Spring Family Photo Shoot

Every Spring the Almond Groves around our neighborhood bloom like nobody's business.  It is so beautiful to watch.

These pages were part of this months Becky Higgins Creative Team Inspiration on her blog. 

Since moving to California I have taken the kids over several times to get photos in the orchards. This year I really wanted to get some family shots. It took three different tries on three separate days, some bribery, and some close weather watching but we made it happen.

Although the weather conditions were less than ideal, the lighting was bad, the clouds kept coming in and out, I am so happy with the photos that I was able to get. We even got rained out, leaving us less than 30 minutes in the orchards. Oh well. Here is to better planning next year.

This is the left side of my spread. I made a fun and simple title card. The card and the geotag are from the new Becky Higgins Embossed Value Kit.

Have you all noticed that gold is EVERYWHERE right now. I am usually not a huge gold fan but it's really growing on me. I sprinkled a little gold here and there throughout my pages.

The love you below the photo of all of us is actually a gold foiled photo overlay. There is also gold in the arrow that is on the journaling card.

I hate to admit this but these pages took me a little bit longer to put together than I would have liked. But I am totally not complaining. In the beginning I think I had too many photos. Since they all look alike, sort of anyways, with all the green and white from the trees. I decided that I need to break up the photos with something. I moved things around, added in some color, and even broke up the photos with some patterned paper. The end result is something that I am most proud of.

A little bit more gold on the photo overlay in the bottom left corner. Gotta love it baby !

This is the second page, or the right side. More fun photos and of course more gold.

Here is another example of breaking things up. First with the 4 small photos of Noah. I added them to a journaling card from the Jade Edition. Not sure why he looks like a white albino kid here in these photos but oh well. It was probably user error, as I am not a professional photographer ! I have to admit that I am still working on my photography skills. Just this past January I have been working with Manual mode and trying to figure all this stuff out.

Another example of trying something different. This big photo really breaks everything up and it turned out perfect.

Can I just say how hard gold is to photograph ! Yikes, forgive me folks. Also this whole spread was so tricky.

Anyways a few cute filler cards. The first one is from the new Embossed value kit. The second one is from the mix and match value kit. I just love that camera.

This is my journaling card that I told the whole story of how this event came about. For me this part of the story is just as important as the photos are. I used another gold photo overlay as a border around my journaling.

That is all I have to share with you today. Thanks for coming everyone !!

#myselfiescrapbook

Hello everyone !!

Recently I have embarked on a small project. Some of you may have heard about it, maybe through Instagram. It's called My Selfie Scrapbook. Or know as #myselfiescrapbook.

A few of my fellow Becky Higgins Project Life Creative Team members put together a class or a project all about YOU. I'm not going to go into all the details other than there are prompts from all of the contributors of the class, examples by a blog hop, and of course lots of examples and photos on instagram. Search for the hashtag #myselfiescrapbook.

Here are the links so you can check it all out and get all the details about this class.

You can find all the fun information on Jennifer Lakes blog.

Here is the introduction blog post.

I wanted to share my pages that I have completed so far.

For my album I chose this fabulous minty blue by We R Memory Keepers. It is a 4x4 size and it has been such a fun change.

Here is my title page. I used this brush from Ali Edwards. To embellish my page I doodled around the brush with my pen. I added some gold splatters for a fun look. My Story kit ( the magic one) from Ali Edwards had that amazing silkscreen and gold paint. So I thought I would put it to good use in this album.

To go along with my title page I wanted to journal about what this album was about and I also included some journaling about one of the photo prompts.

I used the "me" acrylic from one of the classes contributors. She makes fabulous products and her business is called Color Cast Designs. You should check her out !!

In my album I am going to be playing with these fun pocket pages that have 2x2 squares. The page on the right side has pictures of my hands. It was one of the photo prompts listed in the class.

Here is a close up. Underneath I used another Ali Edwards brush and you can find it below.

