Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Project Week 5

Hello Week 5.

So glad to have you finished.

Not sure what happened this week but I only had a handful of photos to work with. I didn't panic, I simply put them all on one page and called it good.

Since I had a lot to fit into one page, it is almost to busy for my liking. But, in the end I love it !

Here is the whole page.


I decided to mix things up this week and opted to put 4 photos in the 4 x 6 pockets instead of adding a title card. I needed all the big pockets I had.

I also had to put my journaling on the 4x6 photos instead of on some of the journaling cards.

This first photo is of Katelyn and her dragons. She takes them everywhere with her.

I love brush is a freebie from here. Look under summer brushes. The lovely stars are from here.


This photo is of Noah and I playing around with my iphone. We were at lunch at our usual place, McDonald's.

I took the vellum circle and backed it with white cardstock. I wanted to made sure it stayed on the photo so I stapled it in place. This week I also went rogue, and did some handwriting on my photo. EEEK !!


I received my Simple Stories Design Team supplies box this week. I took this photo on my front porch, finding the box after I had gotten home. It was sooooo fun to open that big box and oh and
ah !

I started out with the double letter S's. I printed on vellum and stapled my sentence over the S's. Adding some stars from the new SC kit. 


This is my last 4x 6 photo for the week. This one was of Maddie at the Student of the Month assembly. She was chosen for the Student of the Month for January. The rest of the photo was really busy, so I wanted to put my journaling over the busyness.

I started out with a cute pencil journaling card from the new SC kit. Then adding a title and some embellishments.


Since I did not do a title card I added a small one that also doubled as a journaling card.

I again used Ali Edwards lined weeks and added my date.

The photo is from a local furniture shop called Red Door Interiors. They had an amazing Red Door and of course we had to get a photo ! 


One day this week Maddie came home and proceeded to tell me about how Captain Hook came to her classroom and destroyed things, even taking some jewels !

I immediately found a journaling card and had her re tell the story on a journaling card. I absolutely love how she wrote it, including her 100 exclamation points. Priceless.

We took the hold off of our gym membership in Feb. and now I can go to the gym again !  I took a photo of my gym shoes.

I used some of the new SC kit lovely stuff for this journaling card. Oh, and got super brave and hand wrote on my journaling card. I'm loving these great banners from SC.


That's a wrap on Week 5 everyone. Thanks for coming. I hope you are having lots of fun with your albums.

Until next time. 


Saturday, February 15, 2014

Project Life Week 4

Hello everyone !

I hope that you all had a great Valentine's day yesterday and that you got something sweet to eat !

I wanted to share with you my week 4 today.

Here is a look at both of the pages together. If you remember from week 3 I did a half page. It turned out perfect for week 4 to fill up a half page and a full page. 

During week 4 I had surprised Noah with some Monster Jam tickets for him and his daddy to go see on Saturday. That will take up a whole spread, along with some photos about what us girls did while the boys were gone.  In the end it worked out perfectly.

I have to say that this week was really fun and turned out great !  


For my title card this week I ended up putting it on my photo instead of on a title card. Originally I had it on the top of the insert but quickly moved it to the bottom. It was next to the title card for week 3 and it just looked better down on the bottom. Again, I added Ali Edwards week line brush.

Usually it is completely sunny here. But lately we have had some great sunsets with clouds, we usually don't see clouds. It was just gorgeous. 


Did some shoe shopping for all 3 kids this week. Bought them each 2 pairs and they all went up in sizes. Wanted to document their sizes right now.

Added the cute wood veneer heart from the new SC kit. Put some patterned paper from one of the journaling cards from the kit behind the opening, loving the result.

Did lots of furniture store browsing this week.  Took this photo at Pier 1.


Now off to the second page.

Kids had a picnic snack in the backyard. On the menu : blueberries, fruit snacks, carmels, baby tomatoes, and goldfish. Their pick, not mine. 


Noah and his friend Dominic, who also is his preschool partner. The dynamic duo had a play date and got dressed up "boy style". This was the best photo I got out of the 2 of them, go figure.


