Patterned Paper: K & Company "Carolyn Gavin"
I think what really makes this layout so adorable is the little Quickutz die-cut manatee, this was my friend Debra's idea. I am still not sure I got him put together as nice as she had him, but he's still cute. I sanded the edges to make it pop a little more and gave him a little bling eye using the tiniest of my CTMH Sparkles, that was Granny's idea ;o)
Patterned Paper: We R Memory Keepers "NonSense" Stack
Last year, well actually 2008, we traveled to NC to visit an old college friend, meet his wife, and their adorable new son! While we were there, they took us to a park with a quiet trail, a pond, and the perfect opportunity to take some photos. I was able to sneak these pictures while Uncle Mattie tried to teach H how to skip rocks. I love how our old friend is now H's friend too, he and his family are such great people!
Patterned Paper: Crate Paper?
Last spring, my friend and I took our little ones to the Tallahassee Junior Museum. My little angel ended up acting like a little animal, maybe she should have been in one of those cages, LOL! Just kidding!
Patterned Paper and Embellishments: DCWV Stack
These adorable little guys took over our house (and everywhere we went) this past summer. My munchkin got a little bug in her ear that she wanted Webkinz and surprisingly wanted to earn them! Her very first one was a reward after a long road trip at the beginning of summer and most of the others she bought with her own money after holding a garage sale and doing extras around the house.
By the end of summer, my darling daughter had talked Granny into creating an account and adopting a couple of Webkinz herself (pink ones, of course) and during a visit with my cousins, she worked her magic and got all of us playing! During a weeks visit, my cousin, her son, Aunt Amy, Granny, Hailey, and I had all adopted pets and were all sitting in the same room playing on the website together and visiting each other's online "homes". It was so funny!
When I started creating this layout, I knew I wanted Granny to work her magic with the little animal heads! Following the basic idea of the background paper, she was able to create a paper version of some of the Webkinz we had adopted. Above it a giraffe, frog (with its cute little pink tongue), and a monkey. Below is a lion and a hippo. So adorable! Thanks Granny!
This layout was kind of like putting together a puzzle. I just started cutting down photos to the highlight the part of the picture I liked, picked a center line and built out from there, then worked in a couple pieces of pattern paper. 
Now for the die-cuts, this was super exciting! I found a cute solid pear on Lyrical Letters Cartridge (under Shift & the tall one) but I wanted it to show the seeds, like the pp. So, I found another image that was a framed pear with the seeds showing, cut it out, then used a circle punch to punch out a circle of brown and layered that underneath the part of the pear that I also circle punched out. Next, I decided I wanted some other veggies, but couldn't find what I wanted in the carts I have... so I made my own. Using my Gypsy, I unlocked the proportions to stretch the pear (above) into an eggplant (below). Not much of a difference, but just what I needed! This is the number one reason I love my Gypsy! I can take their stock images and make them into whatever I want :o) I am one happy girl!
I am sure some of you are thinking that Cricut Design Studio does the same thing, but I am a Mac user and it is not compatible. And I really like not having to take my beautiful new MacBook Pro to crops, where something might happen to my baby! LOL! This baby isn't even paid off yet! ;o) Oh, and I have also been making my own 11.5" die-cut papers that are all the rage right now, soooo cool!
Journaling pulls out from behind the photo (where the ribbon is sticking up)
During last nights insomnia and sniffling, I stumbled onto a new challenge website called Scrapfit and decided to try it out on this layout. I am waaaay outside my box on this page, mostly because of this funky paper, but it's all done and kinda cool! And all I had to do was follow these rules:
The last couple of nights I have not been able to sleep, mostly because I am fighting some sort of cold and nap anytime I can during the day (big mistake!) So at night, I sneak away into my little oasis and create. I have been working on this one for a couple of nights now and finally have it the way I want it. I also got to use my new Pink Cricut Expression for the title! I have only gotten to play with it a handful of times, so I hope to start using it and taking advantage of all it has to offer very soon!
I have a feeling I am going to be sneaking away more often now since hubby got my last shelf put in today and I am getting all the final touches put in and all my goodies organized! :o) Thanks hubby! One of the mind-numbing things that helped to get me to sleep on Friday night was hand sewing the stems of all these flowers, cutting out the flowers and leaf petals, and sewing the buttons into the centers of the flowers... turned out cute, but so very time consuming.
I think this is the final layout from H's Birthday this year. I reserve the right to post another though, lol! I have really had fun with this birthday! Usually, birthdays are one of my top two least favorite things to scrapbook, so it is quite unusual that I would drag out one birthday to four or five layouts! The flourishes on the above page are supposed to represent her "blowing" out the candles on her cake, get it? More flips on this layout, one of the pictures is of my house after the party! Wow! After having twenty little-ones trampling my living room, I was pleasantly surprised that there were no cake stains on the carpet, but there was quite a mound of wrapping paper the size of my couch! It was a really good, smooth party!
PP: Heidi Grace It's My Party "Cake" and "Decor Words"
On to the layout, trying to finish up all of H's birthday party. I wanted to capture all the party guests and all the activities of the party, so I made little flip ups so that there are 3 photos in the each footprint and a couple of group shots. Granny is always trying to remember (for some crazy reason) names of people I went to preschool with (which was a looong time ago), so I am pleasing her and actually writing it all down for H.
Under one of the flips is a picture of H on the webcam with Granny during the party. We set up a two webcam's so that Granny & Papa could "be there" even though they are 350 miles away. Granny told me it was better than actually being there because she could mute it when the kiddos got too loud! Too funny!
PP: Heidi Grace It's My Party "Party Gifts" and back of "Decor Stripes", "Reagans Closet" pink micro-grid
This picture doesn't look like much to some of you, but to others I am sure you can feel my little twinge of joy. We recently moved in a new home, a small apartment to be exact. That thought may scare of alot of you, but for me it was exciting. I have never lived in an apartment before (except for a very large apartment when hubby was running one of the dorms on campus, but that was very different) so I was excited for this new adventure in our life. Hailey was more than thrilled since we let her paint her room pink and we now have a pool just a few yards away (most importantly, one that I do not have to tend to!) But, to get to the point, we have been here a little over a month and I have been having fun moving in, decorating, organizing, and generally just making it feel like home. One of the little things for me that makes it home is my plants and my scrapbooks. I was so excited when I figured out how to arrange the living room so that my favorite buffet table could sit just behind the couch with my orchids on top receiving the perfect southeastern exposure... and my scrapbooks below. This table is probably four feet long, and the bottom shelf is lined with all my completed scrapbooks. So, this photo represents all my memories of a wonderful life, all my hard work (and fun) I had making those layouts, and to a smaller degree, the results of my credit card bill ;o) LOL! But, I love that the albums are down low so that Hailey can look at them whenever she wants (and she does frequently!) I also love how neatly organized and lined up they are... yes, I am a little OCD, but I have learned to embrace it.
So, back at the beginning of the month I got an email from Pam, that I had won the July Sketch Contest over on her website at Kraft Girl Kits with my layout "National Champions". A few days later, I was super excited to receive a package in the containing all of these goodies! Thanks so much Pam! I can't wait to get a project started, there are so many fun things in here... I have something special up my sleeve, but it will have to wait for awhile ;o)
The girls gave me a good razzing last night while I was working on this layout, but that's okay, all in good fun! The top page is from the Kraft Girls July Sketch Contest, really fun sketch to work with. I then created my own something for the second page of the layout, below. The Gator head is a sticker that we got at the game, I just dusted the back with baby powder to make it not sticky anymore, then used foam tape to make it pop off the page.
