Scrapping My Little Man :)

I took some time a few weeks ago to create a few layouts of my little man. I will keep this post short and sweet, just wanted to share the pics. I used all Echo Park papers on these. They are my favorite line to scrap with for Weston. The first layout was done based on a sketch by Ashley Horton.



I hope you all have a great weekend and a Happy Easter!

Working Through My Stash and Tales of De-cluttering….

Good afternoon! In December we decided it was time to turn our office/my craft space into a bedroom for Weston. This was great for him, not so great for us in some ways. We had to find a place outside of our home to office (we’ve officed out of the home for 10 years now!) and I had to give up having a dedicated craft space. In order to do this, I had to really go through and purge a lot of stuff and get back to the basics. That means having 2 closets that contain two Ikea Expedit 16 cube shelving units. I had to be able to close those doors and have everything crafty contained in there. Plus, I had to move my beloved stainless steel top desk out to the garage So now I work in his room in the corner on a folding table, which I have pretty much ruined with paints and ink already. OK, not ruined in my opinion, but maybe in someone else’s This would also explain the fact that I rarely use my Silhouette Cameo I got for Christmas. For some reason it’s in my bedroom on the other side of the house. It wouldn’t fit in the closet.

The reason I tell you all this, is that I need to publicly acknowledge that I may have a hoarding problem. I have kits going back almost 2 years full of cute papers, neat-o embellishments, stamps, stickers…you name it. Tons of really cute stuff that I just put in a box fully intending to use, but never got around to it. I did an honest evaluation of my stash and determined first of all that all of those paper stacks (you know…the K&Co, DCWV, etc. stuff you get at Hobby Lobby and Michael’s) needed to go. There was no way I was ever going to get through them all. Plus, I once had hours on end to mix and match and coordinate different products and manufacturers. I have since learned the beauty of buying stuff that is already pre-coordinated for me. It takes the guesswork out of having a really well designed and cohesive page.

So that brings me to the point of this post. I have recently purchased some new goodies like the Maggie Holmes stuff from my last post, but I am seriously working on getting layouts done using those old kits. I have picked through some of them, so I may have to mix in a few new goodies.

That said, please don’t judge when you see (gasp!) paper lines from 2010, 2011, and early 2012. I think that good design can trump the use of older products, or at least that’s what I’m telling myself!!

Here are a few pages I have been working on. I continue to struggle with 2 page layouts, but sometimes they just have to be done.

So go ahead and dig through that stash, who knows what you’ll find!! Have a great week!

Crate Paper + Maggie Holmes = Cute Mini!

Last week I made the 52 minute drive to Archiver’s and picked up several new items from the Maggie Holmes’ Crate Paper line. As I was browsing, I noticed her adorable clipboard style mini, already preloaded with some cute base papers. So I grabbed a 6 x 6 coordinating paper pack and lots of embellishments and brought them home. I’ve really been into my art journaling lately and my scrapping has been on the back burner, but this line really inspired me to create. 

Here is a shot of my haul:

Once I got rolling on this project it really came together quickly. That is the beauty of using pre-coordinated projects. It didn’t hurt that these products are just too darn cute too! I embellished some of the die cut tags and inserted them between the pages, and finished it all off with some pink tulle and aqua rickrak from my stash. 

I hope you enjoyed the mini and have a wonderful weekend!

Edited with BlogPad Pro

Well, well, well….

Guess who finally was inspired to get scrappy? After a long drought, I finally found some time and scrapping mojo. I think with the pressure of no design teams I am feeling a lot more inclined to create. That combined with the LifeBook class that I am taking has really got me feeling inspired. For the past 2 weeks I’ve been knocking out some layouts. I can’t believe how fast some of them came together. Although like any other scrapper, I know that I will never really be caught up, I feel like I’m making some good progress. This is going to be kind of a picture heavy post, but this way I can share with you what I’ve been doing and get caught up on my blogging all at once. I have many friends’ blogs to visit and catch up with as well










The Pumpkin Patch and The Day You Were Born layouts were based on sketches from Creating Keepsakes Fast 4 x 6 pages
I hope you enjoyed the layouts are maybe found a little inspiration here as well
Take Care!

December Daily 2012…and other news

Good morning everyone! I hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas and enjoyed your holidays We had a great time the last few weeks, enjoying lots of family time together and relaxing. After Christmas, Sophie and Weston both got sick, then Ashley and her boyfriend. So I have been busy taking care of sick kiddos since then. On top of that, Weston is getting 6 teeth all at once so he’s been a bit on the crabby, clingy side. I am hoping everyone is well by the weekend and are able to go back to school on Monday. I really need to get back into our routine, and with all of the work that I have coming up I’m going to need every spare second.

With that in mind, and after doing a lot of thinking I have decided to step down from all of my design teams. It was a hard decision, but something I felt needed to be done. With Weston being so active, it’s really hard for me to sit and really focus and plan out and work on layouts. It takes me twice as long to create as it used to, and when you have a deadline to meet that can get kind of hairy! I also realized that I am more inspired when I can pick and choose which challenges I want to do. Plus I really want to focus more on my mixed media art this year (one of my 2013 goals). So…I will continue to create layouts, though it may be sporadically. I am also doing Project Life this year, which I am very excited about and will be sharing my pages of that here with you all as well. I am also doing LifeBook 2013, which you can learn about more on my art journaling blog. These two projects will be my main focus for the year and I am excited about them both. I think the PL will be a quick, easy way to maintain memory keeping without having to do big layouts (I ordered one of Becky Higgins’ pre-coordinated kits), and the LifeBook is two pages per month and is being taught by some really incredible artists!

