scrappy share

I created this layout that was inspired by this October Afternoon blogpost way back on Valentine's Day.  I changed it up a bit and kind of combined both of Nancy Holley's ideas into one layout.  This is one of my favorite photos of our family and I'd been wanting to scrap it for a while.  I tried to include some things that would identify our family with the numbers and letters. I loved being able to use my scraps and lately, I've been doing a lot more machine stitching on my layouts.  Might just have to get myself an assortment of thread colors... :)

stretch your sketch challenge

Here's my take on Donna Januzzi's July 4 sketch challenge over on the Ella Publishing Blog:

I like how it turned out and I especially loved that I was able to use the pretty October Afternoon and Cosmo Cricket papers since it was an Easter layout!  :)

scrappy share

Remember this post?

This is how I scrapped that story...

Supplies: Black & White dot pp, Fancy Pants Designs;
 Orange pp, Crate paper; Monkey pp, Daisy D's;

Journal tags, My Mind's Eye; Blue brads & Thickers, American Crafts;
Star brad, Joann Crafts; Ribbon, other

And since the story included anatomically correct
names, I decided to hide the journaling behind the
photo of Ryan's drawings.  I figured that not everyone
might appreciate the humor of the situation....haha!

scrappy share

This layout makes me laugh every time I see it.  The photos were taken when we took the boys to see Toy Story 1 & 2 in 3D.  This was Nathan's first movie theater movie and everyone did awesome considering it was a double feature!  The 3D glasses were humongous!  Even on me....you'd think they'd have different sizes, or at least an adult size and a child size.  Poor kids had a hard time keeping them on their little noses.

Anyway, I used a Martha Stewart edge punch that I got on clearance.  I love the tiny holes it punches along the border.  

Supplies: Green and blue pp, October Afternoon; Striped pp, Scenic Route; Sunglass diecut, Cosmo Cricket;

Thickers, American Crafts; Journaling spots, Jillibean Soup

scrappy share

Two of my favorite Nathan layouts...

Supplies: Green pp, Scenic Route; Diecut paper, JB Studio;

Ribbon & Thickers, American Crafts; Rub-ons, Little Yellow Bicycle

Supplies: Blue pp, October Afternoon; Letter diecut, KI Memories;

 Orange pp, Making Memories;Looped pp, Imaginisce; Lined pp, Foof-a-la;

 Owl & other diecut, My Mind's Eye; Thickers, American Crafts





scrappy share

I haven't shared any scrapbook pages recently, so I went hunting through my photo folder and found this very appropriate layout that I created using a Creating Keepsakes sketch.  I did submit this, but never heard anything.  Don't know what that magazine is looking for....in fact, I've been pretty disappointed with its contents lately.  Any other CK readers out there who think the same??

Anyway, this layout features various photos taken during each of the 3 huge snowstorms we had last season.  Since we're snowed in for the second day in a row with a good 12-18" on the ground, I thought this was very relevant.

 If you click on the image, you should be able to view it larger. 

Supplies: Black & White dot paper, Scenic Route; Turquoise pp, October Afternoon;

Red & Turquoise dot paper, Imaginisce; Graph pp, October Afternoon; Trees, Basic Grey;

"Remember When" Cosmo Cricket; Stickers, October Afternoon, Scenic Route, Joann Crafts;

Felt Snowflake, Target $1 Spot; Dot letters, Making Memories;

Thickers, American Crafts; Ribbon, Cosmo Cricket

And a close-up of the journaling...

happy birthday to me...

I can't wait to dig into these new papers! My mom gave me $20 'pin' money to spend on myself last weekend and I took it upon myself to order my very first order from Studio Calico.

SO exciting!! Thanks, MOM!!

BTW, anyone know what 'pin' money is?? I'll have to post the definition another time...

two of my favorite things....

READING & SCRAPBOOKING

The big boys have a reading program at their schools called "The 100 Book Challenge." They bring home books at their independent reading levels every night and are supposed to read "steps." A step = 15 minutes of reading ~ Evan has to read 2 steps/night and Ryan has to read 1 step/night. For every 100 steps of reading, they receive a medal and bragging rights. Last year was the first year of the program and Evan read over 400 steps, which is the equivalent of over 100 hours of reading! Isn't that awesome!?! This program is very motivating for kids ~ as a reading teacher and mom, I LOVE it!

Anyway, Nathan is so darn cute. He wants to read Ryan's books every night, too. Not have them read to him, but read them. Ryan's books typically follow a predictable pattern or repeat a phrase over and over again, so they are easy to pick up. Nathan will listen to one of us read it once through and then, he'll take the book and "read" it, too. Love that he's doing this, but then again, he's always loved books.....

Write.Click.Scrapbook recently did a whole week's worth of inspiring ideas for scrapbooking about books and reading. It made me think of these two layouts I'd done about Nathan and his love of books...

