple new images and some new sentiments from stampingbella in the mail today that I just had to use. I love this line of lingerie ^_~

Also using the last of my scraps, this card was made for Em's b-day challenge on the bella forum - to make a birthday card for Em! She's doing free shipping on orders over $45 to celebrate and she has some new releases on there (halobella, she's a doll!!) :D It goes until the 1st of July, check out bella's blog for the details :D I've already made my order, lol. Anyway, I used Bettina Buttercream, who I also just got today! I was a little sick of this paper until I started making the cards, then I actually fell in love with it again. It was so much fun to color in my images with the colors from the paper, but I'm glad it's all used up now. Next up is the Bella color challenge!

Sparkle's Bella Bridal Shower

What a fun time I had a Sparkle's Bella Bridal Shower. I had actually never been online during one of the bella parties before so this was a real treat. And wow do those ladies post fast on the forums!! I felt like such an amatuer, lol. Anyway, my hubby stole the computer back for a few hours which gave me time to work on the challenges hosted on the shower. There were 4 challenges (one of them was trivia) and here are the three that were cards.

SSBC1 - use something each old, new, borrowed, and blue. You know, just like the saying ^_~. The floral tapestry pattern paper was my old, the blue acrylic flowers was my new, the image was my borrowed (from a bella image swap/RAK), and of course there's plenty of blue :D I colored the bella like it was my MIL and I since she and I like to go out to lunch every once in a while. It's hard with kids and crazy schedules, but we try to fit it in every now and again ^_~

SSBC3 - This challenge was to put some 'sparkle' on your project :D. I went kind of crazy with bellas dress not only putting glitter but rhinestones as well, lol. She's another image I got from the bella swap. I wanted her dress to be really special since I only had this one image of her.

SSBC4 - Use Sparkle's wedding colors - Cranberry, Bamboo, and White. I love how this card came out, I think the colors just look fabulous together! Using another of those RAKed images up. Fun preggo trivia - I loved red, khaki capris, and jeans when I was preggo with Audrey and my hair was long so you could say this one is me back in my pregger days ^_~

Use Up That Paper Baby!!

Posting these just really quick. I made 2 layouts earlier today with the purpose of scrapping some of those old '06 photos and using up some of my old paper. After finishing up the two cards for Sparkle's Bella Bridal Shower (coming up in the next post real soon here), I COMPLETELY used up all of my Floral Tapestry paper, at last!!! Yup, all of it!! Every last scrap!!! I am so happy!! Anyways here are the layouts.

I used Imagine for this one, Small Packages. These were a bunch of just here and there pictures that really didn't have much of a story other than at that time Caitie was kind of a camera ham, lol. So I got 12 of these pictures out of the way (boy does that feel good!!) and I used the majority of the big scraps I had.

This one was using that new stick and go method. I just grabbed the rest of my scraps and started layering them on the page. I adore this picture, it's just barely out of focus and I didn't want any other pictures with it to ruin the mood. I used some life delights stickease and some new minds eye buttons along with some CTMH buttons for some simple embellishment. I didn't want too much going on on this layout. Next up in a couple minutes, the cards for Sparkle's Bella Bridal Shower Challenges!!!

Bella Sketch Challenge 34 and Chichibolie Card

Made for the Bella #34 sketch Challenge. I've been trying to only use scraps for my cards lately. Uses an image from a bella swap and doodle alpha stamp set to make the sentiment. Everything but the bella herself is CTMH.

This cutie was made just to use up this scrap of pattern paper. I've been feeling in a chocolately mood and thought to make little Cecilia Cinnabuns here a chocolate lover today ^_~ Everything CTMH again except Cecilia. That's all I've got for tonight. Thanks for the visit and enjoy!

Color Challenge #24

Colors for this week inspired by summer and a layout my upline did at an album retreat. To play use at least 3 of the colors and send me a link to your artwork so I can add it here to this post. Thank you ladies for playing and keeping this challenge going, and have fun!