This post is getting long, I’m realizing LOL….

Now that all of my “news” is out of the way, I wanted to share with you all my December Daily. I am feeling very proud of this, as this is the first year I’ve ever actually finished one!! Yay me This project actually is what inspired me to do Project Life. I bought a Snap book and a Simple Stories kit to complete this project and it was just amazing to me how quickly I was able to put pages together and have them look cohesive. Right now I am loving anything that looks good and saves me time!!!

Click here to view all of the pages of my December Daily. I hope you enjoy and find some good inspiration there.

I wish you all a very happy, creative, and prosperous new year!!!

Challenge Me Happy 12.15

Good morning everyone. I would like to take a moment to offer my prayers and deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones in yesterday’s tragedy in Newtown, CT. As I learned about what happened, I could not hold back my tears. I can’t imagine what those parents must be feeling today. I love my children so much, and even though they may drive me a little bit crazy I could not imagine living my life without them. So today I am holding them a little bit closer, having a little more patience, and thanking God that my babies are still with me. (even the big stinky teenage ones, because they will always be my babies no matter how old they are!)

This week’s challenge at Challenge Me Happy is a word challenge. We had to use the word “Little”. As some of you know, my Sophie is quite the little lady (or diva) and so with that in mind I created this layout of her in her fall school picture. (Photography by LifeTouch)



I’ve been working through my stash since I cleaned out everything and found this Farmhouse paper pack from Crate Paper. I totally forgot I had it! Now I am off to spend some time with my kids, feed them lunch, and enjoy the chaos. Right now Sophie is telling Weston that “he smells like a rotten tomato” and he is laughing his head off. I love these moments. Enjoy your time with your family today and make sure to tell them how much they mean to you

Challenge Me Happy 12.1

Hi everyone! This week at Challenge Me Happy we were issued a scraplift challenge. We were given a layout done by the very talented Annelie to lift.

Here is her layout:



And here is my lift, using the BoBunny Apple Cider line. It’s my pretty little Sophie in the pumpkin patch



Be sure to enter a project that is made EXCLUSIVELY for this challenge and link it up to Challenge Me Happy for a Guest DT spot!

Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday 11.30

Hello again, friends! This week at Frosted Designs our challenge is to use at least 5 buttons on a project or layout. This week our challenge is being sponsored by Creative Cuts and More! They were nice enough to send some of their amazing products to a few of us girls on the DT. I chose this cute little metal tin with cardstock accordion folded papers. I altered the tin using Tim Holtz Alcohol inks, as well as distressing and adding the metal piece on the outside.

Right now I am reading the most inspirational book “I Declare” by Joel Osteen. It has a declaration for each day of the month along with a short testimonial pertaining to that day’s declaration. I’ve been reading one each night with my daughters. It’s amazing how many nights these declarations have been exactly what one of has needed to hear that day. I chose a few of my favorite ones and put them into this tin as a reminder to be grateful for the good things in my life and mindful of the power of God in our lives.

Here is my little tin box:



And a view of the inside:



Sadly, I had more pictures to post on this, but they are on my desktop computer at my office and I knew I had to get this post in. We’ve transitioned from our home office to an outside location and all of my files are mixed up between my desktop and laptop. I need to work on getting everything in one place now since I’m using only a laptop at home now!

I hope you all enjoy your weekend. I am excited to be heading to Market Days in Wimberly tomorrow with my mother in law for some early Christmas shopping and browsing, as well as starting my December Daily, and introducing the kids to our Elf-Mr. Jangles tonight Be sure to link up your project to Frosted Designs for the chance to win a prize from Creative Cuts and More and also don’t forget to check out our post on our HUGE 12 Days of Christmas Challenge. There are a ton of prizes to win and some fun challenges going on all month long!

Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday 11.16

Hi everyone! This week over at Frosted Designs we were given a color challenge. Here is the inspiration photo:



Since Graphic 45 is this week’s sponsor, I used their papers exclusively for my layout. I thought these particular papers seemed “fallish”, even though they are from the Renaissance Faire line. This is a layout for my book again, documenting our time with baby Weston at the pumpkin patch 2 weeks ago. It’s so rare for me to get into the photos so I wanted to make sure I scrapped these.



Be sure to create your project based on the inspiration photo and link it up to Frosted Designs for the chance to win 2 paper collections from Graphic 45!

Challenge Me Happy 11.15

Hello everyone! This week’s challenge at Challenge Me Happy is a sketch challenge. Y’all know how much I love sketches . This one was done by Annelie:



Below is my take on the sketch. I am using this for my personal album. I’m trying to occasionally scrap for myself instead of the kids, since one day I will give them their books and will be left with just the pics!



The winner of this challenge will win a brand spanking new December kit from Crazy Monday Kits, a new funky kit club from New Zealand! To win, simply enter a project that is made EXCLUSIVELY for this challenge. If you don’t, your entry will not be considered for the prize. Upload the link to your blog post or gallery post with your creation before midnight 1 December NZ time (GMT + 13 hours)