At the Playground

These are actually the last two layouts I made in 2008. For some reason I forgot to post them and didn't notice until looking through my photobucket pics for another layout I had missed posting in my IB gallery. The pictures are some of the very many that my dear SIL took of us at the park with her little camera. I printed less than half of them and still ended up with so many, lol! This top layout is of Audrey on the slide. It was and still is her favorite thing to at the playground.

For this layout I really did my best to come up with a design that used a lot of photos up but showcased a couple bigger photos that I didn't want to crop as well. I fit 14 photos between these two pages! They are a bunch of different shots of the girls playing and a couple of Paul and I helping them around the playground. I added in journaling to each page, the left Cait's and the right Audrey's about how they like to play at this age, with Caitlyn being more confident now and Audrey still timid but trying harder to keep up with her big sister. Anyway, I hope you enjoy and have a great weekend!!

Once Upon a Day . . .

This is the last layout of the five, but was actually the first layout I made. Out of all the papers I got on sale these were my favorite. Both are so glittery, and I love the pink theme and those flowers. I've had this once upon a day accent for a year and have always had a hard time trying to find a way to incorporate it into a layout until now. Of course I hadn't thought of cutting it before. The 'details' journal prompt below was actually part of once upon a day tag accent. When I flipped through these photos I knew I just had to use them with this paper and somehow get that accent on there. I love the blur of Audrey's dress as she twirled and her sweet little pose. She is definitely a darling little princess! Now that I've used up most of my new stuff maybe I can concentrate on getting those IB layouts finished ^_~ I have loved the last few sketches but have just had a hard time finding pictures I want to use. Anyway, enjoy and thanks for popping by to see my work! Have a fabulous Friday!

Stylish

Like Audrey's pics with this hat, Cait's pics were adorable as well. And her's were a bit easier to scrap with since her shirt matched her Aunt's hat. Of course Caitlyn has to make all sorts of funny faces. Sadly the one picture with her really smiling was blurry so I didn't use it. I really love how this layout came together though, mostly because the paper's colors coordinated with the colors in the pictures perfectly. The Noteworthy journaling prompt is from another set, but matched this one so well I had to use it. I love how interchangable all the little accent pieces are between the MME's different lines. This page also has a lot of glitter on it that is lost in the picture. Quick, easy, and cute. . . I can totally go for more scrapping like this, lol! Thanks for stopping by and have a great Thursday!

Simply Adorable

Audrey loves hats, she always has. And I have to say I adore taking pictures of her wearing them! I have been wanting to scrap these pictures from the summer for a while as I think they are just so cute, but the colors in the pictures have always stumped me. She's wearing her darling apple shirt that we both miss (she cried when I finally had to pack it away because it was way too small this autumn), and then her Aunt's very vintage cap. I pulled another fun accent piece from one of the old sets I had gotten last year and then the rest of the accents are all new. The journaling prompt is actually a days of the week accent I turned vertically and hid the names of the days behind the picture so I could use it as a journaling box. This layout took me the longest because I was having trouble deciding how I wanted to place the pictures. I finally took a cue from the layout I made with Cait wearing that same hat (posting tomorrow) and clustered the photos. And while I don't think the papers went 'perfect' with the pictures, the combo created that graphic vintage feel I was going for and made a darling layout. Anyway, hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday! Thanks for visiting!

Pure Happiness. . .

. . . is watching you dream. I adore sleeping baby pics! They always look so sweet and angelic. My favorite part is their long eyelashes. Both Cait and Audrey have the prettiest long lashes! They get that from their dad. This page went together in a flash and everything on here is from MME. I added a couple accents that weren't in the set I put together in the beginning - the title and the journaling box, which are both from an older set that I got last year. The title was a perfect starter to the journaling I wanted to add which was simply that I love to watch her sleep. I wish you could see the glitter that is in all these papers. The Laundry Line is so pretty. All the papers are glittered and so are many of the accents. It ups the price comparatively hence my not buying any until they went on sale, but after playing with them I have to say they are probably worth it! I'm more than happy to only pay half price though ^_~. Thanks for stopping by and have a happy Tuesday!

