How is March Almost Over?

This year is flying by!  

I do have some pages to share today.  I have gotten better about the photos that I put on my pages but a couple of the ones that I'm sharing today have terrible photos.  In spite of the quality, these pictures are the best representation of the story that I have to tell.  For instance, on this page, that is the only photo of these guys ever.  They grew up together and this is the first time in over 20 years that they have all been in the same place at the same time.  The photo is from a cell phone and the picture was spur of the moment so there are no formal photographs from this event......  

All of my pages for today seem to be leaning on the simple side.  I'm not sure why but lately I've been really leaning off of the embellishments.  This is another page that has a photo that wouldn't normally be considered a good one but it has us all in it and it will help me tell the story of how our family interacts......

Every photo on this page is a selfie:)  Love it 💗 ....

Now this photo and this layout.  They both speak volumes about this particular point in my sons life.  He was swearing into the Air Force and although he was excited, he was so, so nervous.  It was his first time away from us, first time on his own and his first real experience with taking care of himself.  Years later and he is doing great but I really wanted to talk about how he had to be brave to take that first step...

Happy Humpday everyone!  Thanks for stopping by!!

Not Today

I have a funny story today.  I think it's funny anyway:)  My sister and I were talking last night, just catching up and she shared a story that my niece told her about the tooth fairy.  My niece is way too smart.  Like you have to watch her all the time smart.  This kid is losing teeth and knows that the tooth fairy pays cold, hard cash for them so she put the tooth under her pillow.  She was telling her auntie that the tooth had been under the pillow for a long time but the tooth fairy hadn't come yet.  My other sister (her mom) overheard the story and talked to G about being patient and advised her to give it a little more time.  Of course, the tooth fairy came that night.  There was no tooth under little G's pillow for the tooth fairy to take with her because.....  

Little G decided that she was going to catch the tooth fairy and kept the tooth in her hand so that she could nab her when she tried to make the exchange.  My sister aka the tooth fairy left the money under her pillow with a note that said "Not Today".  Guys.  I laughed so hard that I cried!  I only wish that I could have heard G telling the story.  I don't have any photos but that story is going on a layout!  

Speaking of little G, here she is looking very lovely and sweet......

And my little nephew on donut day at school.  The page design was completely inspired by Eva Pizarro's quilt inspired layout on the Pebbles blog (11/9/16 post).....

I guess today it's all about the boys bc my last 2 pages are boy pages too:)

I loved the washi strips in the background here.....

This one has my heart bc of the yellow paint.  Oh the yellow paint was so fun.  The boys love of icky bitey things, not so much.....

Thanks for stopping by!

Mix and Match

It can be easy to freshen up your style by mixing & matching the supplies and techniques that you use regularly.  It  does not have to be challenging or frustrating either:)  Being part of the brain trust or a member of Mensa is not required either.  You just have to be willing to give it a try and your on your way.  I mix and match all the time in too many different ways to count.  Most of the time i'm not even aware that I'm doing it until I step back and take a look at my project.  

For instance, on this layout I used mixed really old products (like from the 90's old) with products that I purchased this year (my last scrapbook.com order) and I mixed themed products (beach paper, kids line, birthday) with non-themed (washi and cardstock).  As you can see I did a little m&m with the themes too!  The photo on this page makes me so happy!!  We were in the Bahamas with almost all of my siblings and their kids + my dad and my husbands mom for vacation.  The water was so rough and you can see everyone in the background struggling to get out.  So funny....

Another place that I like to mix and match is in the area of inspiration.  Who says that you can only be inspired by one page or one idea at a time?  My basic layout inspiration came from a page by Sue Plumb that I saw on the Cocoa Vanilla blog.  I loved the triangles that she had in the background so I decided to cut some triangles out of white cardstock for my background.  My second inspiration came from the pretty colors of the die-cuts & butterfly rub-on's in my January 2017 Hip Kit.  I probably wouldn't have used most of them on their own, but clustered together inside the triangles.  Ummm.  I just love the look:)

Talk about old.  This paper is from yeeaarrrs ago.  I still love it and am happy with how it worked with these photos.  Even our pig Mia made an appearance.  She was kind of grumpy because we were loving on her.  She prefers her affection in treats....

My sister dressed up as Maleficent and she nailed her costume.....

Happy Monday everyone and thanks for stopping by!  

