Pages to Share

I found myself way behind on the pages of my "40th" album...remember the one my sister made for my birthday that I should have been keeping up with [daily, weekly, monthly???]...well, I sat down over the holiday break and made of list of some things that I wanted to include and got busy. Some of these pages are good [in my humble opinion] and some are just "put together" and I'm happy with them....you know how that goes sometimes.

I made this page to celebrate winning a book from the Papercrafts blog. I was hugely excited to win such a great prize. [Although this page came together easily, I can't put my finger on what it's missing...]
This next page was done to remember the time I spent making moose costumes for my daughter's 2nd grade class. We made moose antlers, hooves and muffins in a stack. In the end, all the work (and burnt fingers) were worth it because the kids had a great time. Did you notice the mini-antlers I added to the "Super Costume" award ribbon?

Next up, is a page documenting our "101" and "202" photography classes that we took in July and August. There's so much our cameras will do, it's just hard for me to remember everything. I kept a notebook of meticulous notes and refer back to them often. I love the colors on this page.

And last up, is a page reflecting back on a neat Christmas activity we did with the girls on Christmas Eve eve...in St. Augustine they have trolley tours that take you throughout the city. At Christmas, they run the trolleys at night so you can see the city with all of its pretty Christmas lights everywhere. During the tour you sing songs, drink hot apple cider and munch on delicious sugar cookies. It was so much fun and the weather was perfect.

Here's a close up of my snowflake embellies:

The only bad thing was with the trolley moving about and the darkness of the night, it was so hard to get any good pictures. My husband managed to sneak in these two shots and for that I am thankful. They aren't the best, but good enough for me when that's all I've got.

I'll be back with more! Thanks for letting me share.

Jillibean Soup Challenge

Here I am again, with another challenge....I've been on a roll this week....although this one was a little tricky for me because I've never scrapped a round page before, (at least not that I can remember)....but here's the sketch challenge from Jillibean's blog:
And here's what I came up with using all of their papers....I just started cutting and slicing and gluing like a mad man.....I decided I wasn't going to hang on to (hoard) these puppies, but rather, spread them around as you can see in my past cards and stuff....I love them, they are so fun and they all go together tremendously well....just look at how many patterns I used on this one layout:

Here's the close up:

The only additional papers I used were the solids from my scrap stash. I also used these products: Chipboard from Basic Grey & Heidi Swapp, EK Success Bookworks stickers, Quickutz embossing folder, Stampin Up's Hearts & Brackets die, Spellbinders & Quickutz nesting dies, Martha Stewart twine and Stampin' Up dimensionals.

I'm off to get into another project before the troops get home...take care!

40 Random Things

I decided to participate in this week's challenge over at the American Crafts blog....here's the link so you can check it out. Basically, you need to create a layout using two American Crafts products and you also need to sew on your layout, either with a machine or you could even use the faux stitching technique with your favorite doodling pen. I thought, "2 American Crafts products and sewing....easy peesy!"

Here's my take....I feel like I'm a little rusty in the scrapbook department because I've been working on so many cards lately, but this one came together quickly, almost too quickly [and then I started second-guessing myself, maybe I need to add this, or maybe this would work]....anyways, here it is, and it fills up another page in my 40th birthday album.

I'm calling this one, "40 Random Things" ---
And here's the close up of the title tag:

I used an assortment of supplies including: American Crafts "Craft Fair" paper and letter Thickers; pink patterned paper by MAMBI; blue patterned paper by K&Company; black cardstock from Bazzill; Stampin' Up heart punch; Spellbinders Labels One die; letter stickers from EK Success; Self-inking stamp from 7Gypsies and the bubble letters were a garage sale find.

If you read the journalling, it includes things about me or things that I like/love....just a variety of random things.

See you later!

Sunday Play

I got to play a little bit in my "40th" album today and finished this page documenting our beach vacation a few weeks ago to Amelia Island.

This page is done with some Cosmo Cricket paper, a Making Memories journalling page, Bazzill edge strips (I thought they resembled waves) and the Cuttin' Up cartridge on my Cricut machine. I also added some machine stitching, a sticker from Sassafras, and an arrow die cut from Scenic Route. It's amazing what we can pull out of our stash when we take the time to look around. I love all these different elements together. I guess I'm not a matchy-matchy girl after all.
And, while I was supposed to be cleaning up I just had to stop and put together this quick card using the scraps on my desk. I don't know who's getting it yet, but I can always add it to my stash.

Supplies for this card include: DCWV paper, K&Company glitter strip sticker, Making Memories journalling page and a tag from my tag box...and the rub on is from Hobby Lobby.

Have a good rest of the day!

Grandma's Page

I put together this quick page of some mini-pictures printed from my Mom's birthday party last week. I literally grabbed these colors and embellishments and started placing the mini-photos randomly....this was one of those easy pages that seem to just "fit" together.

This will be added to my memory album - it's filling up quickly!

Supplies used: Paper- DCWV; Trim- Making Memories; Chipboard embellishments- (butterfly) K&Company (numbers) Heidi Swapp; Sticker- Karen Foster; Journal Die Cut- K&Company; Flower- Prima; Ribbon- Craft stash

2 New Pages

We've spent part of our holiday today cropping in the scrapbook room. I've been wanting to work in the album that my sister gave me to celebrate my 40th year. Here's a picture of the album she made....and here's my first layout:
We had a fun day shopping at Ikea & Millenia Mall as well as lunch at Panera's.