But!

I finally got some time to scrap. And while I should be working on some of the IB sketches, I couldn't help but use up some new papers I got. Pebbles was having a 50% all My Minds Eye products this last week so I bought some of the goodies from the Laundry Line that I had been eyeing for quite some time now. I find that I have to shop for my supplies by sets. I pick out paper, then peruse around the store to find accents, embellishments, and ribbon to match. The funny thing is when I get home, instead of keeping the sets together I put everything away according to product, so when I go to create I have no idea what sets I had made at the store and am starting from scratch. I buy that way to make it easier for me to scrap, but by putting it all away I'm essentially sabotaging myself, lol. But this time I decided to keep my sets together, and boy did it make my scrapping go by fast. I completed 5 layouts in a single evening! Now I'll have something to share each morning this week :D For fun, how do you like to shop for your crafting supplies? What do you do with yours when you get them home?

This first layout I'm sharing today is about Cait's #1 bedtime stalling tactic last year. It always began with the phrase "But, I can't!" followed by her doing anything and everything she could to show us that she is just too cute to be sent to bed. At the time I didn't think she could get much worse with the staying up thing, but she is constantly finding reasons to get out of bed now. Like 'I need to wash my hands!', 'I can't find my blanky!', 'There's monsters in the walls!', the list goes on forever some nights, lol. Other nights she simply sneaks out of bed and reads or plays really quiet in the hallway. A few months ago it was easy to tell when she did this as she was really noisy, but now she has become super stealthy! We won't even catch her until we are walking down the hall for something, and when she sees us she pops up like a bunny and hops off to her room, lol! I'm sure I'm only in for more creative antics in the future, and when Audrey gets a bit bigger it'll be double trouble!!

Merry Christmoose!

It's already week #8 with Sparkle's weekly Christmas Card Challenge! This week the challenge was to make your cards square. I picked my favorite square size, 5x5, for these two Riley cards.

Instead of using more Christmas paper, I decided to use some of this really pretty Valentine paper from CTMH (Amore set). I got it because I love the color combo - chocolate, tulip, and blush. Riley is colored in with pencils with gamsol and the sentiment comes from Papertrey's Holiday Wishes stamp set. These cards make me want chocolate... or brownies..... or Julie's ganosh cake!! lol Anyway, I hope you all have been having a great week. Don't forget to check out Sparkle's Blog for the challenge! And have a lovely Sunday!

Owl Be Yours

Some of you have already spied this card on Nicole's blog. I made this cute owl card with the Wise Owl and My Punny Valentine stamps for the Guest Star Stamper contest that Papertrey Ink holds every month. This one was for the Valentine's contest. I had a lot more projects planned, especially using the Forest Friends set but didn't get a chance to create them before the deadline. I might wait another month to create those projects so I can enter them in the best use of a previously released set though, lol. I didn't win anything but did get an honorable mention. And it's awesome to see my work on Nicole's blog :D Anyway, I hope you are all having a great week. It's raining here today so we will just be sitting cozy at home.

A Cutie Christmas

It's week #7 for Sparkle's Christmas card challenge and last week she challenged us to use liquid applique on our cards. Here are my two made with a couple darling image RAKs. Don't forget to check out Sparkle's Blog for the challenge and her cards!

I love these little gals, they are so darling. I've been oogling the stamps for a while but still haven't made the leap. One of these days though, I'm just going to have too, lol. I colored them in with CTMH markers and then highlighted a little with my white gel pen before adding the liquid applique. Like Sparkle, I just love this stuff for snow and fluff ^_~. Today I just used it for fluff though :D And you can't tell but all the white snowflakes are punched from glitter white cardstock.

And I realized I had missed a week so I made a couple more and used the challenge for last week to not use any red or green since I had totally spaced it and created red and green themed cards for last week. Aren't these mice darling! Jenn mailed me some super cute images from this line (I can't seem to remember the name, lol), but they are too stinking cute! I used the gamsol magic technique with my colored pencils for coloring them in and did a little outside shading on the first but none on the second just to see the difference. I accidently smudged the sentiment on my second card, but it still came out pretty cute! The challenge for next week is to make your cards square :D Thanks for visiting and enjoy!