February Numbers

I'm not sure why but the month of February was not as productive for me as far as finishing pages go.  In the end I managed to complete a little less than a page a day.  If I'm being honest, there were many days in February where I just pushed through to make sure that I got something crafty done.  That left me with more than the usual number of pages that didn't make me 100% happy and photos that got printed again and rescrapped.  It is what it is.  No regrets.  In February I:

·                     Completed 28 layouts (much lower than the 79 pages done in January)

·                     Used 55 pieces of patterned paper  

·                     Used 18 packages of stickers & embellishments  

·                     Used 21 pieces of cardstock and 

·                     Used up 0 - 6X6 pads  

It will be interesting for me to see how I do this summer as we have a really busy season planned.  

Speaking of completed pages, I have 4 more to share today.  My March numbers should be amazing if I keep this up for the rest of the month:)

 This layout is super simple.  The colors and the photo really are the design.....

I could have done a better job with the title here as it doesn't completely go with the photo.  I plan to use the journaling and title together to make it make sense...

February 2017 Hip Kit Loveliness:)  I was just notified that my April kit was charged but I'm only half done with March!  I do have a few more layouts to share from February but this is close to the last page.  I just have to put the finishing touches on the rest of them.  This page is not a hands down favorite but it'll do....

My daughter and I went to the Adele concert in NYC and I haven't documented the event nearly enough.  It. Was. Amazing!  We had a great time together and the concert was just so, so lovely.....

Hey, hey it's Thursday!  Have a great one!

Vintage

As I was browsing one of my magazines from 2002.  Wait, what?!  2002!  Yep.  2002.  And that is not even one of my oldest lol.  But I digress.  As I was browsing two things hit me.  #1 The realization that I have most of the patterned papers featured in the projects (the designers used a lot of cardstock back then so it's not as bad as it sounds) and #2 there are only 3 or 4 scrapbookers throughout the entire magazine that are still active.  I'm sure a lot of the ladies still scrapbook but where are they?  

Jamie Waters, Jennifer McGuire, Rhonna Farrer and Nichol Magouirk had quite a few pages in this particular magazine but few other names even seemed familiar.  This got me to thinking, again, about when I myself would tire of this hobby.  This is probably the 2nd or 3rd time the thought has come to me and it makes me panic a little.  I have waaaayyyy too many stories and way, waaaayyyy to much stuff to quit.  I also enjoy it a little:)  

Just sharing my food for thought today.  I would love to know what your thoughts on the subject of quitting scrapbooking are!  

I am very blessed in regards to the bond that I have with my Dad and my siblings.  Thankfully we are very close and get along extremely well.  No excuse is too small for us to use it to get together!  Every other year we take an extended family vacation and there are a lot of us!!  Last year we had a group of about 30 at Disney:)  In these photos we are in the Bahamas at Atlantis....

My mom and my youngest daughter when she graduated from college.....

My niece when she was a baby.  She wasn't to sure about us.  We were laughing, talking and holding just a little too much for her and she was over us at this point:)

I adore how these kids play together:)  I also adored putting together this page.  Do you see the A.  It looks a little strange yeh.  I completely ran out of A's in this letter pack but was not willing to use something else so I took a little thread, flipped a "V" upside down and made me an "A".  so pleased with myself right now 😎

My inspiration for today includes:

• PLAY - Big Picture Classes - Jen Chapin - Rainbow - Lesson 1
• Love You - Big Picture Classes - Lilith Eeckles - 30 Minute Layouts - Lesson 5

Guess what y'all?  It's HUMPDAY!  I hope you have a great one and are busy working aka planning a fantastic weekend.  The weather is expected to be super nice here so we have a list of yard chores and outdoor home maintenance projects waiting on us.  Fun Times😊

Scraplifting

Over the last 2 years I have been on a mission to #1 get my memories recorded so that I don't forget them and to #2 use the things that I buy and/or have bought already aka my stash.   At first, I was getting nowhere.  The ideas were not coming fast enough.  The designs were not gelling and it was taking me days to create just one project.  Not acceptable for this woman who was on a mission.  

I knew what had to be done.  I had to use the inspiration that had been, up to this point, collecting dust in the hundreds of magazines and books that I own, waiting on me in the thousands of pins on my pinterest boards and calling to me from the blogs and galleries that I perused every single day.  

