Beach Bum

Summer is over, but I'm not ready to say goodbye yet! So, I keep it alive with scrapping some summer photos!  These pictures were taken when my kids went to the beach with my parents. It was a little chilly for swimming that day, but the kids still had fun in the sand!

 

For the title, I cut the phrase with my cricut, Life is a Beach cartridge, then I covered the word "beach" with scrapbooking sand, and there you go! I love how it turned out!

 

Hope you are having a great day!

New pages and some Bookmarks

I finally finished some new pages!  It feels so good when I get some time to create!  The first page is from last Easter (2012) and I am in love with that cloud paper!  I'm slightly obsessed with clouds these days...it's one trend that didn't need to "grow on me" I was on board right away! {Most trends I start to like when they are headed out of style, lol!} I also put a Washi Tape banner in there...banners are another trend I love!

 

I was also able to get some pictures from Detroit Tigers' Opening Day last year.  We are big fans in this house, the home opener is practically a holiday in our house!  {Thank you, Old Navy, for making girly sports team shirts!  My girls won't wear them if they look like a "boy's" shirt!} Go Tigers!

 

 

 

And, just in time for school, I made some new bookmarks for my girls! If it helps to make their daily reading more fun, it was well worth it! They are quick to make and a great way to use up some scraps! I like to cover them with contact paper to make them more durable.

 

 

I hope you're having a great day!



Ashley @ 4

Another new layout!  I'm so happy I was able to play in my craft room this weekend!!  I definitely didn't expect to since my husband was out of town.  But my in-laws called and wanted to take the kids to a family fun fair at the college where my mother-in-law works!  And they wanted to keep the kids overnight! I had the house to myself for almost 24 hours!!  I could have cleaned up around the house or did something similarly productive, but I decided to treat myself to some scrap time!  Here is one of the layouts I completed using  sketch #23 from My Scraps & More Sketches

 

I really love how it turned out, so I entered it into their challenge on their blog!

 

I hope you are having a great day! The sun is shining here, but it is chilly...I'm ready for spring to come already!



Sisters layout

So, I don't usually scrap pictures of myself (I know, it's a bad habit) but I love this picture of my sister and I.  I don't know why we both like it so well considering we were boating all day before we had the picture snapped...I guesss it's the tanned skin and the genuine smiles that only a day in the summer sun gives you!

 

I used a sketch from Page Maps and I really love how the page turned out!

 

I used paper from Heidi Grace's Sunshowers and Amy Tangerine's Sketchbook.

 

Thanks for stopping by!



Wow, long time, no post!

I can't believe I've neglected this blog for so long! Life with 3 kiddos really does keep me busy! I have managed to squeeze some scrapbooking time in, though, so I'll post some pages here today. 

 

SWEET BOY

 The papers above were mostly from a Paper Studio stack from HL, I'm not sure of the name though {my sister and I split it and I took the loose sheets and she has the actual stack.}  I liked it because it's mostly green, yellow and brown and most of my baby boy papers are blue. This adds some diversity, I think. See the bear strip? That is from Bella Blvd's baby boy pack.  I love how it matches that sleeper that I just LOVED in the bottom picture!

 

BABY FACE

 I just love these pictures of lil' A. And I love, love, love that background paper {again from Bella Blvd} but I really had a hard time with this layout.  I'm not sure why.  But I'm happy with the way it came together in the end.  For the title, I printed "you've got the cutest little..." on white cardstock with my printer and cut "Baby face" with my cricut.

 

SISTERS

These pics are from 2007! Yikes--the baby in those pics just turned 6! I had made a layout with these pictures before and it was in K's album, but I hated it! Literally cringed everytime I came across it! I used a paper with bright pink and orange flowers for the background--trust me it was ugly! I'm not sure what I was thinking! One night, I was looking through her album and I just couldn't take it anymore...I literally dismantled the page right then and there! I should have taken a picture for a before and after, but I didn't think of it at the time! Anyway, I love this page now! All the pp are from Bella Blvd's baby girl line {which I bought recently when I bought the baby boy line, even though my "baby girls" pages are pretty much done! It was too cute to resist!}

 

Does anyone else "redo" pages? I admit I've done it before, but I try to scrap new pics rather than re-scrap old ones, but this one...I couldn't ignore any longer. Now it is one of my favorite pages in her book instead of an eyesore!