It's called Get Real Digital

One of the things I love about digital brushes is that you can customize them. In the past I have taken a single word from a digital brush and used it on a project. This time I took out the & sign from the original brush and replaced it the great script "and" word from the same brush set. I love to play around with these !!

More 2x2 pictures and 2 of the journaling cards about more of the photo prompts.

The other side is a photo of my favorite shirt. That was another photo prompt. I used a free template that is included as part of the class. You can find it here on the blog.

A few weeks ago I picked up some supplies for this album. I spotted some supplies from Heidi Swapp. I picked up both the clear pocket cards plus the foil pocket cards. I used one of the clear cards and cut it up to embellish in the corner.

One more photo prompt was called #fromwhereistand. Here are my pages using that photo prompt. You can find the #fromwhereistand brush for free on the blog post.

Here is a close up. I used the silkscreen again to put the word story on the bottom of my journaling card.

I did a few more pages to finish out all the journaling prompts. These ones are all about "my feet".

Here is a close up of the big page. I journaled on a tag and that was a fun thing to add. The word "hello" is also from Color Cast Designs.

To wrap up my blog post I have 2 more pages to finish out my journaling prompts up to this point. I have one that is all planned out and half done.

I plan on coming back and blogging more pages once I get some done. Yippeee.

I sure am loving this project. It has been a nice distraction from my regular Project Life pages.

I want to challenge everybody to make one of these albums. You owe it yourself. I feel like I am always the one behind the camera. It has been fun to be on the other side of the it.  I am looking forward to making more pages and taking some more fun pages in the coming month.

Project Life Week 5 | Simple Stories Fresh SN@P pack

I've got some more pages to share today !

I know right ?!! It has been a busy couple of weeks.

Today I am going to share week 5 of my Project Life album. These pages I did for the Simple Stories blog. So fun was the Fresh SN@P pack to play with.

The colors were fun and there are tons of fun cards.

Here are both pages together.

I left a lot of white with a pop of color here and there.

For the title card I started by cutting out the arrow from one of the journaling cards. I added the week stamp from Simple Stories, and printed out the date.  I finished off with some embellishments, including the clear white stickers that are so fun.

In the Fresh pack there are lots of fun bits and pieces to embellish with.

This card is one of my favorites. It is perfect for this week where I found Noah up on the porch column playing the ipad. And also two other family members playing on electronics together. I journaled about how we are a I family, for Iphone, ipad, ect.

I used some of the clear photo stickers, the black arrows on this card. I used one of the white ones down on the bottom with the rest of my embellishments. Recently I have been cutting things from the journaling cards and using them as embellishments. Like the heart on this one. It is a good way to get more out of your stash.

Here is a look at some more of the journaling cards and photos. The blue card tells the story of Noah and how he insisted on going to the park for lunch. As you can see, he won that battle.

The white card with the circles on it I used some of the circle pieces from the pack and put them all together to make a filler card. I finished it off with a little doodling and some enamel dots.

The last card on the right has a clear photo overlay that I used as part of my journaling card. It told the story of how Noah was student of the month.

I am so happy that my 2015 PL album is coming along so great.

Here is my to do list :

Finish up a few things in week 6
A Valentine's Day photo shoot
A beach trip
Week 11
Week 15
Another beach trip

Might sound daunting to some but I am excited to do those spreads !!

How is everyone else's PL albums coming ?

Have a wonderful day and see you next time.

More Spring Break/Easter of 2014

Happy Wednesday everyone !

I have been super busy in my scrap space lately. You should see it, it's a hot mess !! A true disaster. Although, it just means more memories + photos are being preserved.

I have some Easter/Spring Break pages to show you today. These ones I created for the NoelMignon.com blog. This month they have an amazing kit full of lots of fun spring/easter colors.
My pages were up on her blog on Tuesday.

You can check out all the details of the shop here and also find the blog.

Now lets get down to sharing. Yippee.