It was hard to change the mindset that every page had to be my original idea and that I was not allowed to share or claim a page that was inspired by someone other than myself. Thankfully I realized that in order for me to tackle the task that is my stash (photos and product) I needed help.  Thankfully there are thousands of talented scrapbookers who were willing to come to my rescue, although they had no idea that that is what they were doing:), by posting their beautiful pages.  

The fun techniques, lovely color combos and creative use of products were just what I needed to get creating and to date I have created an average of 50 pages a month.  Going from struggling to create a layout a month to creating 50 or more has been amazing!!! What's even better is that my own ideas are still there.  They didn't go anywhere.  I didn't lose my creativity.  My creativity shows itself most often in small ideas that I add to the pages that I'm scraplifting.  And sometimes, a lot more lately, it is showing itself in the design of complete pages.  

I don't mind scraplifting.  I do mind photos and papers and pretty things that I spent time and money collecting going unused and unappreciated.  This girl is very happy to share pages that have been inspired by my very generous fellow scrapbookers. 

This page was inspired by Lisa Dickinson.  Her design was perfection!  I didn't change much besides the papers and embellishments.  The photo of my son just kind of fell together with everything that was used on the page..... 

What can I say about this layout except holy color Batman!  There are more 6X6 paper pads, bits and large scraps in my room than what makes me happy.  They are all used on this page lol.  Along with my long neglected 1" circle punch and my crop-a-dile big bite.  It's hard to see in the photos but I actually punched holes in the layout in some places.  It's different and I'm interested to see what it looks like once it's in my album.  I haven't decided if I like the page yet:)......

On the other hand, this page definitely owns some heart.  I just love it and would make it in 50 different color schemes.  All of the supplies are from Hip Kit Clubs February 2017 kit and I used Big Picture Classes Aly Dosdale Document 2015 May for inspiration.  My page is nothing at all like the one we did in class but it sparked the idea for using the pink polka dot paper......

This last page is all about the photos and the story.  My youngest is very conservative and low key so imagine my surprise when I saw these photos on my daughters Facebook page. I am laughing as I type this because the story is hilarious to me and my kids (except the guilty party in the photo:)  He would like to erase all evidence of a wild side).  2 of my older kids had a Facebook conversation that I printed out and added as my journaling.....

Thanks for stopping by and happy Tuesday!

Fun Colors, Fun Subjects

I'm in the color today:)  I am loving the bright fun colors and the fact that the photos are some of my favorites.  Like this page that has my very favorite page ever about my boys.  The inspiration for this page came from Glitter Girl Adventure #122.....

Or this page that is not so bright and colorful but it does have a favorite group shot of the family on vacation.  The water in the background is stunning!  I created the striped border on the camera strip using a pencil and some plain white paper.  Fun times I'll tell ya:)  Everything else came from my February 2017 Hip Kit.....

The photos on this layout aren't great but I still love them and blew it up very big.  Like 3 of the 4 scrapbook pages that I am sharing, the papers came from my stash......

It was disappointing for me to see that the cute little details that I painstakingly added to this page aren't even visible in the photos:(  Like the knots that I tied in the blue twine....

The blue man group:) + my husband goofing off = a great photo for this bright and fun page....

I hope that everyone had a great weekend!  We got some very fluffy snow that didn't stick so this girl is happy:)

A Quick Layout Share

No chit chat today:)  Just 4 more pages that I wanted to share...

The designs for the pages that I shared today came from a variety of inspiration sources. 

• Today - YouTube Video - Veera Saa...- Favorite

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Friday!  I hope you have a fantastic weekend!!!

Not A Chronological Scrapbooker

I never have been.  My albums are certainly not a time capsule that will walk you through our moments as they happen.  They're more like bookshelves with all of our favorite things displayed for us to enjoy.  My oldest is 27 and it is not unheard of for me to do a baby page one day and a page about her today the next.  My pages go into my albums as I make them and I put no effort into putting them in order.  I get a headache just thinking about trying to do that! 

I am always curious about how other people put their pages in their albums so thought that I would share my method.  Which is no method at all:)  Helpful aren't I?

