Port Huron

I am happy to be part of Christina Smith's creative team in which I get to use her products as a way to advertise for her digital scrapbooking store at Little Dreamer. For these two pages, I used her Beach Bliss Kit.

I tried scrapping these pictures last week, but it just wasn't coming together. Today I was flipping through a 2008 Creative Keepsakes magazine to try to get some idea for all the pictures I want to use. Despite how easy these layouts are, I did get the layout from the CK magazine. When I first scrapped with these pictures, I had 2x2 squares and it just wasn't working or looking good. This time I did 2x3 rectangles and I like it tons better. After all, most of my pictures were vertical. It's funny that I needed inspiration for that idea, but hey, I'll take it where I can get it! :)

Smith Reunion

Look at me doing all of this scrapping out of order! ;) Some of the recent things we've done I have *really* been wanting to scrap and so I have! Originally, I was only going to do a two page spread, but I had too many pictures I wanted to use, lots of journals, and a poem. I finally decided I would need three pages in order to fit everything nicely. Even though I have three pages of pictures, there are still pictures I wish I would have taken of people that were there. I will have to try better next time, but for now, I think I've captured a lot from that really fun weekend!

The flowers, rhinestones and flourish (pg. 2) are from the Travel Along Kit by Christina Smith. I just love those flowers! I used flowers like that when I scrapped traditionally and, again, I love being able to use them digitally!

I wanted to keep things fairly simple and pretty much the same elements on each page so that the focus is on the pictures and journals.

7 Years

I created this page using the Love Hearts Kit and Love Hearts Quotes by Greener Grass Designs.

It's 12:34am (I love it when the numbers go together...1,2,3,4, haha)! I am rarely on the computer this "late" and even more rarely am I scrapping at this time. However, I really wanted to scrap these pictures and my husband was watching a movie I didn't really want to watch. So really, the timing was perfect. I had my headphones plugged in and was listening to music the whole time. I really enjoyed it!

Pedal It

For this page, I used two kits by Greener Grass Designs: Summertime (papers, bike, clouds) and Love Hearts (bubble wrap and staples). When I used to scrap traditionally, I really liked using bubble wrap and paint so I'm super happy to be able to still use it while creating with digital supplies!

Flower Pom Poms

I have had a few people ask me how I made the pom poms that we used to Leah's birthday that are now in her room. This only shows five, but there are actually 10 hanging in there! I know it's not the best picture, but it at least shows some hanging.

I found this link on Martha Stewart's website and followed that. I also found another site at the time but now I can't find it. In this picture, the turquoise and purple flowers have pointed ends and the white and green have rounded ends. I totally forgot to do anything with the ends on that one pink flower and if you click the picture to view closer, you'll notice it doesn't look as pretty as the others. So always make sure you trim your ends!

Etsy has a few vendors who sell these pom poms and offer a LOT of really pretty colors. It was tempting not to order them only because there were so many colors to choose from compared to any store around here.

Here are a few tips from what I learned while making them:

• It says to use craft tissue paper because it's heavier. No need. I bought the regular Meijer tissue paper for gifts. They have some real pretty colors - like the turquoise, lime green, purple and pinks.
• It says to use 8 sheets of tissue paper per flower. I used 10 - the whole pack from Meijer. It made them more full and I really believe it was needed.
• Make sure you do something to the ends. You will either want to make the ends pointed or rounded. I think rounded is my favorite even though the pointed are cool. It seems like the pointed ends like to not stay straight, so that's the only reason. I did both rounded and pointed so they wouldn't all be the same. The rounded ends just look more clean.
• A whole pack of tissue paper makes one big flower. You can cut the whole pack in half lengthwise (once opened) to make two smaller ones. It's nice having the two different sizes.
• I bought really thin silver floral wire. You need that for securing the center and having something to tie the monofilament to - like the directions say.
• You'll want monofilament or something along the lines of fishing line for hanging because it makes it less visible and gives the "floating" effect.
• I used clear push pins for hanging them on the ceiling and they stay just fine.

Getting Caught Up

I'm slowing starting to get back on track and get caught up on my pictures/pages. Although I have done a handful of pages that are more recent, I left off mid-June 2009. That really makes me feel behind, but life has been busy. My week days are becoming more normal which is why I've been able to make some pages. We've got a busy few weekends ahead of us, but I still plan on using "nap time" to keep documenting our family's lives.


Some things were on my mind and heart and this page is a result of that.

Remember I said that I had one more page to do of Leah's second birthday? Well, I finally got it done today! Thankfully, it turned out a lot different than when I first started working on it! It feels really good to have her birthdays up until this year done! And I just may start working on the pages of her last birthday. I was looking at these pictures and pictures from this summer and noticing how much Leah has changed over the past year. It's insane! She's such a little beauty!

My Kids

These pictures were taken today as well as scrapped today. Yay! I love all of the bright colors! Most of the papers, the flowers and green journal card are from Greener Grass Designs. These pages were fun to create and didn't take much time. I love when that happens!


I love the orange and green together!

The bigger picture is just too funny!

The journal circle had journal lines in it, but it wasn't working well for me. So I used the eye dropper tool to match the white/cream background and then used the brush tool to cover over the lines. It worked great!

2009 Parade

My friend, Christina, created a new digital 4th of July kit and asked if I would like to make a scrapbook page featuring it. It was fun sticking to her kit (minus a few templates)! I really like the spray painted stars! Didn't she do a great job?!

With this page, I stuck to pictures of our family and not the attractions at the parade. It can be annoying seeing the same things year after year. This year's parade is only a few days away so I'm trying to think of the kind of pictures I want to take that would be different from years part. Any ideas?

Happy Birthday!

Leah's 3rd birthday is tomorrow! I made up this little invitation to send to different ones. I love the picture and thought it would be a fun invite!