Just a reminder to everyone. Typically I do Project Life weekly. But sometimes I love to add in themed/event based pages to my album. That way I can get all of the fun photos in the album. Like the pages below.

I kinda have 2 different pages to show today.  During our trip we did lots of stuff but we had 2 major events that we did. The first one was this smaller first page. The shared the other side last week. 

Unfortunately I got sick last year and my father took the kids out for the day. I was so grateful and he did not mind at all. 

I made a journaling card by using some supplies found in the kit. This is something I love doing, it gives me a chance to play with all the fun stuff.

I added a few pictures on the bottom part of my page and then made a few filler cards.

Lets move on to the second page. This page is all about an Easter Celebration we went to with grandma and grandpa. 

This title card was fun to put together. I first doodled around some of the hearts and then added the embellishments on the bottom. Then I cut out those adorable mason jars and then added them to the corner of the journaling card.

Included in the kit were these awesome Jenni Bowlin rub ons. I made my own filler card around the fun gold rub on.

Lots of photos and journaling cards on the bottom. I love to use this pocket page protector if I have lots of pictures, I can fit a lot of stuff on one page. It is design F I believe. 

A few notes about these photos and cards. We had lots of fun at the Easter Celebration. The kids got their faces painted, the rode the ponies, had sack races, met the Easter Bunny, and of course had an Easter Egg Hunt. Lots of fun.

That is a wrap on our Easter/Spring Break from 2014.

Have a fabulous day everybody and I will be back tomorrow to share some Simple Stories pages !! Lots of exciting stuff happening around here.

Come listen to me on the Magic Memory Keepers Podcast

Hey ya'll !! (I was channeling my inner Southern gal right there just like Tracie) He He !

I am super excited to share this news and experience with you all today.

Let me rewind to a few weeks back. I was asked by the amazing, and funny Tracie Clairborne to be a guest on her Magic Memory Keepers podcast.

If you are not familiar with Tracie she is a host and co host of 2 different scrapbooking podcasts. I was truly humbled and blessed to be asked to join her as a guest. I was also kind of shocked that she wanted to talk to little old me ! LOL. But it sure was a lot of fun.

Oh and yeah, I just about fell off my chair when she said that I was one of her top 5 scrapbookers. Seriously, in shock !! So thank you Tracie for making my day, well my month or year !! Wowzers.

The one I want to talk to you about today about is called Magic Memory Keepers. It is all about Disney and scrapbooking. I have listened to all the episodes and have enjoyed them. Really great stuff, and it's about Disney. I am a very proud Disney lover and so is my entire family.

So now let's talk about the episode. So those who are close to me, know that I am kind of quiet and not really an outgoing person to those who I don't know. I wish I could say that public speaking is something that comes easy to me but it doesn't. So with that being said I was kind of nervous about the whole thing. Well, maybe a lot nervous !!

Before I go to far let me give you some links to the show and blog.

Here is the link to the Magic Memory Keepers blog :
 Magic Memory Keepers
Here is where you can find Episode 5 that I am on :
 Episode 5 of Magic Memory Keepers
Here is a link to her other podcast The Scrap Gals : 
The Scrap Gals

Ever since I have been on the show, well actually the weeks before, I have been obsessed with Disney. I went and tracked down my photos from our 2010 trip. Well, back then I thought that I was taking some great photos. And still thought they were good photos until I started looking through them. Wwwweeeelll. Most of them are blurry. Lets be honest, I think I have come a long way since then. But no fear I will scrap them. And it will be OK !! It's not the end of the world.

Here are some of my favorite shots from our trip in 2010. Some are ok, some are good.

Here is Noah sporting his first set of Mickey Ears.

Does anybody remember the HUGE letters outside of California Adventure ? They are not there anymore but they were sure fun to take photos in.

Maddie's heart broke after waiting in line to see her idol ( Sleeping Beauty) Only to miss her by a few people in line. But don't worry there is a happy ending to this story !

See - a happy ending the next day.

