Joshua's School album

Hello friends! I am back as promised. Today I am sharing the first two page layout for Joshua's school album. Just as with Leah's album, I am limited by the pictures that his teachers were able to take. So unfortunately, for his infant class, we only had 3 photos!

The products I used are from the Becky Higgins School expansion kit.

His teachers took the photo of him in the bouncy seat and hung it on the door of his classroom at Christmas time along with the personalized stockings. I know that they were made with construction paper and are not archival safe, but I wanted to keep it real. The small photo to the right we took of him just before we headed out the door on his first day of daycare. I created the subtitles using Angled Labels from Papertrey Ink. I bought this stamp set with scrapbooking in mind and I have used it quite a bit for that reason.

The second page of the layout includes some journaling cards from the kit. Andy was able to join him for Doughnuts with Dad. I cut out the information and header from the monthly newsletter for the journaling and title. And you have to love the notes that would come home with him. He was known for explosive diapers and vomiting. Sigh. I did some machine stitching along the border of the cardstock for a bit of interest. It's amazing that these infant years seem so distant. I can't believe he is in VPK!

That's all for now. Thanks for stopping by!

Catching up

Hello friends! I hope you are all doing well. We enjoyed a relaxing Labor Day weekend: cooking on the grill and enjoying the pool.

With back to school, I know lots of people are creating for the Fall. I, however, am playing catch up on some projects that I never got around to working on from last February. You may recall that I shared Joshua's Valentine's album this past summer on this post. After the kiddos big super hero party, which was 3 weeks ago, I spent some time helping a friend create some projects for her wedding. So this past weekend I spent some time playing catch up.

 

I repeated some of the designs from the first album. I hate to lack in the creativity department, but the truth is, I really want to finish up these little projects so I can begin working on some other bigger projects. I used products from DeNami Design, PaperTrey Ink, and Altenew. I also used my Silhouette Cameo for the title. Yes, I stamped the hearts upside down or glued the "S" on upside down. Either way, I am okay with it. The ring clips are temporary just to hold the project together. I have a bunch of sliver ones that won't open, grrrr.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every year I make these albums, I have the kids help make some of the embellishments for the album. Then, of course, I snap some photos of them being crafty. He scribbled lightly with the colored pencils. Leah punched out the hearts and painted them. He did glue everything on including placing the washi tape. Here is some of his artwork and hand prints which I always do for these albums as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pause in crafting because he was mesmerized by what ever was playing on my phone at the time. I love that face!

 

Well, that is all for me today. I hope you have a great rest of the week! Thanks for stopping by!

 

Valentine Mini album (better late than never)

Hello friends! I hope you all had an awesome weekend. Yesterday my sister and her family were in town because my nephew was playing in a tennis tournament just down the road from where we live. He has played in a few at that park. So happy that it is close by. We've been able to visit a lot with them and I am so happy for the time that we get to spend together.

 

Today I have a mini album to share with you. Tradition has it that I take photos of my kiddos for Valentine's Day. The reason being... how can I resist them dressed up in red and hearts. And it also happens to fall around their half birthday which is a guarantee that I will have photos of them at least half way through each year since there are always birthday photos.

 

So with these photos, I started making mini albums. Why you ask? Let's just say that the Target dollar spot made it super easy to grab some paper and albums and the rest is history. So the last time I made an album ***insert hanging head in shame*** was in 2012 for my daughter, Leah. So I finally chose some photos for Joshua and also some photos from 2103 and  2104 and printed them!!! Um, that's right, to make mini albums, your pictures must leave your hard drive and end up in your actual hands lol! I am just going to blame it on the fact that I was working super hard these last few months to finish up Joshua's baby album. It is a good excuse, honest.

 

So enough babbling, here is Joshua's super simple, only 5 page album. For this album, I used some of my DeNami Design stamps and products. I emphasize some, because they have so many wonderful stamps, that I couldn't fit them all into 5 pages. I only repeated two stamps...just because.

 

 

To make the album, I used my Papertrey Ink Tabbed Mini Book Page die. For the cover, I used my silhouette cameo to cut out the year. The font used was Impact and I also offset it. I inked up Teeny Heart Background in pink ink over the white cardstock. Then I stamped a heart from Hearts stamp set and fussy cut it out. I layered it over a piece of red cardstock that I had die cut using my banner die.

 

 

For the first page I printed it out my picture at 4x6 and then trimmed it some. I added some Red/white hearts washi tape to the botton and then adhered the picture over a small portion of it. Then I  inked up XOXO and stamped it onto a piece of a die cut ticket I had laying around. I also stamped some more pink hearts from Teeny Heart background. Lastly, I added a few stitches with my machine.

