Making up for lost time!

I am making up for a lot of missing scrapping time.  I have about 7 layouts that I did since last posting and have been waiting to put them in albums until I photographed them... finally did that today so I am just posting them all, not a lot of details.  But, if you have a question please just leave me a comment and I will be happy to share a technique, manufacturer, or supply inquiry.

By the way, all of my layouts are two-page layouts and generally have some flow across the page.  So, if you go to the link --> over there to see my gallery, you can see the pages next to each other and they make a little more sense :o)  Enjoy!

This is a layout from Summer 2009 that I did during my girls weekend but had been waiting on the enlargement.  My little girls first official ballet class... not her cup of tea!  She has never asked to do ballet again since! :o) Which cracks me up since I did ballet for over a dozen years!

Valetine's Party at VPK waaaayyy back in Feb 2009!  Can't believe how young she looks in that bottom right photo, still has the little baby chub!  Awww, I miss her little rolls!

I totally cheated on this one and bought it from my mom (SBFO on eBay and etsy) because I was totally in love with that little bear in the dress!  Thanks mommy, I love my layout and these were the perfect pictures!

When we first moved to Tally, Miss H took TaeKwonDo lessons for a little while.  She was so funny to watch and was actually pretty good at it... unlike ballet ;o)  I would like to see her eventually pick an activity and stick with it, but I figure she is young and should experience a variety... she def has tried a number of things in the last year or so!

The title photo needs a little explanation, so maybe I will revisit this layout another time... but it is overall a "year in review" layout from VPK.

Oh, we had sooo much fun at our Girl Scouts Skate Night!  Mommy stayed off the skates though, one wobbly woman was enough for daddy to steady!  I am quite proud of those die-cut skates... I actually did those all by myself, free-hand, no diagram, and no outside inspiration!  They even have real tied-up laces and big brads to look like wheel-bearings!  Pretty cool, huh?!

And finally... You are my sunshine!  On the last day of VPK, the school had a huge pool party with blowup water slides and shaving cream!  Great way to end the year!  And a great way to end this post!

Monkey Business

Can I just tell you... I am so excited about this little guy!  I actually made him all by myself :o) No help from Mommy (of course, she was really sick otherwise I am sure she would have been happy to help).  I used the Cricut Gypsy to tweak one of the monkeys and manipulated a couple different layers to get the different colors.  He turned out so cute, and exactly the size and proportion I needed.  Ok, so maybe I do love my Gypsy sometimes... I definitely wouldn't love my Cricut without my Gypsy that's for sure!!!

The layout is of my munchkins summer classes at our local gymnastics place.  She is definitely my little monkey, hanging and swinging and climbing all over the equipment... no fear!

The tree branches are from the Quickutz border die... I just trimmed down the main 12" branch into the two pieces I needed.  The leaves were hand cut from patterend paper that happened to be the perfect size and colors.

So maybe this layout is my favorite from Girls Weekend!  I can't decide!

My Fish

Egg Frenzy

Juicy

Okay, so I am a total slacker at blogging!  Life took over and I never got around to posting the rest of the layouts, so here goes!   This layout was from our visit to the Dole Plantation in Oahu, Hawaii.  We learned alot and tasted some very juicy pineapples, hence the title!  

ready, set, LEARN!

One of my favorite layouts of the week, I actually started this one before but wasn't able to put the finishing touches on until I got to Granny's and could take advantage of all her different fonts!  :o)  I think my favorite part of this layout was the way I could use just one of the lined die-cut papers by cutting off one side and spreading it apart with the other patterns between... kinda looks like one really wide sheet of lined paper, don't ya think?

My friend Jodi scrap-lifted this layout and was able to use just my scraps and one piece of her own die-cut paper, pretty cool.  I started this layout so long ago I can't remember whether I lifted it from somewhere or came up with it on my own, lol!  How's that for bad memory?!  I do know that this is one of my kits from Kraft Girl Kits that I am hoarding because have closed up shop :o(   I loved this kit so much that when I found out they were closing, I ordered an extra!  This ribbon is from an old CTMH set and the buttons are just from my stash.  The title is Quickutz Holiday, CK Handprint, and Yogurt.

Girl's Escape 2009

During my trip last week, I decided I had to scrap last year's trip before I came home with hundreds more photos from this year's trip!  All of the 4x6 photos flip open and my journaling is hidden under there too.  We went to the same restaurant and had the same meal as last year... except this year was NOT a good experience!  Nevertheless, we had a great time and the view was awesome of course... how could we complain sitting on the dock watching the sunset?!

Just a taste!