Here's the second layout I finished this morning:

And here's the close up:

I went to my paper drawer and cut some random strips and then used my sewing machine to add stitching to a few strips. I also went to my "fancy fiber" jar and added some of my favorite fibers which included a piece of pink rick-rack, a green puffy fiber and these pretty red pom poms. I cut the stars out using a set of quilting stencils. The pink scalloped edge is from SU's edge punch. The banner flags were cut out using bits of scraps and my trusty ole' Fiskars scissors. The letter die cuts are from SU's Billboard Sizzix strip die which I just got yesterday.

(As usual, you can click on the pictures to see them larger.)

This layout was a little time consuming, but I'm pleased with the result. Now I'm off to get some goodies for our celebratory dinner!

Another page to "Celebrate"

Here's another page I completed at the all-day crop....are you getting tired of seeing them already?
These are other shots I took while celebrating my daughter's 9th birthday. And, actually, this page was not totally my own....I found a similar page in my inspiration book and built it from there. I love the vibrant color combo and the addition of the black letters. They were cut using one of my favorite Cricut cartridges called "Cuttin Up."

I raised the "Technique Tuesday" chipboard polka-dots using glue dots. The yellow scalloped strip is from a "Just the Edge" package from Bazzill.

This page turned out to be one of my favorites!

Stuffed with Love

"Stuffed with Love" definitely defines my youngest daughter. She is sweet to the core and anyone who knows her can testify to that fact....it's not just coming from a boastful Momma!

I took these pictures of her one night while she was supposed to be settling down and getting ready for bed. Because there are very few shows at night that actually capture her attention, she is usually playing quietly while we watch a sitcom here and there. (I'm not a huge TV watcher, but I have a few favorites.)

Most of the time she likes to play library, veterinary clinic with our dog or, like on this particular night, she plays with her stuffed animal collection. This time, she decided to bury herself in our bedroom chair with all of her animals.
This image reminded me of the ET movie where he is hidden in the closet amongst all the stuffed animals and the person looking in doesn't even notice him.

I am using more of the Sizzix Big Kick dies with the brown swirls and Zingo alphabet letters. The butterflies are from a Martha Stewart punch. The white flowers with gems are from Flora Doodles. They are a cinch to use because there is nothing to it, just place and stick.

In the Meantime

While I'm playing catch-up on a few projects, I thought I would begin sharing some of the pages I completed at the last all-day scrapbook crop I went to a few Saturdays ago. I love these opportunities to go from 10:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. to crop all day with a few girlfriends. Some of the best pages I've done have come from one of those days. I'm a morning person, so it works out great for me!

This was a page I did to celebrate my daughter's 9th birthday. I couldn't believe how well this picture turned out with my new camera. The kitchen was dark and the only light was from the single candle on the birthday cake. I love the look of excitement on her face!
The striped paper on the left-side of the layout is where I got my color inspiration from.

I used my Cricut machine to die cut the title with my "Stamped" cartridge.

This picture shows off one of my favorite punches, the spiral punch from Stampin' Up, along with the new "Top Note" die from Stampin' Up which I used for my journaling.

I love it when you can combine some of your favorite tools with some easy techniques to get a cute layout done lickety-split!

Adding Details

I haven't had much time this week to put the finishing details on my layouts from last weekend, but I did manage to finish up a few of them. I will post some of them as I work them in - we are having a cold and restful 3-day weekend so it will be the perfect time for cropping and crafting! (These pages are from some fun we had in October.)

A Successful Saturday

My sister and I attended an all-day crop this past Saturday. It was a lot of fun and boy, was I productive scrapper!! I beat my all-time record by completing a total of 14 pages of layouts. Well, I say "completed" but actually, there's a little of bit of fine tuning to do to each one. I'll show you the pictures later, but I wanted to let you know what I've been up to. We spent 13 hours Saturday playing catch-up to some overdue pages. I'm very happy with what I put together.

Poo Pony

I'm back with another layout for the Use Your Stash blog. (http://www.useyourstash.blogspot.com/) This layout is for a mini-challenge. The challenge was to make a layout using two photos, the colors blue and green and either flock or glitter....well, I did everything except....I didn't have flock and my glitter colors were so pale in comparison to the colors I wanted to use, so I decided to go with a felt embellishment instead. I hope this still counts. This layout captures one of those everyday moments that would certainly be forgotten if not for this great hobby. The story is a funny one about my husband and a stuffed pony I bought at a garage sale for $2.....long story short, I left it in the back of his car and he forgot about it until one day while driving, he glanced back while changing lanes, and said the pony literally, "Scared the poo outta me!" I laughed a really BIG laugh as soon as I heard him say those words....and I also got to share the funny story with a few friends and family members and laughed again with them. Funny, simple times are my favorite!

Sidewalk "Splash" Fun

Here's a pic of another layout I was able to put together Friday night. I didn't really have an inspirational beginning for this one, just the fact that I was working with one vertical picture and one horizontal picture. This layout was one of those that just "came together" as I played with it....I love it when that happens. The big circle is from a chipboard set by Technique Tuesday that I bought a while back...this was the first time I was able to use it. Yesterday, as I was going back to add a little bit of detail I reached up and grabbed another butterfly from my die cut drawer. This was an extra one that just happened to be hanging around...anyways, I added a rhinestone and placed it on the layout for that little touch of whimsy....I love the way it turned out. (Sorry about the lighting, my craft room gets pretty dark at night....need to improve on that.)