 

Until next time...which hopefully won't be too long...have a great day!



2 more pages

 

So I made a couple more pages recently.  I find that the 3rd child is keeping me busier than I anticipated... or maybe I forgot how much attention little ones need... Either way, I don't spend nearly enough time in my craft room. Which means I also kinda ignore this blog too... I wish I had more time for both, both if I'm not crafting, it seems like I have nothing to post here either.  Hopefully that will change soon.  I always feel more inspired in the fall to be creative!

 

For the first page here, I used pics form our vacation to Myrtle Beach last summer.  I love the pictures of the girls in the sand.  The 2nd page is for my baby boy's book.  I love all the pics I was able to get on one page! I shows a little of how many people came to see little Austin in his first few weeks home.  I can't believe he turned 1 last month... that year went by so fast!

 

Hope you are all having a great day!

More baby boy pages

So, I've been trying to do some more baby boy pages recently.  I can't believe the little guy is almost 10 months old already!  Looking back at pictures from the first months has been fun.  It's unbelievable how much babies change the first year!

For this page, I used papers form a baby boy collection made from Bella Blvd. I added some solid hearts in with some embellishments from the kit.

This page is his birth story...the last few weeks of my pregnancy were not exactly text book, so my labor was induced at 39 weeks.  I wanted this page with the birth story written out while the details were still fresh in my mind... I find that things get hazy after some time passes ;)  The paper I used was from a stack from My Mind's Eye called Twinkle Twinkle Little Boy.

This last page for today, is just some coming home pictures.  The background paper is from Heidi Grace. It's a simple page that came together really easily, since the pictures kind of speak for themselves.

Hope you have a great day, thanks for stopping by!





Teacher Thank You Cards

Here are some cards I made for Teacher Appreciation Week.  Ashley's school wanted to be sure all the faculty got cards, not just those with a class, so they assigned each class with additional teachers to thank.  Ashley's class was assigned the gym teacher and a reading tutor. I made all the cards with the Grade School Stack (by DCWV) and Ashley wrote her own personal message inside. The first one was for her teacher, next one for the gym teacher, last for the tutor:

I think they turned out pretty nice! Ashley loved them and was proud to bring them into her teachers!







Some new cards

So I have been making some cards lately...partly because I needed some cards for specific purposes and partly because I can make them quickly. Sometimes it just feels good to get in my craft room and get something completed even if I only have 30 minutes, ya know?  Anyway, this card is a "thank you" card for my sister. My daughter, Kayla, just turned 5, so I needed to send out thank you's. I always make my sister a special one though, 'cause she is the best when it comes to parties at my house!  She comes over at least a day in advance to help clean (which is not my favorite thing to do!) and she helps throughout the party to put food/drinks out and clean up-- she won't leave a dish in the sink! Seriously! She makes entertaining SO much easier for me!

So I made this card with a picture of my sweet little birthday girl! (She tends to display her cards in her room, so I added a little extra cuteness!) The papers are from a doodlebug pack, the ribbon is american craft and the stamp is hampton art.

This second card is just to have for a quick card to have on hand, but I was inspired by the DCWV blog card sketch. I used the Whimsy paper pack for this card.  I just love the shimmer in this paper! I know you can't tell from this picture, but I popped up the "Hi" scroll (which was cut from the Cindy Loo cartridge on the Cricut) for added dimension.

Hope to finish writing out the thank you cards today...I never feel like the party work is done until the TY cards are in the mail....

Have a great day!





My 1st baby boy page!