Some Papertrey Valentines

I have had this paper for a little while now. And though I love it, everytime I pull it out it stumps me, lol! So I thought to do something a little out of the box and make a couple valentines to start me off with it. I still have one really nice sized scrap for a layout, but the main thing is that I'm hoping this got my creative juices going to I can use the other papers I got with it that match, lol!

I started with a small card. This was so trial and error in the beginning, lol! The paper was stumping me, but I just felt inspired to use it, and not only that but the stamps were stumping me as well. A couple nights ago when I didn't have the time to craft I was coming up with all sorts of ideas in my head with these hearts, but once I got a chance to sit down they all just flew out my ears! But after a half an hour or so of cutting, shaking my head, and redoing stamping and placements I finally got this little baby done. I really like how the paper gets shown off in this little card. I'll probably use it as a love note, to just tuck into Paul's backpack to give him an unexpected happy surprise while he's working hard at school.




The regular sized card came together really easy after the first one. I took the same design idea of layering and clustering the images and sentiment together as in the little card. Then I matted the whole thing in white for a crisp frame. I think I got the wrong punches though. They are the Marvy Heart punches, but they don't fit these stamps really. I got the blue and green which are the right size but don't seem to match the shape. There are only 2 Marvy heart punches I've seen, this one and then the country heart so I'm not sure if Papertrey has exclusive punches or if that was the way they were designed to fit. It looks a bit off to me, but oh well. I used 40% off coupons on the punches and the girls love them. I will probably let Caitlyn do some punched hearts for her Valentines this year ^_~ Enjoy and have good week!

Sparkle's CCC #6

I know it's almost Monday, but I did get them done! I haven't made time to craft until this afternoon so the first thing I did was look for images to use for Sparkle's Christmas Card challenge. I love Tis-the-Seasonabella, she is so much fun! I used up the last of this holly paper from the Fruitcake line by Basic Grey and actually used my poor neglected sewing machine. The last time I really used it was 2006 when I made kid quilts for my girls and then all my nieces and nephews. Anyway, I had it out already for a test run to make sure it still worked and decided to go ahead and put some fun stitching on these cards. It's been so long since I've sewn on paper! My sewing machine did alright for the test run, so now it's just deciding if I really do want to make throw pillows for the couch, lol! Thanks for looking and make sure to check out Sparkle's blog for the challenge and links!

Back to School

For Caitlyn, coming back to school after winter break has pretty much been like starting a new year. She has a new teacher, a new class full of new friends, and an entirely new schedule. They do a lot of things differently than in her other class. She doesn't have her own schedule board, the activities they do are as a group, and there are more kids in the class. It's more like a preschool. So far she's done alright. She was really afraid of some of the new things, like the game where they pop the balloon and the Alligator game, but other than that she has been able to listen which was my main concern.

The first day back for her was both so fun and a bit sad. This semester it worked out to where both Paul and Cait have afternoon classes. It wasn't planned that way, Paul had signed up for his classes before we knew about Cait moving up to the higher level class. So I drop him off right before dropping of Cait since his first class is at 1pm and Cait's class starts at 1:15. We had just dropped Paul off at the college and were headed back to Caitlyn's school which is closer to home. One of my favorite songs, In My Arms by Plumb, was playing and the girls were singing at the top of their lungs. It made me laugh, they were so cute, and when I laughed they started to laugh and then tried to sing even louder, lol. This is one of the many things I love about having little girls. They sound so darling, singing the words they know and making up words for the parts they don't, it's just too adorable.