I am back from my annual amazing Girls Getaway... somehow we talked our hubbies into 6 days this year and they all did a great job of holding down the forts while we were away!  I am photographing and processing the layouts as quick as I can, but I think I have a cold coming on so I am taking it easy.  I will share one of my layouts now and hopefully get the rest up as the week goes on.    Our layout count this year was 39 completed layouts (a mix of single and doubles) and granny did 18 base layouts (just missing the photos)!  Most of the 39 were done by Jodi who managed to crank out 14 two-page layouts and 9 single pagers!!!  Wow!

I have to say a huge Thank You to Granny and Papa for hosting (that's my Mom & Dad).  They had the house all staged for cropping with stations for the Cricut, sewing machine, Quickutz, and Accucut.  We each got our own bedroom (for the little sleeping we did), and they planned most of our meals!  They are amazing!  Papa made us dinner & dessert every night (except our Birthday Dinner night) and made us lunch quite a few times as well!  

Here is the first of my 9 layouts...

This one was the quickest layout of just about all time!  Start to finish was about an hour, maybe two... seeing as it was about 3am I couldn't really read tell time, lol!   I hand cut the trees and bus out of one of the patterned papers.  Wheels was punched out using my newest Quickutz font Strawberry, which I am sooo in love with! And BUS was punched out of one of granny's fonts using chipboard then painted it, I think it was a Sizzix Bigz font?  The buttons are CTMH Craft buttons.

She started it!

Well, I have obviously been neglecting my blog. I have been scrapping though, just haven't had time to photo and post the layouts. My mom recently did a post... about me... to my surprise! Actually, it's more about my scrap room. So, I thought it would be good to dust off the blog and share my scrap space with all of you, too.

This is my little scrap closet... And I do mean LITTLE! My desk measures 24x40 and there is j-u-s-t enough room for a chair, so I can close the door if I want/need solitude. It is supposed to be my hall closet, but my dear hubby decided I needed a place of my own and we could find a home for "normal closet stuff". {I actually think he could foresee me using the dining room table for the rest of our lives and never eating on it again :o) }

So, I designed on paper what I wanted on each shelf, measuring along the way and he custom built the shelves. My dad made me the wooden boxes that house all of my 12x12 paper. If you have ever met me, or maybe just read here occassionally, you know I am a little ocd about color... I love ROY-G-BIV! I love having everything in the order of the rainbow, it makes for a bright happy feeling when I need something!

If you click on the photos they will enlarge so you can look closer, if you feel the need. And feel free to comment or email if you have any questions about organization or any products you see. After helping friends get organized over the years, we all come to say the same thing... once you find a home for everything it really helps you be more productive and surprisingly helps you spend less because you know what you have and whether you have room for it if you buy it, lol! Hope this helps someone out there! ;o)

orange vs. BLUE

Again with the wonky colors, I just dont get it! I even played with Photoshop on these! Oh well, I think we all know what shade these colors are supposed to be :o) This house bleeds orange and blue! Last year, we were fortunate enough to be able to arrange a bit of a reunion of old friends from UF and coordinated it with the Orange & Blue spring game. We had a blast and got to meet all the new additions (current & future) to our families!

This side of the layout is a scraplift of one I saw on Kelly Noel's blog. Of course, hers was sooo much cuter! I was having a hard time with all the journaling strips and fru-fru stuff. I did play with my Cricut & Gypsy with the title and title block. So, I was happy with that.

Of couse, I like to include the tickets from the event... that pretty much covers the date & place for my journaling. I just added a few little notes on the sticker plaques.

PP: Misc picked up along my travels ;o)

CS: CTMH Autumn Terracotta, Moonstruck, White Daisy

Cricut: Accent Essentials (antique frame), Don Juan (BLUE), Lyrical Letters (orange)

Quickutz: Nesting Circles

Other: Rick Rack, Ribbon, Felt Flowers, Heidi Swapp Bling in the center of a couple flowers, Scenic Route sticker frames

Home of the Braves

On a trip to Atlanta last summer, we had the privilege of attending a Braves games. It was so hot and humid, but I think we all truly had a good time. Even though Hailey refused to smile for the camera, she was having a blast hamming it up for everyone around us making faces and doing the Gator Chomp instead of the Braves Chop! Doesn't go over so well in Georgia, doing the Florida Gator chomp... but most people thought it was funny! Towards the end, she did finally get the chop... she has no plans on ever making that motion again. :o) Yes, I realize my neighbors are cringing and glaring at me right now, lol! But being born at UF, kinda makes her a Gator Girl for life!

On to the layout, enough sports debate. This is the other layout I got done on Saturday at the crop... even though my hubby just looked at me and said "That's all you did for 8 hours, two layouts!?" What can I say, four hours a layout is actually making good time for me.

The colors on this side of the layout are a little wonky... someday I will learn how to use Photoshop and fix this, but oh well. You get the idea! No sketch, but really similar to the Queen Bee layout and pretty simple.