 

 

For the second page, I used Teeny Heart background again, this time inked up in red. I tore a few pieces of scrap paper and layered it around the edges. I wanted it to have an irregular shape and I think I achieved that. I used another piece of red banner and heat embossed my sentiment from Love Sentiment stamp set. I stamped Small heart circle and punched it out with my 3/4in circle punch.

 

For the third page, I used this card for the design. Um, I love this heart placed inside of Love Circle, which was featured as a product spotlight this year. I used my Circle Interlock embossing folder and added some sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

 

For the fourth page, I inked up Small Splatter in pink several times, changing the angle. Then I stamped Love Script which has also been a product spotlight feature. I stamped Small heart outline in black onto red cardstock and trimmed it out.

 

 

For the last page, I also used this card as inspiration. I stamped the stitched heart from Hearts stamp set in red and pink in a "random" pattern. And I used Love You Forever for my sentiment.

 

 

And here is my little guy,  proudly holding up his album. All I could get was a cheesy grin. Oh well. I can't believe he will be turning 3 in less than a month. He was only 7 months old in those album photos. Where has the time gone?

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

Final layout: Your Room

 Hi friends! So this is it...the last layout to share for my son's baby album. Honestly, I am not super pleased with how this page turned out, but I am happy to have completed the layout for his album. This is the second page of this layout.

 

 

I have been using the Becky Higgins Sweet Baby kit. The 12x12 paper is actually divided into thirds with one third being blue. I laid my photos and other blue strip of paper over it to hide the line. The title was cut with my Silhouette, the stars are from PTI Star Prints, and the brown cardstock is Bazzill. I described the details of his room on the journal tabs that are on the opposite page. I must say that I have loved using my Cricut and Silhouette to decorate his room, although my Cricut has been collecting a little dust lately since my Silhouette arrived. I love them both, though.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

First Home

TGIF! I hope you have had a great week. Today I am popping in with a layout that I created for my son's baby album.

I have been using the Becky Higgins Sweet Baby Kit. This page is a part of the "beginning" part of the kit. It includes the journal pocket and journal cards. The thing that I love about this kit is the journal cues that are included. I honestly wouldn't have thought about some of these details to share, so I think that is spectacular. Everything on this page is from the kit. Fairly simple and to the point. Although I love these journal cards and the chipboard circle titles, they kind of limit the design of some of the pages. Oh well. Sometimes the details are more important.

 

 

I have actually completed the second page of this layout, but plan to share it another day. So I have officially finished his baby album layouts. The remaining part of the album is to complete the time capsule page. This is laid out like the current project life style. So to me, it is not technically a layout. There are other journaling bits/milestones that I need to put down on paper. The kits comes with these monthly pages about the size of the journal card you see on this page. So it's just a matter of getting them written down in the album.

 

Thanks for stopping by!



Mom Says and Dad Says

Happy Wednesday friends! I hope you are having a good week so far. I  am popping in with a couple of layouts.

 

These two pages are a part of the Becky Higgins Sweet Baby kit. The papers and chipboard come with the kit. I used Photoshop to create the smaller pictures to fit perfectly in the squares. I tried to choose some random pictures over Joshua's first year. The center pictures we took when he was only 3 weeks old and the 4x6 photos were our first Mother's Day and Father's Day with him. As you can tell from the journaling, daddy seems to have a bit less to say. lol.

 

 

 

Only 2 pages left until his album is complete. Yay! Since starting my blog I have posted every layout I completed from his baby album and also from Leah's school album. I finished Leah's baby album before I started blogging so I feel like I should share a bit from her album at some point. If time permits, then I will do that.

 

Have a great rest of the week. I will be back Friday with a special card to share.

National Scrapbooking Day, Pages with Papertrey

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!!! I am jumping up and down over here! This year I actually have something to share. Yay!!!

 

If you follow my blog, then you know I have been working on my son's baby album. The end is close. Aaaaagh!!!

 

As I was putting together this page, I decided that I would play along with Pages with Papertrey sketch #22. Originally I was only going to have one photo on this page, but I felt like it was lacking something. So this sketch was great.

 

It doesn't go perfectly with the sketch, since the 12x12 patterned paper came that way from the Becky Higgins Sweet Baby kit. This page is opposite the monthly spread I shared a few days ago. Joshua had recently turned a year old and I also bought a remote shutter release for my camera. So I propped it up on a tripod and let Leah press the release button. She had such a fun time taking these pictures of us.