Caitlyn was so funny on her first day. She apparently kept telling her new teacher 'That's not how we do it.' LOL All of the new things she had to do, like the games and not having a schedule she would tell her teacher or the aide 'Teacher Collette doesn't do it like that.' I just had to laugh! She would do what she was supposed to after her teacher told her that this is how we do it in this class, but I can just imagine Cait doing her little 'well' stance and saying that to her new teacher, lol. Caitlyn has such a funny little stance where she stands with one hip sticking out a little and her head slightly tipped when she tries to convince me of something. Her tell for trying to change my mind almost always starts will a long drawn out 'wellll.....' followed by what she wants, lol. Sometimes it's 'but', but usually it's well. It cracks me up.

Anyway, to go on Audrey and I dropped off Caitie and half way home Audrey started sobbing. She was crying so badly and I kept asking her what was wrong but all she would do is cry harder. So finally I asked if she missed Caitie, since I remembered this happening on Caitlyn's first day of school back in September. She said 'miss Caitie' in the saddest little voice then did that little shaky breath in before whimpering and calming down somewhat. It was the saddest thing, she even had huge tears on her cheeks still when I got her out of the car! She was so happy when we finally picked Caitie up. Every ten minutes or so she was asking 'pick up Caitie?' or 'go get Caitie now?' She's fine with it now, but that first day... boy was it a roller coaster ride of emotions between the both of them. Of course that's what I get for having girls, lol!! Have a happy Saturday and thanks for stopping by!

Sassy Savvy Sexy Sister

Sparkle is such a sweet blogging sister! She shared some of the bitty bella love by snail mailing me some of the address labels and these pre-stamped lovely ladies to play with. Thank you hun! So I had to play with the pre-stampies right away :D





The moment I saw these I thought about making a regular sized card with three of the images like she did a while ago. Then as I was getting them together and looking through some of my pattern scraps I thought they would make such a darling little set that I just had to do that instead! I used the Mwahbella words for their little sentiments. These bitty cards are so much fun to make and I can see how Sparkle got addicted to them!!! And for another S word to add to the bunch the paper is from the Sultry collection by Basic Grey. You can click on the image for a bigger view. I'm trying to remember to get that in there with my posts this year :D Enjoy and have a Sassy Thrusday!

A Happy New Year

Happy New Year!! I know it's a week late, lol. This month has been pretty chilly for us and it seems every day the girls get to have hot cocoa which is what inspired this card. I haven't really been on the computer the last couple weeks hence my lack of blogging and missing last color challenge. In my last post I was talking about resolutions and how I had been thinking of some already. One of those was to get on the computer less so I guess I'm off to good start, lol. I also have submitted a layout already. But mostly I've just been spending time with family and friends. It's been really nice to just relax, hang out, and not worry about all the extra stuff. This year I want to not worry about how much I post on my blog, or whether or not I've created something today or even this week and to spend more time simply enjoying life.

So I was thinking about my crafting resolutions for this year that would fit with my priorities and I came up with creating only what I love, instead of creating more. I want to submit at least 10 items for publication, mostly just to get me to do my best work and try to get my mind thinking innovatively. I kept my goal really reasonable as I probably will only be submitting layouts. I also want to keep up with the Inspired Blueprints sketches. That's only 2 a month and I'm pretty certain I can handle that. The only card goal I have is to keep up with Sparkle's Christmas Card challenges so that I'll have my cards for next Christmas done. I love making cards in general and know I'll just end up making a ton of other cards no matter what so I'm not worried about keeping up with the other challenges I had been. And I also want to learn to take better pictures. That is my biggest goal for the year... well that and losing the baby fat, lol.

So did I complete my resolutions for last year? Well, I don't recall really making any except to try for the page a day goal. And while I didn't reach that goal I still got 279 pages finished and improved my scrapping a ton! So I can say that I'm happy with where I got on that one. I also always have the goal of getting rid of this baby fat. I got close by the time summer came but have gotten it all back since the holidays plus some (ack!). My new goal this next year is to just be healthier and remember portions, lol. That's the hardest part for me especially during the holiday season! Anyone have any interesting resolutions? Or has that time for thinking of them come and gone already, lol? I think my most important resolution this year is to live more simply and enjoy the little things more. Anyway, I hope everyone had a great bringing in of the new year! Have a happy Wednesday and thanks for stopping by!