So, amid the craziness that is life with three kids, I finally made time to scrap a page for Austin's book! I loved the pictures we took of the girls meeting him in the hospital, so these pictures made my decision of where to start pretty easy!  See how proud the big sisters are?!

Seeing their smiles just warmed my heart!

I used paper from a baby boy stack from Die Cuts With a View (I think it's only sold at Michaels) that I bought shortly after the ultrasound revealed that we were having a boy so I could buy more scrapbooking paper!! (I may have a paper hoarding problem, but I know I'm not the only one in the scrapbooking world with that problem! lol!) Anyway, I really liked this stack because the papers are all soft blues, browns and greens.  The primary colors may grow on my eventually for boy pages, but I'm definitely not there yet!

I hope to get in my scrap room more since Austin is starting to nap regularly...there's just always so much to do around this house that I've neglected that hobby a bit.  I really do miss it! I was looking through some pictures of pages and cards that I made over the years and really felt inspired.  I have been making some cute cards for a project I've been donating to for the past few years, but I've done very little besides that and this page...oh well, little by little, I'll make more time for scrapbooking!

Enjoy!

Here's the reason I've been MIA..

So, I know I've been MIA lately...I promise it's for a good reason...

My baby boy was born almost 1 month ago now!

It's left me with very little time to blog, let alone scrap anything new!  But, he's so cute, I just thought I'd share a pic or two...

Hopefully I'll have some time to be creative sometime soon, but in the meantime, I'm adding to the pile of photos to be scrapped... ;)



It's football season!!



In honor of college football, a quick page I completed last year!  Go Blue!

Hope you enjoy your weekend!

A couple new pages

I was able to get into my craft room the other day and get some pages finished.  Baby #3 is due in a few short weeks so I know I won't get much craft time in for a while after his arrival.  I think I mentioned before that I keep an 8x10 picture frame on my kitchen counter with a page documenting this time last year and I didn't want that to fall behind when the baby was born, especially not during this time of year, when there are so many things going on...back to school, Halloween and great fall photos! So here is my back to school page:

I was also inspired by these photos from last summer with my girls and my older brother, Kevin.  This 12x12 is framed and hanging in my craft room now as I really liked how it turned out!

So, just thought I'd share.  Hoping to add the finishing touches to a couple more 8x10 pages tomorrow to have ready for the coming months.

Some new scrapbook pages! (Finally!)

So, I finally broke out of my funk a little here and pushed out some pages!!  I really enjoyed it too!  I broke myself back in with this page of some sweet pictures of DD#1 at 13 months. (Please forgive the bad photo quality--it has been storming all day!  But I wanted to get a post up!!)

I love each of these pictures and had a nice stroll down memory lane when I dug them out of the box!  I cannot believe she will be 7 this summer, it does not seem so long ago since she was my little baby!

Now, I think I was nervous to do these pages because I LOVE these photos and I was afraid of not doing them justice on a page!  These pictures were taken by my Aunt Sue in her beautiful garden, then she added some touches in photoshop to soften them.  My girls so enjoyed pretending to be in a 'secret fairy garden' for the photo shoot as well.  I plan to frame these in my scrap room so I can enjoy them everyday!

I bought these Heidi Grace papers a couple of weeks ago and knew that it would be perfect for these pages!  I think I'm going to leave out titles unless I can think of the perfect phrase.  I stamped the each of my daughter's names along the side of their picture and I think that may be enough for now.  We'll see...any suggestions? Anyone else do this (pages without titles)?

Hi There!