Ocean
Citrus Leaf
Orange
Breeze
and optional Sunny Yellow

Sue's Cute Little Fish Layout
Sparkle's Superstar Sophie Card
Kim's Underwater Birthday Fishes Card
Stacy's Simply Sweet Thank You Card
Jenn's Super Cool Summer Party Card
Mary's Cheery Birthday Card
Jami's Fun Summer Bella and Riley Cards

My samples :




Uses Funky Fish, Say it in Style, and Doodle Alpha stamp sets. I've done the little brad bubbles for the fish on a layout before and thought it would be just as cute on a card ^_~.



I made another card with a bella image Sparkle RAKed to me. I only used scraps for both of these cards. Thanks for stopping by and have fun with the color challenge!

Stick and Go Layouts

I was looking around for a new sketch or inspiration for some layouts when I came across this article : Stick and Go: Try super-fast composition with just one little rule . Needless to say I was curious and I read the article. Then I decided that it couldn't hurt to try it. I don't know about anyone else but I get bored of scrapping the same way after a while and like to mix it up a little bit. Here are the layouts I made today using that method.

This is the first one I did using up some Minds Eye scraps, paper, and cs embellies. I really liked the way this came out. It was really easy and took me only 45 minutes from start to finish. It worked out so well with this layout that I decided to try scrapping this method with my next layout.

I adore these fun pictures and I used more Minds Eye stuff with this one as well. I quickly decided where I wanted the pictures to go then just took more scraps and layered them on a piece of pattern cs paper. This one only took about 35 minutes.

What I've been needing to do is use up my old papers. I had some cute bobunny paper out for these pictures and thought, well I have some old stuff that matches, I should probably use that up first. I have a hard time using up my older papers lately because I've just been wanting to use my new papers, lol. It's the same thing with pictures too. I haven't wanted to scrap the old ones, just the new ones ^_~. But I did good. All these layouts are using up my 2006 pics and I started using up some of my old paper with this layout.

I used more old paper with this layout as well. I had a harder time liking these last two layouts just because it's old pattern papers and old pictures. But I'm happy with them. I'm catching up on my page a day goal and am using up my old stuff, yay! Next up is the color challenge ^_~

It's our hammock!

I had caught Audrey trying to sneak her pillow and blankie outside. The second time she actually made it out the front door before I got to her and that's when I saw that Caitlyn had already set up a bed in the swing, lol. They were too sweet and cute for me to scold them for taking their bedding outside, so I just tucked them in and then snapped some photos. Kids are so silly! Anyway, I realized I'm a bit behind on my page a day scrapbook goal. Counting today even though it's just barely Sunday morning I should be at 174 pages. So I have some catching up to do ^_~

For this layout I did another Share & Tell quickie type layout except this time I used a Page Maps book layout for my creative side. This page I put the pictures I didn't want to cut up and the journaling, and the creative page used the same sketch I used for the Shake the Tree layout.

This is the card I made for Paul's best friend's birthday. He hates the peeps marshmallows, but has a peeps shirt that he loves so I thought this was fitting, lol. Uses CTMH cardstock and embellies, the sentiment was simply printed off our computer. I used the MFT punny farm for the peeps and then Say it in Style by CTMH for the birthday sentiment. I had to cut the picture down since we had already written the note inside before I remembered to take a picture. Anyhoo, I hope everyone is having a great weekend!! Thanks for dropping by :D

Bella Color and Sketch Challenges #33

I started with the sketch challenge. I was actually going to combine the two challenges like I usually do but had some perfect sized scraps from my scrapbooking yesterday for this sketch so I thought I'd play with one of the bikahbella images Sparkle sent me ^_~. I brought out my white gel pen for highlighting. I noticed I hadn't done that in a while and bella's bike just screamed to be highlighted!