Green patterned paper, Scenic Route; Diecut paper, Jenny Bowlin Studios;

Ribbon & Thickers, American Crafts; Rub-ons, Little Yellow Bicycle

Supplies: Patterned papers, October Afternoon, MME, imaginisce, foofala;

Letter diecut, KI Memories; Owl & other diecut shape, MME;

Thickers, American Crafts.

scrappy share

Supplies: Patterned paper, October Afternoon and Cosmo Cricket;

Paper edgers, Colorbok; Chipboard button, Scenic Route;

Thickers, American Crafts.

I LOVE this layout of Evan! It captures his funny personality and humor so well. The photo was taken when he was only three and I scrapped it a while ago, but I still like it.

wordless wednesday

or maybe not so much....

Have you seen this challenge on Ella?

8 scrapbooking products, 4 layouts

Think you can do it?

I'm going to try...

scrappy share

Supplies: Rust cardstock, Wasau Paper Co.; Green patterned

paper, Cosmo Cricket; Lined paper, Making Memories;

Red letter stickers, Cloud 9 Designs;Apple diecut, Target;

Red "D" diecut, K & Co.; Yellow thickers, American Crafts;

Small white letter stickers, Making Memories.

I made this layout a while ago, but I thought it was very appropriate since we are quickly approaching the first day of school for 3/5 of us starting Monday! I will be back in my position as a 3rd and 4th grade reading specialist, Evan will be starting 2nd(!) grade, and my Ryan will be a kindergartner(!).

I look at these photos of Evan's first day of kindergarten and it seems like it was yesterday. And it was two years ago!!!!!

So much has changed since then...

And, yes, that is a photo of Mark in the boys' wagon ~ hahaha!

photos

I have a confession to make.

It has been one whole year since I last ordered digital prints.

Yes, a whole year.

I don't know exactly why this happened, but if I think about it long enough I could probably come up with a few reasons.....

Anyway....so I had some, okay, a TON, of uploading to do ~ nope, hadn't been keeping up with that either. I was backlogged to last December. It took me all. week. long. to upload the photos from my hard drive. I literally would open an album on Snapfish, open a month on my hard drive, highlight the pics and leave my computer for a few hours. Don't know why, but their "Fast Upload" wasn't fast enough for me. Anyone else have this problem? I don't know if it was the sheer amount of pics I was trying to upload at once or the quality of them or my hard drive or what.....

I digress....

Currently, there are almost 700 [yes, I said 700] pics being processed out in CA and will be delivered to my door in a few days. LOVE how quickly I get my orders from Snapfish!! The best part about it is that it only cost me about $100 altogether ~ that's less than 7 cents/print! Not bad for all those pics and that includes about 30 5x7 prints, too. I do the prepaid prints and then I found a code for FREE shipping online that actually worked! I saved $25 on shipping ~ yahoo! :)

I cannot wait to start scrapping the last year ~ another reason to love blogging ~ helps me keep track of all the fun stuff I want to scrap. Who wants to scrap???????

P.S. To those of you who left me a comment on my last post ~ love you! You made my week :)

scrappy share

Supplies: Green patterned paper, Fancy Pants Designs;

Yellow patterned paper, Scenic Route; Journal card, Scenic Route;

Sun/cloud cut-out, Cosmo Cricket; Number diecut paper, KI Memories;

Orange Thickers, American Crafts; White letter stickers,

Making Memories; Metal letters, Joann Crafts.

I love the KI Memories lace cardstock and as you can see, I've had this FOREVER(!) because I've never quite known what to do with it. I have about 5 or 6 different sheets of it that has been sitting for a while now due to operator confusion ~ haha! It's so neat I wish I knew how to use it!!

I think one of the issues I have is that I often use patterned paper in the background and there's only certain papers with which the lace will actually work well. Any scrapbookers out there who have any tips for using this? I'd love to see what you do with it....

chores, chores, chores

For the past few weeks, Evan has been begging us relentlessly to give him an allowance. And being the good parents that we are, we're going to make him work for it ~ hee, hee!

Hence, the traditional chore chart. I actually started this project for Evan a few years ago and never finished it because I was afraid to draw the pictures for the chores. Well, I dove in headfirst Tuesday and sketched them out in pencil first and then once I was satisfied, I went over them with a gray marker.

The base of this is a square magnetic board that I bought at Walmart for about $7. The star magnets are wooden stars that we painted (yes, Ryan 'helped' me) and then glued button magnets on the backside. The alien stickers I had purchased on the clearance rack for a $1 at Michael's way back ~ they are SandyLion brand ~ isn't that alien just the cutest??


Here's the chart before the chores are finished:




And as he finishes each chore, he moves the stars to cover them. Here's an after shot:




And here's a close-up of one of his chores.