I added the clear vellum embellishment (from the SC kit) to the photo and love the result. I even tried a few other embellishments with it but ended up just leaving it plain.


The kids have been so into Harry Potter lately. They printed out, and colored signs for some of the famous "Magical" sights and then placed them all over the house. They were on every door and this one was on the railing to go upstairs.

This card was perfect ! I simply placed it on top of the photo. It was part of the teen themed cards from Becky Higgins. I really wanted to make sure the important parts on the card were highlighted so I outlined and circled some of the words. 


Snapped this one with my iphone on a bike ride with Noah. The stamp was a perfect embellishment to the photo. The stamp is from a SC kit.

I have been trying to say "Yes" more to the kids. 


When I first spotted this journaling card I knew exactly what I was going to use it for. It was going to be for something Harry Potter ish.  You can find the card set here.

I added the red banner from the newest SC kit just under the word magic. I also recolored the word magic to match my weeks color scheme.

The photo is of Katelyn and her handmade wand. You can't see it real well but this is what she wanted to do for her photo. The kids go around the house like this, shouting spells at one another.


So let's just say that this week had it's good moments and it's bad moments. As a parent I had to give out 2 hard, but needed lessons or reminders. This first card has this great triangle embellishment from Heidi Swapp.

And pardon my use of words, but sometimes you got to call it like it is.  Journaled a lot on the second card. The word true is from Heidi Swapp. I added the blue striped sticker to my journaling card before I printed it so that it would print right on the sticker, and then the card was ready for the last of the embellishments, the word true, and the others.



That's a wrap of week 4. 

I am needing to work on a design team assignment next and then I will be back to work on the rest of my week 4 ( my full page spread about Monster Trucks).  Also really wanting to take some time to work out another tutorial for you all. Stay tuned for that.  Lots of fun stuff happening around here.

How is everyone's albums coming along ? I hope that you are all having fun. Take care now.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Simple Stories and Petaloo Blog Hop



I am thrilled to be a part of a blog hop this week with Simple Stories and Petaloo. Check out all the fun details at Simple Stories and Petaloo. Tune in all week to both of them for some great inspiration and even some prizes !!

Here is what I created for the blog hop. I later threw in an insert, including a story about a lawn mower !! This was week 38 of 2013. Sept 16-22.

A look at both pages. I added the insert in on this photo.  I Simply put it on top of the right side(or the second page) of my layout. I have included a photo of the whole right side later on in the blog post.


 A look at the first page.


This picture was taken after we had planted some flowers in the front yard. Here is a closer look. I used some Simple Stories Homespun products. And the flowers from Petaloo.


 Maddie and her 4 missing teeth in the front. She had all 4 front ones gone all at the same time ! EEEK. Left a white border around the photo.


Noah and his Happy Meal Toy. The toy is all he cares about. I made a photo collage in photoshop, adding a circle to the middle. Making it just big enough to house my embellishment. Added some arrowed doodling to finish it off.


My journaling cards. The first one is from the new Sn@p cards. I cut the blue one down and adhered it to the yellow plaid card. Adding a sticker label from the new DIY line. On the bottom I took a thin piece of patterned paper and layered it under the blue paper for a great layered look. The photo is a close up of our flowers I had planted.


On the journaling card I added a sticker to the bottom to tie the 2 cards together. One the journaling card I added a blue Petaloo flower to add some dimension and texture. 

The last journaling card on this card is talking about Noah and his Happy Meal Toys. The Sn@p cards are really fun. Most of them already having some embellishments on them. This one had the hearts on the side. I added the Happy sticker and then stapled an extra heart on top of the red one for dimension.


Here is a look at the insert. I didn't take a photo of it seperately, so look closely. I had a few extra photos that I wanted to include from this week. I used a Simple Stories 6x8 Pocket Page. It was perfect for this little story I wanted to include. As always I added an Avery clear tab with the title inside.

