Photos + Stories

It was fun doing a page where both Leah and I are about the same age! I love the stories documented. That's what I like focusing on anyway - the stories and the pictures. Sometimes I struggle trying to find the right elements to compliment them, but it's all a learning process and I try to enjoy that journey. I truly enjoy scrapbooking and getting out pictures and stories in a book. Not too many made up words make it in the stories of "days gone by", so I'm more than happy to tell our stories of goofy words!

A Few More

Here are a few more pages for the project I'm working on.

3 Pages

Lately I've been working on a family project and these three pages are part of it. This was my second attempt with these pictures. I had previously posted a page using these pictures but never like it. So I changed it and came up with this.

Because of the project, a lot of pictures are used for each page so it's been a little bit of a challenge trying to find or come up with layouts that best display the pictures.

Playlist Info

I just wanted to give a little info for those of you who have a Playlist on your blog. If you add the gadget to your right side bar, it will cut off half of the view of the playlist making you and your visitors unable to scroll through songs or put your playlist on a shuffle. If you put your playlist gadget at the bottom of your layout, it will be full size, allowing you and your visitors to see the artists and scroll through your music, etc. I just thought I would pass this along!

Cookies in a Jar

This is a fun gift idea for Christmastime or anytime. I made these for a bridal shower but thought I would share the idea with you too. There are quite a few recipes and depending on how you layer the ingredients, it looks pretty! I made oatmeal chip cookies and used chocolate and butterscotch chips. My mom likes mixing chocolate chips and M&M's because of the pretty colors from the M&M's. I also made the molasses mix. This one is pretty white because it's flour, white sugar and spices. I mixed the spices in with the sugar, but now that I'm thinking of it, there might be enough spices to have them be their own thin layer to add a little more visual interest. We just used regular Mason jars, put the fabric over the lids, put a rubber band over the fabric to keep it in place and then tied the ribbon around. I printed out the wet ingredient tags and cut them out. You could use any kind of fabric depending on the season. It's a fun idea for your mail carrier, extended family, etc. You can find recipes online or I can give you the two that I have.

Finally

I had tried working with these picture numerous times and nothing was coming. I do not like scrappers block! It's really weird not journaling. I also have a hard time trying to find good sayings or quotes. This page is for April for my family's calendar.

Last Three Days

Day 7

Day 6

Day 5

Free Font Friday

Creating Keepsakes offers a free font every Friday and I thought I would share some of those links with you. They are all true type fonts, so you won't have to do an unzipping! That's always a plus!

CK Acedemia

CK Bella

CK Chemistry

CK Rough Script

CK Constitution

CK Cursive

CK Wistful

CK Handprint

CK Stenography

CK Serendipity

CK Leisurely

CK Postcard

CK Mapped Out

Day 4

Day 4

Next Two Days

Day 3: for the top right corner, I didn't purposely crop Titus out. The lady that took the pic did that for me. :-/

Day 2: I really like all of the colors on this page.

Day 1

Yesterday was my first day of beginning another "Week in My Life" project. These are the pictures and stories.

Memories

I think the journaling speaks for itself. I rarely do a page with one picture and wanted this picture to be the focus. As always, it's simple, but I think I like it.

Free CK Allison Font

One more font to tell you about! In the October CK magazine, there is a link for the "CK Allison" font. I don't know how long it will be around, but here is the link for you. I grabbed it a while back, but in case you haven't, here it is!

ALERT! Free Handwriting Fonts

Good Afternoon! We're up north visiting my in-laws and while I was blog hopping, I found a site with some FUN - oh yeah... FREE - handwriting fonts! As a way for me to remember this site, I thought I'd share it with you and then when I get home, I can download these fonts for me! I hope these fonts will find their way onto your computer too!

Wonderful Life

I'm starting to work on a family project. This page was my first for the project, but not in order of display. I got this layout idea from Ali Edwards in the October CK magazine on page 65.

Geese

Although the picture layout is simple, I found it on page 56 of the October CK magazine and just flipped it.