PP: Reminisce Patriotic

CS: CTMH White Daisy, Cranberry, Outdoor Denim

Quickutz: Stardust Grand

Ribbon: (from the stash)

Chipboard Stars: from Granny's Accucut

Paint: Making Memories

White Uniball Gel Pen

Queen Bee

I managed to get two whole layouts done at yesterday's crop! This is one of them, but I totally cheated and copied my friend's layout... darn near exactly! :o) Thanks Jodi! Funny part is, it still took me the same amount of time to scraplift! Jodi did this layout last year at our girls retreat and I wonder if I subconsciously encouraged Miss H to be a Bee for Halloween this year so that I could copy the layout! LOL!

I picked up this paper in the Target dollar bins, thanks to my friend Jenn for showing it to me. It was one of the only Halloween type papers I could find that used yellow instead of orange to coordinate with the yellow/black bee theme. The little bumblebees I made on the Gypsy with layers of yellow, black, and vellum generic egg shapes. I used the flourish and bling to mimic the flight pattern. I also have to share that the day of Halloween, Miss H decided that a Queen Bee needed a crown to go with the costume. So, I used one of her old princess crowns, painted black where the "stones" were and used pipe-cleaners and yellow puff balls to make her a Bee Crown/Antennae. She loved it!

PP: Target Scrapbooking Supplies

CS: CTMH Honey & Black

Quickutz: Moxie Classic, Flourish

Embellies: RickRack (from the sewing stash), Bling

White UniBall Gel pen for journaling and detailing

Cricut: Doodlecharms (egg outline)

Imagine It! & Fritz's

These are not the best pictures because I had to photo them in the page protector... so you get the whole "picture" of what I did. And, I am probably going to do a horrible job of explaining this, but pictures are supposed to be worth a thousand words anyways, right?! These photos were taken a couple of years ago at the Imaine It! Children's Museum in Atlanta, GA. If you are ever in the area, it was a fantastic and relaxing place to spend an entire day! She had a blast and the place was so low key, that I was actually able to sit down and watch her play! Great place!

Anywhoo, the right side of the layout is normal, no flips or anything special interactive. But the other side, with the big enlargements... That side is cool! One of my better thoughts on making pages interactive, if I do say so myself :o) The pictures had so much going on in them, that I had to make them big in order to really get a feel for the place and all the details... the problem was making them big and keeping them all safe! So, I came up with the idea to use a 9x9 page protector and sew it to my layout! I ordered 8x10 photos and trimmed them to 8x9, I put two of the photos in the page protector and other was attached to the layout. This left me 1" of page protector extra to sew to my layout. I was able to get THREE 8x9 photos on this page! And they are all safe. That is probably clear as mud, but if you really want to get it, you just have to come over and see it. Here is a close up (the photo is upside down) of the top of the photo attached to layout, where I cut my 12x12 protector to slide the 8x9 protector out.

Here is a closeup of where I sewed the 8x9 protector to the actual layout with the 2 photos inside, then mounted the third directly to the layout slightly overlapping the 8x9 protector.

The next layout is a really old, reallllly simple one, but what was cool about his one was that I needed a pp that had pink and navy, but could only find pink and brown. I cut some CTMH Outdoor Denim cardstock in to strips, distressed them to match the feel of the paper and adhered them over the brown stripes, voila. Exactly what I needed.

Fritz's was a really cool restaurant in Kansas City, MO that delivered your lunch via a train! At the time, H was totally into trains and thought that was the coolest thing ever!

Oh, and you ordered your lunch via the telephone on your table and got to wear cool conductor hats! Oh the things we do for our children... dear hubby might not appreciate me posting this photo, but I think he cute as a conductor :o)

Disney Layouts

After I finished all the Disney layouts to go in my album, I decided to make a front and back cover page. The front holds our ticket stubs and one of my fav pics of the castle. The back cover is my one and only pic of Epcot (since we spent a whole 20 minutes soaking wet there) along with a guide map, so I can plan my next visit :o)

Above

Vellum Paper: unknown

Quickutz: Magnolia Grand, Lemonade Skinni Mini

Cardstock: Dutch Blue, Cranberry, Black

Embellies: Retired CTMH Ribbon

Below:

Patterned Paper: CTMH Floral Tapestry

Cardstock: CTMH Hollyhock, Baby Pink, Indian Corn Blue

Quickutz: Spicy Chicken Grand

Embellies: CTMH Ribbon Hollyhock & Garden Green

Not a clue where either pocket template came from!

This is one of my favorite layouts in the Disney Album... Eeyore! Super simple layout, but the photos speak to my heart! All I did was dry-emboss the lines using the indentation on my paper trimmer, then sanded to reveal the white core.

Cardstock: CTMH Craberry, Black, Grey Flannel

Quickutz: Blossom Grand

Embellies: CTMH Buttons & Ribbon Rounds