Summer 2012, Almost a Wrap!

Around here, there has been a whole lotta, 

 A little bit of,

 Some neighboorhood parties,

Even happy, cooperative teenagers! (Ack!)

Now we get to have one last "Hoorah", before school starts in a couple weeks. Our family is off to a cruise! The kids are so excited. Is it sad that I am most looking forward to the photo ops and making a vacation mini-album?! LOL

I have been hoarding the Simple Stories 6x8 album for the perfect time, and this is it! I am going to use a bunch of papers from the Simple Stories "Awesome" line. 

I am off to Pinterest right now to gather some ideas and inspiration for our travel album. Guess I won't be getting much housework done today, huh? LOL

Happy

Wow! It is certainly summertime, because I haven't been on here in forever. Main reason? My kids are home, ALL DAY LONG. (yes, I am shouting! lol)


I have been scrapbooking, and keeping up with my Project Life, just can't seem to get anything blogged. How do my favorite mommy/scrapping blogs stay current when kids are home? Y'all are amazing! 


My favorite challenge blog, Color Me Scrappy has given me the perfect opportunity to catch up a bit.

The color pallette for this month was gorgeous!! And seemed to be the perfect outlet for the page I had in mind. I don't know about y'all, but I don't scrap myself very often. It feels.....I don't know.....self-indulgent or something? 

My little boy was playing with my phone, and caught this picture of me. It captured my happiness and contentment I felt at that moment perfectly. (even my 7 year old is a better photographer than I am!) I want my children to remember that their mom was a happy person. Of course I flip out, yell and threaten to sell them to the circus, but I hope they remember my smile, my sense of humor and how grateful and happy I am to be married to their dad and to be their mom.(which I said to them in my hidden journaling). 

Love, love that woodgrain paper, and I am completely obsessed with all of Studio Calico wood veeners (I may or may not have bought 6 packages...shh...don't tell my husband). I broke out my trusty Cricut (why won't that thing break so I can justify getting a Silhouette?) for my title.

Thanks for looking, and go make something pretty!

Color Me Scrappy

I am once again linking up with the fun challenge blog, http://color-me-scrappy.blogspot.com/. This month, we were given another beautiful color pallette to work with.


This layout showcases my  twin "baby" girls, TJ and Alyssa. I pulled this picture from TJ's Instagram account. My girls are such natural photographers. It takes me forever to line up a shot, set my settings, ect...They just whip out the camera and snap away.

I find it difficult to get pictures of them as much as I used to. At 17, they are just not at home very often. School, activities, jobs and of course, hanging out at the mall, take up alot of their time!  But they have Facebook and Instagram accounts. I pull pictures of them from those sites all the time to scrapbook. I don't stress too much about pixels, image quality and all that. I just love getting a peak into their lives. 


This layout came together so quickly. Once I started, it took me only 35 minutes from start to finish. The colors were so easy  to work with,(and my 2 pretty subjects didn't hurt either! lol)


Thanks so much for looking!

Color Me Scrappy

Color Me Scrappy is up with a new challenge. This time around we were given this beautiful pallette to work with:

Pretty, right? Well, I knew I wanted to work with a picture of my little boy, and I was a bit worried that it would come off a little "girly"

I grunged it up a bit with ink, and distressing the "jeans" type paper I used to mat the picture.

There are a few feminine elements, but overall, I think it works. And with such a cute subject, how could I go wrong? (yeah, I am THAT parent) LOL

Check out the fun ladies over at Color Me Scrappy. Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Mother's Day Inspiration

Holy cow! It is May already. Anyone else feel like time is flying by?! 


During this busy month we celebrate my mommy's birthday, my mother-in-law's birthday and of course Mother's Day. I was inspired by the talented Marcy Penner on the October Afternoon blog to make these fun "Accordian fold" cards for my 2 favorite ladies this year. I know they will love them because they feature the most beautiful, smart and talented kids in the world. (ok, we may be a bit biased! lol)

Over at the Color Me Scrappy blog, they have a new challenge up. I thought their color scheme was beautiful, which is what led me to these papers. I threw in some pink, and I am really happy with how it turned out. 

I am going to drop these in the mail today!

I am so grateful for all the wonderful inspiration that is out there. Have a blessed day and go make something pretty!

Color Me Scrappy Challenge

Today, I am linking up a layout to participate in a fun challenge over at Color Me Scrappy.  It is a brand new blog, that hopefully, will get me to break out of my kraft and white rut!  We were given a beautiful color pallet to work with.


I scrapped my two littlest boys having a fun day with my dear mother-in-law. She bought them lunch from McDonald's, and sat in a cafeteria full of loud, messy, and silly 1st and 2nd graders. She is a trooper! 


It is a cloudy, yucky day here, so please excuse the poor picture quality!

Check out the Color Me Scrappy blog, it looks like fun!

Sketchy Thursdays, Challenge

Ok, the flowers he bought home must have made a big impression, because I did a layout about them! LOL

Here is my take on the November challenge. By the way, Sketchy Thursdays, is a fun website that will encourage your creativity and get you to actually USE your supplies, instead of hoard them. (Oh, is that just me??!! LOL)

This also encouraged me to use up the last of my "Dear Lizzy" line from American Crafts.

Ella Bootcamp: Fun with Word Stamps

Nicole Magouirk is BEYOND talented. Stamping is soooo not my thing, but Nicole has a way of making it accessible and almost easy.

School started nearly a month ago, and I am just now getting around to scrapping all the school pictures I took.  I think this quick and easy page showcases the fun I had shopping with my little boys and getting all their supplies.

Ella Bootcamp: Extracting Inspiration

Lisa Dickinson ROCKS! I love her style. She was our drill intructor for the day.  In this video,  we learned to "extract" inspiration from different sources, like magazines, advertisements ect.....

I received a big stack of junkmail yesterday. Fortunately, there was a postcard for carpet cleaning that spoke to me! LOL

 It had a cool, cream/woodgrain color combination that I thought was pretty. This page about my youngest, Christian is what I came up with.  (BTW, I used a picture that I altered from Maggie Holmes PS3 drill)

This is a technique that I know I will use again in the future.

Ella Bootcamp Day 3: Deeper Journaling

Today, Angie Lucas, our drill instructor had us take our journaling to a deeper level.  

She said, "Start with the photos. You can start by jotting down the relevant details that you know you want to include in your journaling, such as the who, what, when, where, why stuff. But this time, don’t stop there. Push toward an epiphany.

Ask yourself this question: “What do these photos reveal about the people in them?” 

I had the perfect pictures of my 13 year-old, Justin.

Ella Bootcamp, Combine Patterns

One of my scrapbook hero's, Lisa Dickinson, was our drill instructor for the day.  Her challenge was to combine patterned papers. Here is my take on it. Just a silly moment with a few of the kids and I taking pictures to send to Taylor who is at college. I like how this page turned out, but need to finish the title.  The "glare" is actually Mr. Huey white mist. Obsessed with misting! I also used a bit of Washi tape. Also obsessed with that!  "Love" is hand-embroidered.