It's in their Kiss - wedding layout

My husband and I have been married for almost 6 years. Can you believe that I have not scrapbooked even ONE wedding photo? Well....that was until yesterday! I finally scrapped one and I believe this will be the first of many 'wedding' layouts. No worries, though! They are not overly 'themey' at all.

 This layout was inspired by Jen Gallacher's "Life" layout. I originally put it together for one of Shimelle's contests but I don't think I got it posted in time. Oops! It's an 8.5x11 layout. The papers and majority of embellishments are from Crate Paper's Emma's Shoppe collection. The photo is our first kiss as husband and wife. The journaling just tells the story of how my husband told me years before we got engaged that I was his very first kiss and how far our 'kiss' has come. I did a little stamping on the photo (that says "Love You" but it didn't show up all that well. The stamp is Love Always Wins By Ali Edwards. I used a Fiskar's border punch on the top of two of the squares just for added interest. The scalloped craft bit that's over the flowers is a Maya Road kraft envelope.

The few embellishments that are not from the Emma's Shoppe collection are from American Craft's Dear Lizzy Neapolitan collection ("you&me" stickers and heart brad) and My Mind's Eye "Miss Caroline" collection ("place" sticker). I believe both of the hearts are from October Afternoon. The title is spelled out using Daydreams Rasberry Foam Thickers and Amy Tangerine Hello Truffle Fabric Printed Thickers.

Hope you enjoyed!

Weekend recap/life updates/WIN A CAMEO!

Over the weekend we took a little trip to the Salisbury (Maryland) Zoo. It was packed because of earth day but well worth the visit. Charlotte enjoyed herself. Her curious face lit right up around the animals. The zoo also had a really nice park. We took her out of her stroller to let her play but much to our surprise - she wasn't the least bit interested. She was kind of scared of the swing (which is surprising because last year she loved it) and when I took her to the sand box and showed her the sand, she hit it out of my hand and said "EW!" I think someone is going to be a bit of a girly girl....

I will be embarking on a new adventure very soon. See the building above? That's the local community college. I'm officially a registered student! I will be attending this summer and working on my pre-reqs required to enter into the Registered Nurse program. I am excited and nervous about the entire ordeal. It's been a long while since I was in school. I graduated high school in the year 2006. Hopefully I won't be TO rusty. Needless to say, though, life is going to be very busy for me - balancing the life of a mommy, wife, and student.

 

That's not all....
I also now have a weekend job. It's nothing to fancy. My dad owns his own local seafood/produce shop and things have really been picking up. The weekends are his busiest time and he has been in need of extra help. I, myself, have been in need of some extra spending cash! We talked things over and decided that it would be great if I could work the weekends. Looks like my schedule will be even BUSIER!

Don't forget that there is still time to play along with challenge #2 over at Color Me Scrappy!

Last but certainly not least - you could win a CAMEO! Pink by Designs is giving one away.
CHECK IT OUT!

Charlotte's 1st Halloween - two page layout

Technically, Charlotte's first Halloween was spent in the hospital. I gave birth to her (via c-section) on October 28th. As most of you probably already know, if you give birth via c-section - you're in for a much longer hospital stay. Halloween was the last thing on our mind at that point. That is why we consider the Halloween of 2011 Charlotte's first Halloween. She was able to trick or treat and have plenty of fun. We dress her up as a cute little elephant and took her around the town.

I didn't want this layout to be overly "spooky". I just wanted it to have a simple "fall' feel to it. I'll save the spooky for when Charlotte gets older. I did this layout with one of Shimelle's weekend challenges in mind (create a page using three or more paper collections). The base paper for each page is the "Double Dot" paper by Bo Bunny. The squares are made up of papers from Authentique's "Glowing" collection, American Craft's "Nightfall" collection, and Pink Paislee's "Prairie Hill" collection. The little pocket is cut from some older paper by Amy Tangerine. The little cards inside the pocket are cut out from Echo Park's This and That - Charming" collection along with the border that is above the photos. I punched the border with the Binding Edge punch by EK SUCCESS. The banner at the bottom is cut out from some of Authentique's cardstock. I stamped it with a Hero Arts woodgrain stamp.