This day.  My people.  They are truly my happy place and having a surprise wedding was truly amazing.  I still don't have the words.  We look really happy in this selfie:)  When I got the January Hip Kit, the first thing that I saw was the gold puffy hearts.  Not a product I would have bought on my own and I had no idea what to do with them.  This page combined with the grid design in Nicole's class to the rescue:)  It is perfect and was a ton of fun to make.  I even "discovered" a new use for my embossing folders.  Non-messy mixed media texture.  Anywhere that would have been spattered, got brayered instead (see vellum in the center block).....

My cousin took this photo of the house that my Dad grew up in.  We (my siblings and I) spent a lot of time on my grandparents farm so this house is very familiar to me.  My Dad also talks about it a lot and how he and his brothers helped my grandfather build this house out of reclaimed wood.  How one of the things that the children had to do was to bring in sand from outside to fill in the cracks between the wood boards of the floor.  Of how they had no indoor plumbing, running water, air conditioning or heating other than a wood burning stove.  He doesn't talk about it as a hardship.  It just was.  He has some very happy memories of his childhood and I love to hear him tell stories about it.  When my cousin posted this on Facebook, my aunt commented that "they had lots of love and laughter" together in that shack (meaning my grandparents and all of the children).  Even though I have seen this house a million times, I never saw it until I looked at this photo....

This sketch was the kick off point for the design.....

of this bright, fun and happy page about my nephew's birthday.  He was delighted all weekend:)

Another fun page full of texture and layers.  The torn edges combined with border punches is just so fun.  There are a ton of layered elements.  I really liked how Michelle split her design into 2 main elements diagonal to each other on the page.  Instead of all of the mixed media, I opted to use a star transparency for added interest.  My sister and her husband recently took a one of a kind vacation and this photo kind of sums up how she felt about the trip....

The designs for the pages that I shared today came from a variety of inspiration sources. 

• Happy Birthday Byron Jr - Sketch -PageMaps - March 2016
• Sweetest Dreams - Scrapbook.com - Nicole Nowosad - Using 5 Basic Supplies in 5 Ways
• One of a Kind - Michelle McDonald - My Creative Scrapbook - Bonjour

Happy Humpday!  Thanks for stopping by:)

Say It With Color Scrapbook Layouts

Ahhh Color.  I love you so much that I could write a love letter to you.  That would be cheesy (maybe a little crazy) so I won't but I will use you to make my scrapbook pages a better place for my photos.  I just love how your bright boldness hold my photos up, how when your sweet you make my photos just that little bit sweeter and how your temperature makes my summer pictures so fun. 

This first layout is all kinds of bold.  The alphabet paper by Studio Calico was stumping me and I couldn't figure out what in the world to do with it to make it work.  I decided that to heck with it, I might as well go all in and just use it everywhere.  It worked!  At least to me.  When my nephew was visiting NYC with his father, my daughter picked him up and took him to Central Park for the day.  It was hot, crowded and a lot of walking and he was kinda grumpy because of it.  She managed to find a few things to keep him entertained and cool (like this pond) and it turned out to be a fantastic day at the park for them....

The black dot and heart paper here makes me swoon and it works perfectly with the random photo of my niece.  The background of the titles' frame is filled with layers of different washi tape.  Interesting technique but I am still not sure that I love it...

We love amusement parks but I don't do many pages about our trips (except Disney) so here goes.  This photo has long been a favorite of mine and the page is too.  I was very happy that my "vision" worked IRL:)...

I don't love this page but I do love that I was able to use up a ton of my leftover scraps from my January 2017 Hip Kit.  I didn't have enough stuff left to make the page only from my kit so there are a few things from my stash on this layout.  Rainbows seem to be my jam nowadays and I have been working on page after page, idea after idea focused on Roy G. Biv.....

The designs for the pages that I shared today came from a variety of inspiration sources.  

• Rainbow Roses - Big Picture Classes -Jen Chapin - Rainbow
• Wish - Scrapbook.com - Becky Fleck - Getting the Most Out of Your PageMaps
• Let's Do This Again and Again - Jen Gallacher - Make it Meaningful #21

Thanks for stopping by and have a great Tuesday!

Memory Planning

How do you plan your memory keeping?  Do you plan your memory keeping?  Does your plan work for you?  Since last year, I have been planning my memory keeping and as a result, I have been able to create more in these last 2 years than I had created in all of my time scrapbooking.  This is not a race, there is no finish line and there's no completion date for any of the projects on my desk but I enjoy this hobby so, so much that I want to create as many pages as I can.  