 

The center strip of patterned paper is from the kit along with the chipboard accent. I inked up PTI's Star Prints, Just the Ticket, FF#5, and Boy Basics: Grunge me (all used on the tickets). I used Tag Sale #3 for my journaling and the smile is a rub-on from the kit.

 



 

Thanks for stopping by and happy scrapbooking!

 

Pages with Papertrey sketch #31

Hello! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend. The hubs and I had a great time enjoying some of the Florida Music Festival. If you missed my earlier post about this event, you can find out more here. I managed to find some time on Sunday afternoon to put this page together for Pages with Papertrey sketch #31. I had originally designed this page before even seeing the sketch. It is a bit off, but I believe my collage of photos works well with the sketch.

 

This page is one of the last 6 pages in my son's baby album. I have been using the Becky Higgins Sweet Baby kit. The 12x12 is patterned paper that is a part of the kit. I made my monthly images of my son into 2.5 inch squares, adhered them to a piece of rustic cream cardstock and trimmed off a small portion. I slipped on some photo corners  and then I adhered it to the patterned paper. I added the blue ruler sticker border that is also from the kit. I used my Tim Holtz tiny attacher for the staples and then adhered the chipboard stars that are also from the kit.

 

I love how this page captures just how much my little guy changed in his first year of life. I am so happy to have these memories.

 

I got the idea to take/make these monthly photos of my son from Susan Weinroth. She has a tutorial on her blog about how to make these onesies. As you can tell by the 12 month photo, I had run out of the white onesies and just couldn't bear to buy another packet of them for one photo session. So I just had him hold the cardstock up.

 

Well, that is all for now. I hope to find some time in my craftroom this week, but as we know, sometimes is just doesn't work out. Have a great week! Thanks for stopping by!

Nearing the end and an update

That's right. Today I have the second page of month 12 to share with you for Joshua's baby album. I believe I will only have 4-6 simple pages left to finish the album. Yay!!!

 

 

 

If you have been following along with his album, then you know that the main part uses Becky Higgins Sweet Baby kit. The cream cardstock and arrows are the only part not from the kit. I did use my Silhouette to cut out the title and arrows. I did add some machine stitching through the title. If you look closely (although I blurred out some details of the journaling for privacy), you may notice some aqua splatters. I used Small Splatter from DeNami Design to create a bit of a water splash to compliment the photo.

 

So happy to be on the homestretch of his baby album. Work has been busy and so has the rest of life that I haven't had much opportunity to craft in large amounts of time. But like they say in "What About Bob?"...baby steps, baby steps.

 

On a side note, the hubby and I celebrated 11 years of marriage yesterday. Unfortunately after dinner, we forgot to take our group selfie. Oh well. And this was the first year that we did not buy each the traditional anniversary gift or give each other a card. Like I said, we've just been a little busy.

 

 He had a gig with his band, ELEVATORS, 2 weeks ago. He has performed at this venue once before and we had an awesome time watching their performance. They are gearing up for the Florida Music Festival at the end of the month. They currently have one song that is recorded. They plan on fundraising to earn some more money to record a few more songs and have an EP release. I am so excited for him and the rest of the band. You can find their current release here. (Btw, my hubs is the one on the left playing the blue bass guitar.)

 

 

Tomorrow is the DeNami Design Buttons and Bows blog hop, so Leah and I will be back to share our creations. That's right, my little girl has something quite creative to share. Thanks for stopping by!

Pages with Papertrey

TGIF!!! This week has been super busy at work and home. Lucky for me, I had almost 40 hours before I went in to work today. That meant I would get to go home as soon our patient load would allow. So as soon as I got home, I quickly went to work on this layout. All week, I would find a bit of time to work on it. I just had to create the title and figure out where to put my few embellishments since most of the page consists of photos. The page plays along with Pages with Papertrey challenge #21: include birthday photos in your layout and use 1 PTI stamp and sketch #21.

 

 

This page represents just a few of the photos taken for my son's first birthday party. To see more photos from this day, you can visit my sister's blog and this post. There was a glitch with her blog so some photos are missing, but you will still be able to appreciate all of the events.

 

I have been using Becky Higgins Sweet Baby kit for his baby album. But sadly, the only thing from the kit on this page is the 12x12 patterned paper. The rest of the elements are from PTI: Boy Basics: Rock On, Star Prints, Block Alphabet die and Pretty Peonies Happy die. This layout can also play along with challenge #11 which is to include an element on your page other than a photo. As you tell by the birthday hat photo, I saved the guitar/star embellishment and added it to the page.