The "You Make Me Smile Everyday" sticker and star sticker are from Pink Paislee's "Prairie Hill" collection. The "Elephant" sticker and the "October" sticker were both actually cut out from larger Tim Holtz stickers. The chipboard pumpkins are from Bella Blvd's Finally Fall collection. The "Halloween" labels are from American Crafts "Nightfall" collection. The "No 01" label is from Amy Tangerine. The swirly bit that is underneath the word October is from Authentique's Delightful collection. As you can see, this layout is interactive. I have two extra pictures that are adhered together tucked away in the back of the last photo. The title is made up of Thickers and Bella Blvd alpha stickers.

Sketchy Slide Layout

There is a baseball field behind the new house that we live in. It has a little playground, so over the weekend we decided to take Charlotte there so she could explore. The photos on the layout are from that little adventure. It was Charlotte's first time going down a slide and she was a bit skeptical of the whole thing. At first she seemed to enjoy it but then she seemed a bit scared only seconds later. I think she was much more comfortable going down the slide whilst in my lap. 

The blue chevron background and all of the border strips (aside from the pink gingham border which is from Authentique's "Delightful" collection) are from Bella Blvd's "Sunshine and Happiness" collection. I used my EK Success Binding Edge punch to add a little interest to the green polka dot border. The word 'sketchy' is spelled out using Bella Blvd's Blue High Five Alphabet stickers. The word 'Slide' is spelled out using Pebbles' "Kraft with Love" alphabet stickers. The kraft background it's self isn't truly kraft. I've been all out of kraft paper for a while so I had planned on stocking up at my LSS. They didn't have any! So I settled for a few pieces of the reversible "double dot" paper by Bo Bunny. I just picked up the closest color to kraft that I could find. I added the journaling right to the large photo.

For the embellishments in the bottom corner I just punched out two circles from one of the Dear Lizzy Neapolitan papers. I added a few of the teeny tiny word banners from Authentique's "Delightful" collection. I threw in some buttons (October Afternoon's Sidewalk Chalk) for some added texture. The two tiny embellishments that are beside the middle picture are just a Dear Lizzy (Neapolitan) brad and another little sticker from that same Authentique's "Delightful" collection. I've really been wanting to stamp a little more on my projects so, in the upper corner, I decided to use one of my little sentiment stamps (from the Michael's dollar bin). It's a stamp that says "live for TODAY". I just stamped repeatedly in a small circle where I knew I would be placing my embellishments. I stamps two or three times without reinking just to give off different tones. I love the end results and hope to incorporate stamping more and more in my layouts. The "i love you" label sticker is from My Mind's Eye "Miss Caroline" collection. The cloud and sun are from Pink Paislee's "Prairie Hill" collection. I finished off each cluster of embellishments with a few tiny splatters of blue paint.

Happy Wednesday!

Color Me Scrappy - DT Project - Challenge #2

There was a great turn out for challenge #1 over at Color Me Scrappy. The winner will be announced in just a few days! In the mean time - let's see what challenge #2 has to offer...:

These colors were a ton of fun to work with! Here is what I came up with...:

I used a mixture of American Craft's Dear Lizzy Neapolitan, Echo Park's This and That - Charming, and My Little Shoebox Lovely Day. While the picture does not do it justice (still need to find good lighting) I love how this came out!

 

 I especially love the vintage cameras scattered through out. The journaling and photos are about how much my daughter changes in only a few months. They grow up so fast!

And what's this? Of course there is a prize to be won! Check out what's for grabs. Goodies from KI Memories! A nice variety of punch outs, chipboard, rub-ons, stickers, and brads. Come play with us so you can have a chance to win!

"Oh, Brother!" Layout - Shimelle's Online Scrapbooking Weekend

Friday was the start of Shimelle's Online Scrapbooking weekend. She is hosting several challenges and discussions over at her blog. Please be sure to check it out! You're guaranteed to have some great fun.

(Again - pardon the craptastic picture - I haven't found good lighting in the new house yet). The first challenge was to scraplift something from this beautiful layout by Jaime Warren. The above is what I came up with. I lifted from Jaime....
- The sketch of the layout
- The clusters of embellishments
- The clouds
- The layers of paper
- The paint splatters
- The butterflies
I turned it into a 8.5x11 due to the size of the tiny picture booth photos. I didn't want them getting lost on a 12x12 layout. The photos are of my brother and I (when we were younger). I think I was about 16 or 17 in these photos and my little brother was about 7 (he is now 13). The green grid paper, the papers layered behind the photos, the measuring tape borders, and a few of the embellishments are from Echo Park's This and That Charming collection. I wish I could tell you where the numbered paper is from but it seems I threw away the bitty strip! If you have an idea of where it's from - please let me know.

