snow day in nyack

We are so fortunate to live so close to the Sierras! We drove up to Nyack (on the way to Tahoe) a couple of weeks ago to let the kids have fun in the snow.

I went thru my photos (157 of them!) fairly quickly once we got home. I was eager to share them, and more eager to scrap them! I picked up this fun line from My Mind’s Eye back before Christmas & was looking forward to using the snowman on a “snow fun” themed layout.

Of course I used an Allison Davis sketch (from volume 6). I love being able to integrated so many of the patterned papers into one layout!

And I was so excited to use this snowflake in place of an “o”!

heritage challenge, week 1

Heirlooms.

Brenda Johnston is hosting a heritage challenge along with Green Tangerines right now. For more details go here.

Part one of the challenge for week one was to scrapbook an heirloom and document its story. I decided to scrapbook this music box from my nana, before it became “just another nick-nack.” Part two of the challenge was to use some brown lace ribbon from the store.

I knew I wanted to use a single photo of my music box on a single page layout, but wasn’t sure what layout (or size photo) I wanted to use. Then I saw this sketch on Sketch Support & decided to combine all of the photos into a single 6x10” picture.

For my photo, I took my music box outside on an overcast morning. I happened to have two ivory pillow shams (that were in my giveaway pile!), so I draped those over a patio chair & propped the music box on top. I took about 10 photos until I was pleased. I take all my photos in RAW so I can make adjustments easier when I open them up in Photoshop. I applied a few different actions, including an edge burn to get the look I wanted.

I could’ve used scraps of paper from home, but…I’ve been eyeing Basic Grey’s Curio line at the store for a while & thought it would be perfect for this heritage concept! The bonus? New flowers too!

I also inked the edges of the patterned paper & journaling block. I didn’t ink the blue paper because I wanted it to be a bit softer looking.

And I wanted script letters for my title, in brown. Which I didn’t have & didn’t really want to buy. I did have them in grey, so I thought, Hey, I can change the color! So I did. However…they are foam letters, and I colored them with ink which FOREVER (like two days!) to dry. Maybe next time I’ll ink them well in advance!

everyday abbie

When I first used this layout idea from Cathy Zielske back last fall, I knew I wanted to use it on a regular basis. What a perfect way to document all those “things” your kids do at different stages! Right now I’m thinking I’ll do this every six months so I can catch them at their birthdays & half birthdays. If nothing else, it’s an easy one page “filler”!

I finally used some Basic Grey I’d had sitting around for a couple of years…I think it’s the Bittersweet collection.  I was so thankful to have the letter stickers too!

For my journaling I just listed lots of things that Abbie does right now, and separated each thought with a “|” (key is just above my “enter” key). That way I didn’t have to use complete sentences, and if I had an extra long thought it would work too.

The flowers were in my January kit from Green Tangerines. I didn’t have a pink brad in the right color, so I punched a 3/16” circle with my Crop-o-dile, adhered it to the center of the flower, & then added Glossy Effects to give it a little oompf.

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project life, 1/8–1/15

Scrappy Hour at Green Tangerines!

The last time we all got together was back in February, and we hadn’t been back since they reopened in September. I had a great evening catching up with my friends & got quite a bit of scrapping done too!

On Sunday Olivia convinced me to take her to Justice so she could look for some cotton candy glitter perfume that her friend had.

We made a quick trip to our local library to pick up then next few books in the Magic Tree House series. While there we grabbed an American Girl book for Olivia & Miss Spider for Abbie.

Mmmm…mandarin oranges.

Just another frosty January morning. Temperature as I drove Brandon to school? 28 degrees.

I love that the girls were using teamwork to push my shopping cart at Whole Foods.

Brandon had a playdate with one of his buddies from school (and his brother too).

The kids spent a good part of this gorgeous afternoon riding their bikes up & down the street! I love our neighborhood.

project 12 november

The sketch for this month can be found here.

More goodness from the January kit club at Green Tangerines! I’m so glad the kit club is back! I had papers in mind for this layout from my stash, but I really wasn’t loving them. Once I opened my box & saw the turquoise & gold, ooohhh…sigh.

Fortunately for me, I live near Green Tangerines so I was able to drive over there & use their die-cutting machine for the scalloped crest & bracket on the right hand page.

The flower here was part of the kit. I used an extra dot from some gold thickers in my stash for the center of the flower here (and brown dots for the other flowers). I love the color on this turquoise paper!

You can see the bracket & crest below. I added a brown brad on the point of the bracket…it’s from Crate Paper & is actually from my May Green Tangerines kit!

february in review

It felt so good to get my February 2010 month in review done! Again, I used a sketch (here) from Project 12 with Scrapbook & Cards Today.

I had so much fun making this layout. I’ve had the pictures printed for over a month, but I just hadn’t found the right papers & embellishments. Then I picked up my January kit at Green Tangerines & I knew I finally had something to make it work!