My kids just keep getting older and I truly enjoy celebrating their birthdays along with every day of the year. Leah is such a blessing in our lives! Happy Birthday, Leah!!

Leah's 1st Birthday

I scrapped these pictures over a year ago and just never liked them - even though I had them printed. I tried a few other times to change it up but nothing ever really came together. Plus I forgot to keep in mind that Leah's purple hand and foot print needed to be on a page. So here's what I came up with and I like it. The paper was just the green color, but with the use of the paint bucket, I added the three other colors for some more fun. I also like the look of the "vellum" journal tags.

The top section of this page is for Leah's hand and foot print. I'm trusting that they will fit in just fine. I'm glad to have these pictures scrapped! I'm also glad that I have most of her second birthday done as well. Just one more page! I really wanted to get these done since her 3rd birthday is in June!!

It's a hot one today! Find a way to cool down and enjoy your Wednesday!

Kiddie Pool

After I took this picture of my kids yesterday and remembered having one similar from when I was their age, I knew I wanted to scrap it right away. And that, I did! I really like the bright colors!

Leah's Birthday

I had been wanting to scrap these pictures from Leah's birthday last year, but NOTHING was coming to me. I couldn't think of any good layouts or papers or anything. I saw the flowered paper on Basic Grey's website yesterday and knew I wanted to use it for these pictures. I started with a few different pink backgrounds and had the flowered paper as a smaller second background, but then I thought of clipping the paper to flourishes and I just LOVED it! I thought of just doing one page with clipped flourishes but then decided to do both of them that way but with different flourishes. I just love it!

I have Leah's hand print that I plan to put in the lower left corner once this page is printed. It's a brighter pink and I hope that it will fit perfectly!

Monday - Thursday

Here are all the pages of my "Week In My Life" project. I deleted my previous posts so I could post these in order and because I changed a couple of pages. I think I'm pretty pleased with most everything. Some - not 100%, but we'll see what happens.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday

All of my pages are done, but who knows, the more I look at them, the more I might change them. Such is life.

Mama Bird

My friend got me a gift certificate to The Vintage Pearl for my birthday. I picked out this "Mama Bird" necklace and it has two pearls to signify my two kids. I could have had something stamped on the bird, but I chose to leave it blank. I really like it! The bird is made of copper. I think it's a fun necklace and not one you'd see around often at all. Thank you, Friend!

Guest Journal Entry

My friend gave me a stack of her old Creating Keepsakes magazines a couple of years ago. In the November 2005 issue, I saw a spread on doing a guest book. I really liked the idea of having guests tell why they came and having more of a story than just a signed name. I know I will love looking back and reading why they came and what they enjoyed about their stay. I pretty much totally copied what the lady (sorry, I don't know who did the article) did and just printed it on cardstock to put in an 8x8 book. I changed the fonts of "guest journal entry" just to switch things up from page to page. Right now they are pretty simple with no frills or flourishes. I might add them someday, but right now, I want to be able to have my guests fill something out. So far we've had guests stay over three times and I kept forgetting to print these out. Now I have a nice little stack ready for our guests. I'm excited to see what they write!

Last night I remembered another story to add to Leah's page that I previously posted. I added it to the page but I won't be reposting the page. Here's the story:

"As winter has been coming to an end, we’ve liked taking walks outside on our road. Because we live on a dirt road and there was still a little bit of snow on it here and there, you said, “Look, Mom! It’s like spicy cheese (pepperjack)! I like spicy cheese!”

Oh, she melts me heart!

My sister and her friend, Katie, are visiting for the weekend and my parents and other sister will be coming today as well. We're going to walk down to the farms on our road and see the new lambs. I'm also going to take them around the area so they can see where we live. Tomorrow we're having a get together / game day with some friends in the area. It's going to be an awesome weekend!

24.7.365

I took these pictures last month to tell a little about Leah at this time in her life. Today I finally was able to sit down and work on it! While I was in town today, I saw a sign on a store window that said "24.7.365" and I thought how that would be fun to use on a scrap page. These pictures still make me chuckle! I really like the postage stamp frames. I don't remember where I found them but I think I got them free! I was so happy!

The past two years I have done the "Week In My Life" project in the fall. This year Ali Edwards is doing it April 19-25. I think it would be so fun changing it up and doing it in the spring versus the fall! I do have a Joyce Meyer conference that I will be at for a couple of those days, but I think I will still plan to do it that week anyway. Anyone want to do it with me?!

27

I found inspiration for this page from Creative Inspiration Blog. It was fun putting this page together. I have a lot more I want to say but hope to put it on another page. I read about what others say about themselves (to document life at the moment) and think about how I want to share those things too. For now, this is part of my birthday pages.

The weather has been so nice lately and I even have a few windows opened a little today! The kids and I are going for a walk now and I plan to totally enjoy it! Happy Tuesday!

Don't Kiss Me

I started working on a page with these pictures over a week ago, I think, and came back to it today. Well, I totally started a new page and this one looks nothing like the first one - thankfully! I haven't been scrapping in a while due to being busy or wanting to scrap but not feeling anything creative there. I like being able to crank out a page a day during the kids nap time and let's just say that hasn't been happening for...hmm..months!! I hope to get back in the swing of things! I MiSs scrapping!

Normally we have our pizza night on Fridays, but this past Friday-Sunday my kids were at my parents for a few days while "the huzzy" and I had some time together. On Friday night we went out to eat at Macaroni Grill. It was Ahhh-mazing! So night, Monday, we're having our pizza and Crush grape pop. Mmm! I need to get making the dough!

After the dough is made and starts it's rising process, the kids and I are headed outside for a walk and to soak up some wonderful sunshine! Happy Monday + Happy March!