 

On Sunday, we will be joining my sister and her family to celebrate my niece's birthday. She is turning 6. And I am happy to report that my little Leah has finally cut one of her top teeth. Pretty soon her toothless grin will be no more. I will be sad to see it go. They grow up way to fast. Also on Sunday, Leah and I are participating in the DeNami blog hop, so be sure to stop by and see what we have created.

 

Have a great weekend!

 

 

11 months and Happy 6 1/2 Birthday Leah!

Hi friends! I hope you are all doing well. Today I might normally be sharing a post for CAS-ual Fridays, but since my DT term has come to an end, I thought I would share a layout that I completed a couple of days ago. I am closing in on finishing up Joshua's baby album. This page completes the two page layout for month 11.  When I originally designed it, it was going to play along with pages for Papertrey but that didn't pan out. I used a sketch from Got Sketches that you can find here. All of the elements are from the Becky Higgins Sweet baby kit except the stamped stars and kraft cardstock. The exposure of these photos were taken at sunset, so a huge thank you to my sister for saving the quality of these pictures.

 

I also wanted to wish my precious girl a Happy 6 1/2 Birthday! As tradition has it, we will be celebrating with cupcakes tonight. And this year we decided that we would take her to have her ears pierced. She didn't want them pierced for the longest time. I think it is pretty sweet that she waited this long because I was the same age when I had mine pierced.

 

 

Well, that is all for now. Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Pages with Papertrey sketch#18

Hello friends! I hope you had an awesome week. Mine was pretty productive on the homefront. Since I got off of work early today and I can't pick up the kids just yet, I thought I would pop in to share a layout that I finished yesterday. It plays along with Pages with Papertrey sketch#18. I did rotate the sketch and where there was a bit of blank space, I added another photo to fit my needs.

 

 

All of the elements are from the Becky Higgins Sweet Baby kit except the kraft and cream cardstock and twine. I diecut the title and added some machine stitching on the orange paper. I realize that although this is my son's baby album, I did add pink because of Leah's dress. When he is just in a diaper in the photos, I can do that, right? I also used Tag Sale#5 for my journaling. 

 

As soon as I pick up Leah from school, we will be busy making Valentine treats for her class and her brother's class. We've got lots to make, so I better get going. Thanks for stopping by!

 

Pages with Papertrey, Sketch #14

Happy Hump Day! I hope you have had a good week so far. I have been working on organizing some things around the house (that seems to never end, right?), some DT work and finishing up Joshua's baby album. Today I have a layout to share with you for Pages with Papertrey, Sketch #14.

 

 

This sketch is pretty simple. Thanks Leigh! You make scrapbooking less stressful.

 

 

All of the supplies are from the Becky Higgins Sweet Baby kit except the die cut title. I used some coasterboard to add more depth. The cream colored rectangle around my journaling is an acetate from the kit. I realize that this layout appears really crooked, but I struggled with getting the photo straight and cropping it.

 

That's all for me today. Have a great rest of the week!

Pages with Papertrey #17

Hi there! I hope you are all doing well and staying warm. I am popping in today with a layout that I created for Pages with Papertrey challenge 17. For this challenge, we are to create a layout using a Make-it-Monday technique. To be honest, it has been forever since I have been able to play along with PTI's challenges or any challenges for that matter. Sigh. And I also noticed that this challenge actually went up a year ago. So of course I am way behind on these challenges, but I am nearly finished with Joshua's baby album. To play along, I chose the challenge I most recently played along with which is creating a flag border. 

 

The pattern papers are from the Becky Higgins Sweet Baby kit except the mini dot Hawaiian Shores where I placed the title is PTI. The alpha stickers along with the dragonfly border are also from the kit. To create my border I die cut the papers with Tag Sale #5 and also Double Ended banner. Since I didn't crop the lower right photo, I had less room for journaling, so I added some more on the tag behind the lower left photo. I love that photo since it was the first Mother's Day that I celebrated with Joshua.

That's all for me today. I hope you have a great rest of the week. Thanks for stopping by!

 



Pages with Papertrey sketch #13

Happy Friday! I am back, as promised, with another layout to share for Pages with Papertrey. This time I am playing along with Pages with Papertrey sketch 13. This layout is the second of month 9 in Joshua's baby album. The other page can be found here.

 



 

Until Josh was 1 years old, I took a picture of him every month. I made him a onesie to wear. You can find the tutorial here by Susan Weinroth. So for this month, my sister happened to be visiting so she brought along a prop. Um, we knew that he would be too big, but went ahead and stuffed him in this teacup planter. He was so stinkin' cute because he couldn't move! What better way to capture a picture of a little one who is always on the go. Ha! If you would like to see more photos from this photo session you can go here to my sister's original post. Thanks Auntie Eva for capturing these memories!