The cloud embellishment (that I cut in half) is from Simple Stories' Fabulous collection. The tiny little hearts are from American Craft's Dear Lizzy collection. The wooden buttons are also by American Crafts. The camera that is in the middle of the title was fussy cut from a paper from Echo Park's playground collection.. The title it's self is made up of alpha stickers from My Little Shoebox (Lovely Day). I wanted to add butterflies to the layout but I didn't want them to be 'girly' because this is a layout about my brother after all. I decided to use the negative from my Martha Stewart 3 in 1 butterfly punch. I think it added the perfect touch of butterflies while still saying 'manly'. I also did some faux stitching with a white gel pen.

...And because I'm certain my brother is probably reading this (and being ever so curious) - the journaling says:
"A brother is a friend who was once a bother."

My brother has always annoyed me. He is never serious and always joking, completely spoiled, and is always rough housing around. I'm certain he will annoy me well in the future...even when he is a grown man. Who can blame him, though? A little brothers job is, after all, to annoy his big sister.

I love my brother. Always have, always will. It is my true belief that I have him to thank for my being a good mother. As a toddler, he taught me a thing or two about dirty diapers and bad 'boo boos'. As a younger child, he taught me a thing or two about imagination and compassion. ...And now as a teenager, he has taught me a thing or two about patients. All of the key lessons of motherhood.

My little brother is a good person. Smart, funny and caring.
...No matter how annoying he gets!

You'll see plenty more projects from me over this weekend/week as I play along with Shimelle! Why don't you come join us?

Easter 2012 Recap

I am so sorry for not blogging over the weekend like I had initially promised! On Saturday I came down with an episode of food poisoning. It was horrible! Thankfully I am feeling much better now. On Sunday, we were of course busy with Easter happenings....

Despite my suffering - we went ahead and colored eggs Saturday night. 

 We let Charlotte put the stickers on the eggs. She seemed to enjoy herself.

 When she woke up the next morning she was surprised by what the Easter Bunny had left her.

Her favorite was of course the new 'baby'.

 I think the gummies came in a close second....

She had her very first Easter Egg hunt and her grandpops house!

 
She really enjoyed this and while she didn't fully get the concept - she did understand that picking up eggs and putting them into the basket was to much fun to pass up!

 We decided to do a little photoshoot of the pretty girl in her dress. The pictures all came out a big to bright for my liking but some of them are still cute. It just goes to show that I still have a ton to learn about my camera!

These are probably my favorite photos out of the bunch. That's my hubby and Charlotte. Isn't my hubby just adorable? ;) The second photo is of Charlotte and I.

So how was everyone's Easter? I hope it was just as good as ours!

Two page layout - "Welcome To The World"

We're all moved in and my scrap corner has finally been set up. While it's nothing fancy, it is quite functional. I love it! I was able to give my organizational system a go during my daughter's nap time, yesterday. The result? A two page layout! Not only that...but a two page layout with the photos from the day my daughter was born. I finally worked up enough courage to scrap them. I am happy with the results. I still have more to scrap but this is a start.

(My apologies in advanced for the craptastic photos of this layout. The lighting was horrible no matter where I went. Even outside!) The (majority of) papers, the green alpha stickers that spell out World, and the (majority of) embellishments are from October Afternoon's "Ducks In A Row" collection. The rest of the title is spelled out using American Crafts' Thickers. The little swirlies near the title and the birds next to the tree are from Simple Stories' Fabulous Collection. I'm unsure of which company made the wood grain paper.

This layout is interactive. If you pull on the little section of embellishments that is sticking out from behind the photos you'll reveal a little insert that has the birth story along with a few extra photos on the back.

I hope you all like it! I do and I am getting much more comfortable scrapbooking two page layouts.
Stay tuned for tomorrow's update. I'll be listing my weekly picks (seeing as how I skipped last week) and I will be giving away a Liebster award. (Busygirl was kind enough to give me one. More about that tomorrow!)