Bottom line for me is that at the end of the day I am left with completed pages that I will be able to enjoy for the rest of my life.  Who knows.  My children may keep their pages and enjoy them for the rest of theirs too.  I also answer the questions in my albums that I don't have the answers for about my own parents and grandparents.

The projects that I've been completing are making me happy:)  I am also loving how quickly my stash is shrinking!  Not every page that I'm sharing today is a stash buster.  As a matter of fact, I ended up using quite a bit of things that have been ordered since January.  Loving it!!!

This page is so, so cute!  The paper is super pretty and makes me smile.  Pink, Grey, White & Black with a little aqua.  Yes Please.  My daughter and my niece....

I really love this page.  Love it!  I've had these zoo stickers from K&Co since Moses was a kid.  They have survived many destashes and finally made it to a page.  The picture printed way to dark so I need to reprint it....

I was inspired by Jen Gallacher's Make it Meaningful #23 video for the design...

This page makes me happy too:)  My niece had a public speaking assignment for school and she rocked it...

I used a Studio Calico card sketch from 2013 for my inspiration.

Last page to share today.  My girl when she was a little one.  I love the look on her face and wish that I could remember more about this particular day.  I am taking several classes right now and the inspiration from this page came from Nicole Nowosad's "Using 5 Basic Supplies 5 Ways" class at scrapbook.com.  I decided to stamp inside the word "cutie" instead of using embellishments (that is what the class called for & I really can't follow instructions lol).  I just put patterned paper behind the word "pie"...

Happy Monday everyone and thanks for stopping by!

Big Blocks of Space Scrapbook Pages

I think that one of the most effective ways of getting your photos to shine is to use large blocks of paper in the page design.  If I have an exceptionally busy photo or one big photo that I want to showcase, using large blocks can keep the design interesting but not overwhelming because you don't have all of the bits to stop and look at. 

I have to confess that the photos come last for me when I am designing a page.  I am completely driven by the products.  Pretty papers, cute embellishments, bright bold colors are the things that make me want to sit down and create.  Every now and than a photo will sneak in to pull me to my desk but not often.  

Most of the time I create the layout (yes, the title too) and then go through my photos to find one that will work.  If the colors don't match the way I want them to, I change the photo to black & white.  I know right!?  You would think that my method would be a complete scrapbook disaster and that I would never get any pages done.  Just the opposite.  Think about it.  Your favorite colors are your favorite colors and not only will you buy yours and your kids clothes in them, you'll buy your papers in them too.  Chances are that the scrapbook papers that are popular are also based on the colors that are popular in fashion and home decor.  So see, it can work.

Unlike yesterday, not all of the pages that I'm sharing today are favorites.  This one is at the top of the list mostly because of how the wood veneer was so broken that it just did not look right and was hard to color the way I wanted to.   I've also used photos of my sister at her doctrination ceremony several times so the story has mostly been told.  I will use this photo again because I really like it......  

The page was inspired by glitter girl adventure #119.   While the page is not my favorite, I do like how the 2 big pieces of the pretty paper from my January 2017 Hip Kit looked on the page.  

The floral patterned paper from the Simple Stories Reset Girl line is so perfect and beautiful!  I wanted to just frame it!!  The paper really did all of the work here and keeping it big meant that it can be enjoyed along with the photos of my daughter & my niece.....

It is truly forever Halloween in my scrapbooking space!  I have so many Halloween supplies that I will never, ever, ever use them all up.  The paper is so dark that it really could have taken away from the photo of the kids at Disney but using the big rectangle right in the middle of the page just pulled the focus straight back to the photo.  I used colored pencils to and a Zig black marker to create the journaling block...

Inspired by 2peas laura craigie storytellers "Everyday Happy" video.


Lastly I mixed it up a bit by using big triangles instead of squares or rectangles. The photo is not an over sized one so it was tricky to make sure that it didn't get lost.  I kept the colors, embellishments and patterns kind of neutral to help keep the focus on this photo of me and my hubby at the park on 4th of July.  It was super hot so we were just enjoying being near each other while we waited for the fireworks to begin.......

The page was inspired by Eva Pizarro's Halloween layout on the Pebbles blog (October 17th post).  

Thanks for stopping by everyone and happy Tuesday!