 

 

The patterned papers are from the Becky Higgins Sweet Baby kit along with the brown rub on letters, stars and striped ribbon. The cardstock is PTI (except the Kraft) and I die cut the letters and tag. The cream panel is embossed with Circle Interlock which DeNami Design carries, the twine is Lawn Fawn and the subtitle is from CAS-ual Fridays Rad.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Pages with Papertrey #11 and Elevators

Hi friends! I hope you are having a great week so far. The kids were off from school yesterday and the hubby and I actually had the day off. So we caught up a bit on some house stuff.

If you saw my post on Friday, you may have read that my husband was going to be playing in a music gig with some friends. Elevators (the name of their band) is a rock band and my guy does not look like a typical rocker. He is the tall one on the left wearing his "rock star" glasses. I am working on figuring out how to edit/add the little video I did. Once I do, I will put up another post. It was such a fun night and the band rocked it out. Way to go Niki, Matt, Ryan and Andy!

Now for my layout..

With the holidays behind us and some design team work under my belt, I found some time to work on some pages. I will slowly get those up on the blog too. The first page I have to share is for Pages with Papertrey #11: Preserve an element (other than photos or journaling). Yes, I know I am way behind on challenges, but the good news is that I only have 5 pages left!

When I first saw this challenge, I knew immediately that I was going to create a layout preserving my son's first hair cut.  Technically the first time that his sweet little head saw clippers, he was only 3 months old because he had a baby mullet that needed to disappear. So when his gorgeous locks needed a real hair cut, I called up my stylist, Ken. Ken has been doing my hair since 2002 and the gray hairs on my head are quite thankful for his artistry.

There were two separate occasions where I thought I had misplaced this lock of hair *gasp* Thankfully, I found it.

The inspiration for the design of this page was this layout. I had previously sketched out something else and it just wasn't coming together. The papers are from the Becky Higgins Sweet Baby kit, rustic cream cardstock and die cut letters are PTI, along with the date stamp. The "memories" stamp is Ali Edwards Favorite Memories. It's crazy how Joshua's lock of hair looks so dark, almost blackish. It was light brown. And it is amazing how thick it has grown in. The picture below was taken a week ago.

Alrightie, that's all I have to share for today. Thanks for stopping by! I will be back tomorrow.
 

One Layer Simplicity, Thank-you and Joshua's 2 1/2 birthday photos

I am back today to share a quick card and some pictures from our little family birthday celebration for Joshua turning 2 1/2 years old yesterday.

First, my card...I decided to try my hand at some random watercoloring. Leah received a pad of watercolor paper for Christmas since she likes to paint. So I asked her if I could borrow some to make a card and paint along with her. We had such a fun time Sunday afternoon painting together in my craftroom.

I inked up Medium Double Circle and Small Stitched Circle. Then I randomly painted them and added my sentiment from Assorted Greetings stamp set. I am linking this up to One Layer Simplicity. I am in desperate need of restocking some thank you cards.

I also thought that I would share the paintings that Leah did. She asked me to pull up some photos from the internet to inspire her on the iPad. What a hoot! So, I asked her to hold up her artwork so I could photograph it. Well, wouldn't you know it, but Josh had to help her hold up her artwork.

 

 

 

 

So then I decided to snap a few pictures of him out on the porch just because.

 

 

 

 

Playing with the leaves from the shrubs.

 

 

 

Tradition has it on our household to celebrate half birthdays with cupcakes. Any excuse to enjoy some sugar, right? This year my in-laws decided to give him a simple puzzle. He's been playing some puzzle games on the iPad, so he was so happy to receive this gift.

 

 

 We picked up some dinosaur cupcakes at the grocery store. You may remember from the kiddos monster birthday party this summer, that I made some cupcakes from scratch. Well, something went wrong with this batch, so it was Publix to the recue. Recognize the party hat? Yep, leftover from the same party.

 

 I love how he seems to be looking so dreamily at his cupcake.

 

 

 

Josh received some dinosaurs at this 2nd birthday party, so I asked Leah to bring a few to the table to take some pictures. Well, her take on a few meant almost the whole bucket of dinosaurs. Gotta love that! I know Josh did. (Don't you love the candle flame reflection on his sweet little head?)

 

 

Attempt #1 to blow out his candles by himself.

 

Leah to the rescue.

 

 

Licking icing off of the dinosaur ring.

 

Oh, I thought I would share, again, a layout that I created for his first half birthday celebration. Joshua, you are certainly growing up way too fast!

 

 

 Well, if you made it to the end of this post, thanks for hanging in there. I will be back tomorrow!