Enjoy the View :)

Scrappin' some of my Hawaii layouts today. This picture is probably one of my favorites from our trip, me and my grandmother.

The quote and journaling explain how there is so much to see and so much to do when you go on vacation, but it's important to stop and actually enjoy it :)

For the second page, I used this week's sketch at Sketchy Thursdays.

My grandmother and an old school instant film camera that took panoramic photos - so neat to have these in my scrapbook. So I substituted the 3 smaller pics for 1 longer one.

*sigh* isn't it breathtaking?

Here is how they look in the album.

Thanks for looking!

Scrap That Poetry!

It feels good to be scrappin' again after 3 days of not being able to sit at my desk. Why? Because this innocent little face decided to race me down the stairs on Wednesday morning. I won, at the expense of a broken foot in 2 places. I went to step over him and missed the following step, planting down hard 3 steps down.

Luckily, it wasn't as bad as they originally thought and I am in a walking shoe and using crutches for the next 4 weeks or so. While couch bound with my foot elevated the last 72 hours, I was able to surf my favorite blogs and plan out a few layouts.

After having fun with the Scrap That Poetry! blog hop, I used their current Challenge #8 poem - Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening by Robert Frost. I played with my new SEI Winter Song kit. I love the glittery patterned papers. All of the red accents (including alphas) are felt! So pretty.

The black frame is cut from the Winter Bliss collection at SVGcuts.com. I highly recommend their products if you are using Sure Cuts A Lot!

I used part of the negative that cut from the frame on the bottom of the following page. The border on the right is raised in felt, too. I'm not diggin' the rub ons, but I was committed when I started putting them on. Maybe not great to use on black? I don't use rub ons very often so if you have any tips and tricks, I would love to hear.

Here is how they look together.

Favor Box .SVG

I found these super cute favor boxes designed by Helen Croft on Scrap A Little. Aren't they cute?

I might make these for my students for Valentine's Day with little candies. But it would be a lot of work to trace and cut out 23. So I made a .svg file from Helen's template (below) for Sure Cuts A Lot so I can cut them out on my Cricut.

You can download the cut file here. See the full tutorial here.

I can see many uses for these!

My PUPsicle :)

Playing along with Workout #12 at Scrapfit. We were "weight lifting" a layout from a previous workout by a design team member. I choose Aymee's fabulous layout from November.

I love this picture of Jax eating snow from January 2009. I was originally going to do a typical white/blue snowly layout, but then I found Making Memories Fa La La La paper in my stash. I think the browns and greens are so pretty. The green glitter embellishment is actually an ornament that I picked up at Michaels, there were several styles in different colors and I loved them. At 90% off all Christmas merchandise, I knew I could use it for something. It matches the green perfectly!

I think the title "pupsicle" instead of "popsicle" is funny, it was so cold and when he came back inside he went right to the fire to warm up.

Thanks for looking!

Lovebirds

I love all the new products coming out! One of my favorites is the "Love Me Do" collection by My Minds Eye.

This is my hubby and I leaving for our honeymoon destination the morning following our wedding. We took pictures at the airport and on the plane. The cloud paper and little lovebirds were perfect for scrapping them.

Key to My Heart

A sappy Valentine's card today :) Brainstorming my next layout - I decided to work on a card for 3 different challenges. It's pink and grey for Cute Card Thursday. Love this color combo! I used the card sketch from Sketchy Thursdays, particularly inspired by Tessa's awesome DT work. Then, I used the card challenge from Abby, using ribbon, polkadots, and 2 brads/buttons. Put all that together and what did I get?

I made the key in SCAL 2, using the shapes feature I blacked out the key and added in a heart instead. Very quick and easy! There are lots of shapes I forget about being on the new version.

Love is patient, Love is kind.

I used this fabulous sketch from the Scraproom blog to work on a wedding layout yesterday.

The dark brown flowers on the base cardstock are raised and textured by "My Minds Eye". I used my cricut to cut out the large circle at 10 1/2 inches (outer ring) and 10 inches (inner ring).

The lace I found at Joann fabrics and love how it ties in the wedding dress with the browns throughout the album. The "is love" are foam thickers. I'm addicted to thickers! :)

Softball

While I watch my Cowboys take a beating in Minnesota, praying for a miracle win LOL, I am scrapbooking some of my hubby's softball pictures. He played first base.