Hi fellow scrappers!  Sorry I've been MIA lately (thanks for the lovely comment about that, scrappy cottage)....I seem to have lost my mojo :(  I suspect it may have something to do with this pregnancy of mine--I'm just sooooo tired.  Between keeping up with the house work and Ashley's homework and my night shifts at the hospital a couple nights a week, I'm just exhausted!  But, there is hope!  My sister is coming over this weekend and she wants to help me re-organize my scrap mess  room, so maybe going through all my stuff will inspire me to use some of it, lol!  I hope so, I miss scrapping!!  I'll keep you posted if I do get inspired!  Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Ashley's Unbirthday Treat

My oldest daughter, Ashley, has a summer birthday.  Fun for the party, but she misses out on celebrating with her friends at school. :(  So this year, her teacher sent home a note encouraging  Ashley to send a treat for her 1/2 birthday with the class!  Needless to say, she was super excited and decided immediately that she wanted rice crispie treats.  Well, those are easy to make, but leave little room for craftiness.  So, I decided I could at least make some cute tags, right?  Then I remembered that she has 25 classmates, so I decided to keep it simple, but she loved it!

Pretty cute, right?  I printed the text out from the computer, cut it out with a circle punch and added it to a scalloped circle tag cut from the birthday bash cartridge. Then I tied the tag on with curling ribbon...easy peasy!

Another Project Finished!

I feel like I accomplished so much this weekend! (After all, it was soooooo cold outside, all the more reason to lock myself up in my craft room!) I completed my Mom's 8x8 album (see previous posts for pics of some of those pages) and then last night I also finished my DD#2's baby album!  I'm not sure how I'll continue to do albums, but I felt like each of my daughters' 1st year should be a 12x12 album all it's own (does that make sense?--I feel like their is a grammatical error in that sentence--oh well)  So, I completed an album for each of them starting with the story about how we announced the pregnancies (I wrote a poem for each, so I included a copy of that on the first page of the album) thru their 1st birthdays.  I didn't have a certain amount of pages that I felt I had to complete for each, but I scrapped my favorite pics-at least 1 page per month.  Then I felt like they needed something to finish the book, so this is what I came up--a year in review type thing:

I used their professional photos, did a wallet strip at the bottom and a 5x7 at the top of their 1yr pic.  This is Kayla's above...I totally scraplifted what I did for Ashley's right down to the title (I just finished hers this summer-- just in time for her 6th birthday party!)  Here's Ashley's:

I'm so glad that's done and I really like how it came out! Hope you all had a great weekend as well!

Welcome new followers and more pages

Wow, how fun to open my blog today and see 8 new followers!  Welcome!!  Hope you like the projects I have posted and maybe I'll be more motivated to post more often now!!  Thanks also for the kind comments you left for me! I promise to visit your blogs and do the same!

Well, I finished the book for my mom today!  Or, at least it's up to date for now, I plan to add more pages as the years go on.  I won't bore you with all the pages, but I will post some of my favorites!  Hope you enjoy them and have a great weekend!

project for my mom

So, I have been trying to get this scrapbook finished for my mom...it was supposed to be a Christmas present, but the holidays snuck up on me, and well, it didn't get finished!!  I barely finished wrapping my presents, let alone squeeze in time to be creative!  Anyways, I finally gave her a partial book the other day when we got together with the promise that there was more to come!!  Here are some of the pages:

It's an 8x8 album and all the pages focus around things my mom does with my girls in the kitchen.  My mom is a baker, so she is always helping my kids decorate cookies and cupcakes, etc. so I thought it would be fun to make her a book of some of their special moments together!  My mom LOVED it!  Well, like I mentioned, it's not finished yet, but she loves what she has so far!  I have about 6 more pages finished upstairs and I think just 1 more to go and I will be up to date...I'm so close to being finished!!! (I should really finish it up today and feel so accomplished!)  I need to take pics of the newer pages still, and it's sunny today (for a change) so I need to do that today.

Oh, and did I mention, I made a title page? I have never done that before, but I thought since the focus of this book was special times between my girls and their Grandma with mostly baking involved, the first page of the book says: "Grammy and the girls; a recipe for fun!" isn't that a cute title?  Too bad I forgot to take a picture of that...I ws rushed to get the book together for her that evening... oh well.

More pages coming soon!!

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