Long Time No Post

Due to moving and all the buying a new house entails, I haven't been scrapping much lately. The first two pages were mainly designed before our move and edited after our move. This page is of Leah's first birthday. I already made two pages of this birthday, but never liked them. So thanks to digital scrapbooking, I changed it all up! I'm glad I did. I like the colors better and not having so many pictures. I wanted to capture what happened that day, but not be on some crazy overload of pictures. Not to mention, I was still new to digital "back then". I may add something more later concerning baby milestones.

Simple page. I know that I like simple, but I hate feeling like there is something missing. Until I find that "something", here what I've got so far!

Very Soon

We have now stayed three nights in our new house and we're loving it! We don't have the internet there yet and have to wait probably another week due to the fact that the company is swapped with business. I did hook up my computer last night and open Elements! And I forgot that I started two pages before our move. I was really happy to see them!! One page is pretty much done, just never posted. The other page needs journaling and a few more final touches. I'm excited to have Photoshop back and to get in some scrapping during moments I don't feel like cleaning and painting! So hopefully I can get more pages done before we get the internet so that I'll have a nice bunch to post. Oh how I've missed scrapbooking!!!

Butterflies

Friday Pages

Tracks

I wanted to use a good amount of pictures for this page, but did just want to throw the pictures on it because I love these pictures! I saw at layout in CK's June issue (page 26) and thought I would try it with these pictures. I really like how it turned out!

Spring

Rockford

I had tried scrapping these pictures the other day, but with the vertical one of Titus, I was troubled in finding a good layout. Strange, I know. So I saw this picture layout in a magazine and thought that it would work perfect. I also have been thinking about the new calendar grid that I downloaded (www.creatingkeepsakes.com/CT3) and thought it might be fun putting the pictures on the actual calendar. I just had to move the dates around to match the dates in March. I think I like how it all looks. Oh and I saw Jessica and Christina use flourishes that were outlined. I haven't asked if they used a stroke on them, but that's what I tried here and it seemed to work well.

Butterflies

Do you ever get butterflies? Butterflies over creating and scrapbooking? I would have to believe that I'm not the only one. Today I was looking through my new "Computer Tricks for Scrapbookers 3" that I won for a page I posted. While browsing, I was getting ideas, wanting to try new things and just HAPPY that I scrapbook - then the butterflies started. It's weird. I can't explain it. Maybe it's all those creative juices coming together. Lately I've been thinking about how thankful I am that I scrapbook. Yesterday someone said that it was really great that I scrapbook. It is really great. I know that I cherish pictures from when I was little. I already cherish pictures that I've taken of our family. And I have to believe that my children will cherish the pictures taken and STORIES that go along with the pictures.

Now mind you, the butterflies were fluttering and I thought, "I'm going to blog this". While blogging a few other things first, my 3.5-year-old son came in my room with his pants off showing me that he peed. I don't know what was going through his head at the time (since he's been potty trained over a year), but he showed me what happened. This is also amidst random bickering between my two kids. Although I'm still excited about scrapbooking, the butterfly wings slowed in their fluttering. Such is life as a mom. I know the butterflies will come back - probably around nap time!

Old Photos, Wonderful Memories

While at my parents this past weekend, I decided to go through some old photos, bring them back and scan them so that I can scrap them with my own stories and memories. There are a lot and I won't blog them all, but I wanted to give a little sample of some of my favorites (a LOT more are on my Facebook).

Decorating Christmas cookies was a family tradition that started young and one that I carry on with my family. I think my mom is just gorgeous in this picture!

My grandpa was my favorite person. I love this picture of him and I. He died when I was 11, but I have some amazing memories of him. It still makes me cry when I think of him being gone (and as I type this), but the warmth of his love and sweet memories I'll always have are deep within my heart.

This was me at my second birthday. I was happily surprised at how I can see Leah in myself. I plan to use a picture from this day on her 2 year birthday page!

Even though I was young, I remember this skirt being one of my favorites. Don't you just love that expression!?