For the second page "all star", I used one of Pam's templates.

Here is how they look together. I found the softball paper at my LSS and pieced different parts together because both the blue sheet and green sheet were double sided.

Thanks for looking!

Say Yes To The Dress

I printed off pictures today especially for this sketch challenge from Let's Scrap! I used the "wallets" feature to make my photos at the bottom proportionate. I mixed it up and put my title on the left side of the page (where the 2 smaller photos are) and my journaling on the right side of the page (in addition to 2 cropped pictures).

I decided to scrapbook my fun day of trying on dresses, in search of the perfect wedding dress. The "list journaling" challenge at Scrappin-N-Chattin was perfect for this because I numbered my favorites and told a little about each one.

I used DCWV Sweet Stack for the background, cutting 2 1/2 inches from the bottom and flipping it so that the white scallop lace was facing down instead of up. The journaling on the next page says "3 generations. 2 hour appointment. 1 wedding dress." That is my grandma and mom with me.

I'm so glad my Mom took TONS of pictures that day. Here I am looking in the mirror after trying on "the one". And my smiling, yet panicked face, as I paid for the first wedding expense. Click on the photo to enlarge, if you are interested in the journaling.

Here is how they look together. I used pink vinyl thickers for the numbers at the bottom and my Cricut/SCAL for the title (inspired by the TLC show).

So here is my dilemma~ does this layout go in the wedding scrapbook, regular chronological scrapbook (mixed in with our spring layouts because that is when I bought it), or do I do a separate album of wedding "prep" stuff and other things I want to save about our day that wouldn't go in the actual wedding album? Any thoughts/advice? :)

Blog Candy

Donna is giving away this great kit from Dixie Pieces!

Spaghetti Dinner

For the cooking challenge at Scrappin-N-Chattin, I decided to use this cute 2 page sketch from Let's Scrap. I modified the first page to fit my 2 vertical pics.

My whole Mom's side of the family rented a house in Nags Head, N.C. this past summer. Each family took a night making dinner for everyone (on nights we didn't eat out). Dave and I prepared his take on spaghetti - with a fabulous sauce - for everyone. The double sided patterned paper I picked up at the LSS down there. I had to get creative in piecing it together. I wanted the "kiss the cook" and "cook with passion" to frame the main pic of us in the kitchen.

As you can see, my hubby is very camera shy. LOL. I'm glad he doesn't mind being his normal fun-loving self in front of the camera. I paper pieced this apron using my Sure Cuts A Lot program. It holds hidden journaling.

Here is how they look together... I'm enjoying letting go of scrapbooking chronologically and choosing pics that fit my creativity at the moment. I'm getting more done and better results I think!

My new niece :)

When Abby announced the "pastels only" challenge at Scrappin-N-Chattin, I knew I was going to do a layout of my beautiful nieces and ultimately decided to tackle our youngest niece's arrival in April 2008. I have tons of cute pics from the hospital, so I chose this 2 page sketch from Page Maps featured on this new challenge blog.

Using the DCWV Nursery Stack patterned papers, rubbons, and a blingy title from my local scrapbook store, I made this this side...

and this side...

Here is how they look together. Which is a lot straighter in real life I swear ;)

Thanks for looking!

Coming Home

2 layouts in 2 school nights! This year is off to a crafty start :) I used Abby's awesome sketch.

I have been "saving" this cute paper for a while and decided this was the perfect picture to use it on. I am enjoying using up my HUGE collection of alpha stickers with mixed font titles.

Aren't they cute?! ;)

Its A Wonderful Life

I discovered another cool challenge blog this weekend. Love this slogan!

The "workout" for week 11 was to use the phrase "It's A Wonderful Life" somewhere on your layout and also use stitching.

I decided to do a holiday layout, hence the movie. A trick about the title, I used a piece of shaped paper [Bo Bunny Chorus], traced it on my green cardstock, overlapping it where I wanted it. I cut it out and stitched in red around the outside.

I designed the title on Sure Cuts A Lot and cut with my cricut on white cardstock. I used Making Memories Fa La La clear stamps for the snowflake, stamped and embossed in white for the dot of the i's to coordinate with the cool background paper. I embellished the center with a small red bling.

I really like how it turned out. First time in a while I did a layout on a whim without a sketch or something planned out.