I also had some Jillibean Soup printed canvas flowers that I’d picked up a while back, so I added those to the layout too. The center of the flower is one of the “dots” from the red corrugated alphabet in my kit.

Another canvas flower, along my journaling strip. I used a scallop border punch here (and on the other side too).

The center here is a sticker from the Pasta Fagioli cardstock stickers. I popped it up on top of the flower. The mini letter stickers are from that line as well.

wish

Last year we started the Christmas wish list tradition with Brandon & Olivia. Since they couldn’t write, my mom helped them cut out pictures from the toy ads that come out in November. We put them in page protectors & they brought them when they visited Santa.

This year they still can’t write, but they can cut on their own. So I collected a bunch of toy ads for them, handed them some scissors, paper, & glue sticks, and let them go to town. I think it took all afternoon!

This layout is based on a Page Maps sketch found here. I didn’t get a layout done in time for the contest, but liked the sketch anyway (and had already printed the photos).

I used some Jillibean Soup (speaking of which, have you been to their blog this week? New spring lines are up! *LOVE* them!), along with some new goodies in my January Green Tangerines Kit.

Unfortunately you can see the number on this journaling sprout because I took a photo from the top of the page (so you wouldn’t see my ugly carpet!). But normally you don’t see it. I popped the flower up & added a “dot” from my letter stickers. I don’t remember where I saw that idea; using your extra dots from your thickers stash instead of buying brads, but I love it!

I drew my journaling lines again on this layout…why haven’t I done this before? So easy!

thanksgiving

I realized as I sat down to scrap this that although I took a decent amount of pictures, I took most of them of Abbie! Whoops! Fortunately there were a few of other people too
I used another Allison Davis sketch (volume 6) for this layout. I stayed pretty true to her original sketch, except I made the title block larger so I could fit my title into it. “Thanksgiving” is a L O N G word, so I stacked it to make it fit, and I left the dots off the “i" so I could squish it better! Oh well!

The chipboard accents are all Basic Grey Pyrus (like all the paper). It came with three “phrase” accents as well: So Happy, So Blessed, & So Thankful. I didn’t like how the pre-made ones looked (it needed a third “white paper” spot to balance out IMO), so I just wrote those words on paper instead.

And, for the first time ever, I drew my own journaling lines! I’ve seen it a ton. I lined my ruler up on the left hand side so I could space the lines sort of evenly: I started each line at 3/8” intervals & just drew. I have to say, I’m pretty pleased with the result!

project life, 1/2–1/7

 
Taking down the gingerbread houses…and therefore time to taste them!  

Abbie made me some cookies this morning.

 

Filling up the Sienna at the Safeway gas station.

Sticker face while bringing Brandon to school.

After doing the dolls’ hair, Olivia let Abbie do her hair.

The temperature as I dropped off Brandon at school…he had been trying to convince me that a sweatshirt was enough! Ha!

my future scientist

on his first day of kindergarten!

I used all Jillibean Soup products on this layout, except the thickers from my stash. I love the Atomic Soup line & when I saw it I knew it’d be perfect for a back-to-school layout. I especially love that the colors aren’t “fall” since we go back to school in August, & it barely looks like “fall” here until November!

Project LIFE, 12/19-1/1

 

On Thurs, Dec 30, this is the stack of journaling cards I still had to finish:

I’m pleased to say that as of 1/1/11 (had to write it at least once, right?), I’m done with 2010!!! (Well, done with PL 2010…my traditional album & Dec Daily are another story!)

I’ve decided that my 2010 PL album is going thru Jan 1, and I’ll start my 2011 album on Jan 2. I’m a Sun-Sat girl (for this album), and I know I’ll get confused along the way if I change it up!

Happy 38th birthday David! We celebrated with family at home this year; I made chicken enchiladas for dinner & bought a German Chocolate cake for dessert.

Dinner at the Websters’.

Elfie, our elf on the shelf. Today we found her sitting on Brandon’s new RC Hummer.

Gifts wrapped up under the Christmas tree.

Opening our pickle presents…yes, I know what the tradition is. However, I also know what happens when only one child opens a gift ;-) So…the big two opened our new Wii remotes & Abbie opened an extra book (somehow I couldn’t add to 24, so I wrapped up like 30-something books!).

This year we went to the Jingle Jam at church. It was so much fun! The kids had a blast & we can’t wait to start going to KidStuf on a regular basis now.

The Christmas morning mess. I love it!

Even girls can play Star Wars.

Found on the counter: “Dear Santa I want another Nerf gun.”

Woo-hoo! My 2011 Project Life arrived today! I think I’m just about the only one doing the Amber edition, but I *LOVE* it! I spent most of the evening putting it all together :)

The girls were riding “the short bus” (their words, not mine!)

Rock band time…Alvin & the Chipmunks on the iPod.

Cheers to 2011! “East Coast” style party at our house with the Hutchisons & Riggsbys. (We rang in the new year with the east coast, at 9pm Pacific, so the kids could enjoy it too. So thankful for satellite!)

Time to put the Christmas decorations away! Hello 2011!