For the #33 Bella Color Challenge. I really like these colors together. I'm not sure I'm too happy with my coloring though. I wasn't doing very well, coloring out of the lines, not getting good coverage, etc. It seemed like I was botching this poor fairy left and right, lol. But I'm really stubborn so I did my best to save her with my white gel pen. She turned out alright in the end ^_~

Garden Party

So I decided I wasn't going to clean anything today or cook dinner or run any errands, lol. Instead I scrapped :D I actually did this layout last night. All these layouts use Minds Eye's new Garden Party papers. I LOVE this picture of Audrey. We had taken her into Kiddie Kandids last week and she was THE PERFECT LITTLE MODEL!!!! I mean literally, her photo session was less than 10 minutes, she held every pose perfectly, and all her shots came out beautifully!! She needs to be a little model, she is just too darn cute! Everyone at the studio loved her and since her aunt works there, even everyone who wasn't there when Audrey had her session knows about her, lol.

Caitie also had a session a few days ago, but hers didn't go so well. We discovered later it was because she's afraid of the sound that the flash makes. So she wouldn't get up on the backdrop after the first couple pictures because she was so scared. We tried and tried and failed :( We did get one of both Cait and Audrey making faces. Cait had made a fishy face and Audrey just puckered up, and we got another super cute photo of Audrey since she LOVES having her photo taken, lol. Luckily we did get a couple good ones of Caitie before she was too hysterical to even get near the stage. Apparently some of the gals wondered why I picked this one to print that day even though there was one of Caitie smiling. This is just a classic Caitie face so I had to have it first ^_~

I adore this page. Caitlyn loves trying to shake trees. It comes from this song from My Friends Tigger and Pooh. The song goes "Shake, shake, shake. Shake the tree. Shake it all around. If we shake, shake the tree, the lemons will fall down." So she will sing this song and try to shake any smaller sized tree even though they don't have lemons, lol. I used a PageMaps book layout for this one.

This is the accompanying page to the layout above. Using the first layout as I guide I just continued the theme to create a matching page with the two photos I had and created a space for journaling since I didn't have room on the left layout page.

These are the adorable pictures that I took for Father's Day. I took a whole bunch of the girls together and separately in their outfits, but my favorites were these sister pictures. It was amazing that both Caitlyn and Audrey posed when I asked them too for the pictures! This is another PageMaps book layout and it almost looks like a direct lift from the sample the colors are so close and I used the same type of papers (stripe and floral).

The matching page also using another separate PageMaps book layout. I just continued the theme with the papers and stitching to get it to match a bit. I have been loving these papers. Out of the 9 pattern sheets that come in the set I only have 2 full sheets left and only 2 other partial sheets that are enough to do layouts with. I always feel so accomplished when I use up stuff ^_~ Anyway that's what I've been up to last night and today. Next up the bella color and sketch challenge for this week! Thanks for stopping by!

Color Challenge #23

Colors are sort of pulled off of some of Caitie's new clothes. We really don't have quite the right colors with CTMH but I tried to get the basic feeling from the colors. I played with the SU color combo site and found that they have colors that match her clothes almost perfectly, lol. So if you have SU colors the ones I came up with were Chocolate Chip, Only Orange, Ruby Red, Summer Sun, and Tempting Turquoise. Those were the real shades that matched her clothes. These were as close as I could get to with my CTMH colors. To play use at least 3 of the colors and comment me with a link to your artwork so I can add it to this post. Have fun!!


Chocolate
Goldrush
Holiday Red
Crystal Blue

and Sunflower as an optional color.


Jenn's Sweet Latte Bella Card
Sue's Cute House Mouse Cards
Sparkle's Summer Fun Riley Card
Stacy's Wishing You Well Card

My Samples :

I wanted to play with the With Love stamp set. I love the stamps themselves but seem to have a hard time putting theme together in a way that I like with them. I like this card except I think now that I would have used the sunflower for the background ^_~

I was just playing around with the stamp set with these two. They are just simple with no embellies. Since I had the colors from the challenge already out I decided to just play with those. Thanks for dropping by!