One of my favorites : Maddie with her Sleeping Beauty crown on. "Mommy, I'm really Sleeping Beauty now. Aren't I ?" That right there is the magic of Disney. Love it !

There have been lots of fun memories since then for sure.

I think I might do a My Favorite Memories from Disney blog post. Hmmmm, that would be fun.

I have been reminiscing with my hubby about our Disney trips and toying with the idea of going back. I even used the excuse : Well Anna, Elsa and even Olaf are there right now !! Ha Ha. He is only half buying my pleas. Because I know he secretly wants to back just as bad as I do.

Wow, look at me ramble off. Now if I only I could have done that on the show. Uhh !!

Well let me wrap up by saying go check out the podcast.

Thanks for coming everyone !

Project Life Week 10

I want to quickly share another PL spread with you today.

These pages are of Week 10. Lots of fun stuff this week.

This week was part of my Becky Higgins Project Life Design Team submission for the month of March. I truly love how this one turned out.

The title card was perfect and is from the Plus One kit by Amy Tangerine.

The left side of my spread is filled with yummy cupcakes from our favorite bakery, some Olaf crushing, and a lunch date with the hubby.

I used a combination of products this week. I mixed Heidi Swapp's Favorite things with Amy Tangerine's Plus One.

One other fun thing that I did this week was to cut some of the journaling card embellishments and add them to other journaling cards. You see the orange box that says #thisisnow, well I cut that out of a journaling card and added to the top of the ampersand card. It was super fun and added just that extra little bit.

Let's talk about the second page now. This one was mostly of Katelyn and I's trip down to see an Eye Dr. down at UCLA. I decided to put all the journaling on one page. I took one of the foldable cards and cut it in half to fit into the Design F page protector.

I took a favorite moment of the day and added the text in bold so that it would stand out.

More fun photos from our trip.

I cut out the Love You tag and added it onto this journaling card. Thought it turned out cute ! Definitely going to be doing more of this. On the card I included a quote from Noah from our bike ride.

The only other thing I included on the right side was a photo and two journaling cards about our family bike ride.

A picture I took of my bike while we were out. I sure love my bike !!

Week 10 was one of my favorites and I'm glad that I could share it with you today.  It was full of fun stories and memories.

Have a fabulous day !

Spring Ball | Project Life Style

Springtime is one of my favorites.

Blooming flowers, warmer temperatures, and I guess for now, it means Tball season. 

Let me start by saying that this spread was made for the Becky Higgins Creative Team. It was shown as part of the Creative Team blog post in March. If you haven't checked out all of the wonderful inspiration that the rest of the team has shared, you should. Im go lucky to be part of this amazing team. Here is a link to the Becky Higgins blog post.

The past 2 years my son has played Tball. I signed him up not knowing if he would like or want to continue. Well here we are going on our 3rd Season with practice starting next week. It's nothing strict or stressful which I like. 

I will probably look for a little league next Spring but for this year he will go through a local program here in town. 

I put together these pages for Noah's book. I wanted all his Tball pictures on one page. 

I stayed pretty simple for this spread so that the pictures could shine. 

To create these pages I used the Becky Higgins Baseball Themed Cards. I used a few wood veneers as embellishments on these pages. 

This photo was taken on the first day of practice and Noah loved to practice hitting the ball. 

This photo was taken during a game where one of the coaches was instructing was Noah what goes on out in the outfield. I added an overlay from Becky Higgins over the photo and slide them both into the pocket. (overlay not shown below)

I am a huge fan of Heidi Swapp and added one of her words to this journaling card. 

I added lots of journaling about this and that. It was fun to get it all written down and documented.

Noah was not really interested in if his team won their games, or how many points they scored, but boy was he proud to get his medal !! It was like he had won a race, his smile was amazing to see when they put it over his neck. I wished I had gotten a photo of that but oh well. We got some pics after we got home. 

We are all looking forward to another Tball season. Next year he will move up to something better ! Yeah !! 

Here's to some fun spring ball !