The first journaling card has a photo of some of us going into Home Depot. Short story goes : Old lawn mower finally died. Decided to try to be like the "locals" and have very short grass. Like a golf course. The photo shown on the bottom is of Patrick mowing with the new lawn mower. Journaling reads something short of : Turns out we don't want to be like the locals. We returned the new lawn mower and bought a regular one. One that we can have longer grass. Turns out we didn't like the feeling of living on a golf course !


Here is the other side of the insert. Again, I put it on top of the first page for the photo.

The first card also has a photo of Noah in a big box. Well, after we got the second lawn mower back home and unboxed he thought he would turn it into his bed.  No joke. He hauled it all the way up to his bedroom, set it up with his 3 blankies, his clock, and his fluffy dog. He slept in it for the next 3 nights !!

Oh, the blue journaling card that is blue. It is from the Sn@p Cuts set. All the heart are cut out, I added some patterened paper that had the same size hearts on it to the back of the cut card. I doodled around some of the hearts for a fun and playful look. Lots of fun and possibility with those. Check them out ! I know all the new stuff that was introduced at CHA should be hitting stores fairly soon. 

The big photo is of Noah and Patrick mowing the lawn together.


Here is the second page of the regular spread.


Katelyn and her beloved Toothless (from How To Train Your Dragon) were united after a shopping trip to Target.


An instagram photo of Patrick and Noah. I added a cluster of Petaloo flowers around the fun arrow.


This is another Sn@p Cut piece. The word home was cut out and so I added some fun patterned paper to the back and left one of the letters white, cause I love white. It just pops. I added a sticker over the hear and a piece from the Homespun Bits and Pieces Set.  Fun and super easy.


One of my favorite things that Simple Stories came out with this CHA was the new Photo Overlays. I was in love and couldn't wait to play with them. This photo of Maddie and Noah walking their dogs was perfect for this overlay. And they are so easy to use, simply slip right in from of your photo in the page protector. Instant embellishment !!


Journaling cards. This first one is like a Polaroid frame. The second is one of me and Patrick's favorite songs. Found this online and printed out.


More journaling cards. This first one is one of my favorites. I added a photo to the bottom of the journaling card. Added one of the new Simple Stories Photo Overlays on top, along with some stick people stickers. The Petaloo ribbon along the top of the photo was perfect.


That is it folks for my contribution to the blog hop. Please remember to check out both Simple Stories and Petaloo all week for inspiration and a chance to win !!


Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Around here . . .



 (Noah and I out doing some furniture browsing, see below)    


Around here . . . 


Longing to wisk the family away for spring break.

Watching the 3rd season of Sherlock. Kids finished reading the 3rd Harry Potter book and started the movie last night !

Loving being creative. In both my scrap room and my home.

Planning a small Valentine's day. A very soon to be 9 year old' s birthday celebration. Meals. Certain crafty projects that I want to finish this year.  A soon to be 7 year old's birthday. A trip to see my brother and sister in law. Home Decor projects, rooms, ect. Lots of planning.

Eating cottage cheese and strawberry's and lots of salads. Trying to eat more healthy.

Moving more. Got our gym membership back. Zumba, spin classes here I come.

Trying to see the needs of others more. Things are running smoothly in our home for the time being. Least I think so, loving it.

Getting ready for a scrapbooking/project life night with some neighbors/friends at my house on Friday night. Some of them have scrapbooked before, some have not. Going to introduce them. Should be fun ! 

Listening to Spotify. Songs like Up All Night, Roar, the new one from my favorite country band, are some of the songs on repeat.

Going Through my scrap space slowly. Getting rid of a lot. Can we say Purge, Amen.

Shopping for a couch, accent chair for our front room/sitting room. No luck so far. Planning a trip to the LA area soon. The room is currently completely empty. Shopping for vintage map prints to go in my frames that are on the wall, currently have the same ballerina in them (she needs to be kicked out). Shopping for a Moroccan stencil for one of my walls upstairs. Lots of fun.



Sorry I have been MIA as of late.  As you can see I have been busy. I promise to be back very soon.

Until next time.