Supplies: Magnet board, Walmart; Gray pp, Unknown; Green pp, Scenic Route;

Paper rocket ship, Basic Grey; Ribbon, Cosmo Cricket; White letter stickers, American Crafts;

Metal letters, We R Memory Keepers; Mini blue letter stickers, Making Memories:

Alien stickers, SandyLion; Wood stars, paint, and magnets, Other.

Each chore must be completed everyday, with the exception of wiping down the bathroom and taking out the trash ~ those are once a week jobs. If Evan works hard, he can earn a whopping $2 a week! Multiply that by 52 weeks and he'll earn over $100 in a year! Not bad for a 7 year old!

I'll keep you posted on how this goes...

memories

Supplies: Patterned paper, Making Memories; Red cardstock, Bazzill;

Blue letters handcut, DCWV; Embroidery Thread; Buttons

Supplies: All, Colorbok kit

Supplies: Green dot, My Mind's Eye; Tan patterned paper, Crate Paper;

Plaid & Turquoise patterned paper, My Mind's Eye;

Acrylic & Metal letters, Joann Crafts; Embroidery thread

Supplies: Red dot and bottom strips, Cosmo Cricket; Dot strips, My Mind's Eye;

Blue Strip, Wasau Paper; Red Ledger patterned paper, Scenic Route; Arrow, American Crafts;

Brown scallop circle, Bazzill; Dot cards, American Crafts packaging;

Quote, tag from Levi jeans; Letters, Heidi Swapp

Supplies: Patterned paper, October Afternoon; Thickers and Flair, American Crafts



Supplies: Patterned paper, Fancy Pants Designs; Green cardstock, DCWV;
Thickers, American Crafts; White letter stickers, Making Memories


Supplies: Red patterned paper, Cosmo Cricket; Star patterned paper & letters, Scenic Route
Journaling tag stickers, Memory Boutique

Supplies: Blue dot paper, Little Yellow Bicycle; Grid paper, Cosmo Cricket; Journal strip, Scenic Route; Green dot strip, Making Memories; Green dot arrow, We R Memory Keepers; Yellow cardstock for arrow, Wasau Paper; Letters: Heidi Swapp; Definition, Joann Crafts; Buttons

Since Ryan will be celebrating his birthday this week, I only thought it would be appropriate to share some of my favorite scrapbook pages I've done about him. He makes quite the subject and the stories behind his antics make for great journaling opportunities.

Love you, Ryan! You keep me on my toes! :)

scrappy share

Supplies: Cardstock, Bazzill; Patterned paper, Scenic Route, American Crafts, We R Memory Keepers, My Minds Eye, The Paper Loft; Saying, Cosmo Cricket; Letters and Rub-on stars, American Crafts; Bingo Card pkg, JBS.

I know you're thinking....2 in one week??!? Hahaha!

Let's just say, I've got a back load of layouts to post here and I'm trying to catch up :) I had all these photos of Nathan ~ he's such a happy kid. I was inspired by a post on the Ella blog back in April ~ yes, it's been that long ago that I made this, but that's o.k. :)

scrappy share

Supplies: red cardstock, Wasau Paper; patterned paper, Jenni Bowlin and Target $1 spot; journaling spots, Jillibean Soup; metal letters, We R Memory Keepers and Joann Crafts; blue letters, Joann Crafts; star brads, Joann Crafts

These photos are from 4th of July a few years back but I don't think I ever posted this double-page layout I made. We went to a local fireworks show with our friends who also have boys. We had a lot of fun.

Zonked

I completed this page a while ago, but never posted it here. I love this shot of Ryan and the journaling of all the actual ridiculous things he got into this day when he was only 3.

Now, in less than 2 months, my Ryan will be 5(!) and going to kindergarten in the fall!!!!

Where does the time go??

Ella Sketch Layout

Just completed a layout based on a sketch over at Ella Publishing Blog. It's a 2 page 12 x 12 sketch and I really like how it turned out. Frustrated with figuring out how to scan both pages and then fit them together to make a 2 page spread. Not entirely happy with the way this scan turned out because it doesn't show the true color or depth of the layout. Oh, well....someday I'll have PS to stitch my scans! :)

Little Bit of Sunshine

Here's a layout I recently did to submit to a summery sketch call for Creating Keepsakes magazine. Unfortunately, I missed the deadline to submit, but I'm still happy with the results. It's helping to remind me that summer isn't too far off, even if we are being buried in 2 feet of snow this weekend! Hopefully, I'll have even more time to scrapbook since we'll be snowed in! I've found lots of great sketches on the Ella blog and the Cosmo Cricket blog lately that I want to try out...

Supplies: Dot patterned paper, We R Memory Keepers; Striped & Blue patterned paper & cut-out sun, Cosmo Cricket;

Lined paper, Memory Makers; Stickers, October Afternoon; Letter stickers, American Crafts; Other, embroidery thread

Here's a close-up of the stitching on the sunshine...