flashback friday...october 2006

I just realized this didn't publish on Friday...whoops!

So here you go...flashback friday, on sunday :)

From Olivia's first October.

August MIR

I created this month in review layout as for Project 12 on the Scrapbook Cards & Today blog. You can check out the sketch & a few other interpretations here.

I used some new papers from Jillibean Soup's Pasta Fagioli collection. I won all the paper from a Jillibean Soup drawing Facebook...score! So I was thrilled to use some on a layout.

Originally my plan was to have this layout done by Sept 20 to enter it into a contest. The sketch showed a tree on the right hand page (where the soccer photo is). So I had this great idea in my head to make some cool funky tree with paper circles of patterned paper, etc., and it looked awful when I tried to get it to work. Absolutely awful. So this layout sat on my desk for a few extra days while I tried to figure out what to do with it. Finally I decided on just adding another photo to fill up the space, and I like how it worked.

The other snafu I ran into was the stitching. I ended up handstitching around the photo block. I had planned on using my sewing machine. But my machine has been doing wacko things, like locking up & making one big huge knot. I tested it on some scratch paper ahead of time (thank goodness!) to make sure I had fixed it...and it turns out, I hadn't. I'm so glad I didn't try the machine on here, I'd be really ticked off if I had messed up this layout!

I used journaling strips again (Gill Sans MT font). I love those. I know I overuse them, and someday I'll look back & laugh that every layout has them on it (like how I used to enlarge the font of a few words on EVERY. SINGLE. LAYOUT.). But for now it works for me :)

I cut the camera out of the patterned paper, popped it up, and slapped it onto one of the journaling sprouts.

boo!

Okay, really it says "spooky," but it's my blog so I'll title how I want ;-)

Last year I got a great deal on Cosmo Cricket's Halloween line at Peachy Cheap. I got ribbons, blackboard, cardstock stickers, rub-ons, and stamps for like $15! I knew when I got it wanted to make something (not a scrapbook page), so I stashed it away (I got it in October).

Fast forward to this summer, and the Haunted papers were like 40% at Two Peas. So I bought a sheet of each pattern & again stashed it away, figuring I didn't need to stress until September. Then all of a sudden it was the END of September, I hadn't even thought of decoratings yet! So last weekend I grabbed Olivia & Abbie and ran over to Michaels to pick up some chipboard (oh, I'm sorry, they call it paper mache...whatever) letters. And they didn't have ANY! What?! Last year they did. Maybe I'm blind (my optometrist wouldn't disagree!). So rather than keep searching, I shoved the girls back in the car & ran over ot Joann's. Fortunately they still carry them...and they were on sale for a buck off! Woo-hoo!

The first thing I did was paint the sides & back of each letter black. Then I traced each letter on to the patterned paper I wanted. Really, I should've done the tracing first so I wouldn't have to stress about getting black on the paper, but oh well! The paint was dry, it was just me stressing :)

After the paper was cut out, I modge-podged the paper to the front of each letter. Sometimes my tracing/cutting wasn't super great, but that's okay! That's what sandpaper & black paint are for: See, once the modge-podge is dry, I sanded the edge of it down (if the paper overlapped). Then I took the black paint & ran it over the edges of the entire letter. No big deal.

I let each letter dry at this point (aka, I took a shower!). Then I came out & started playing with the embellisments. I knew I wanted to tie ribbon on the P (above), and I somehow wanted to use the bat blackboard (above as well). The black O was a bit blah, so I used a skeleton rub-on in the corner. I added other rub-ons to other letters as well. Then I applied one coat of modge podge on top of each letter (and rub-on) to seal the deal. This time I was smart too: I didn't put any on the bottom so it won't stick to my shelf! (Yes, this happened with my Christmas letters last year!)

After the modge podge was dry, I started playing with the blackboard cut-outs & leftover scraps of paper. I added a cat face rub-on to the bat, some distressed stickles to the black to add some bling, etc. I had a LOT of fun playing around! (And I made a haunted house too, I'll share it later.)

I'm so happy with how it turned out! The only disappointment is that the P won't stand on it's own. David offered to make some sort of stand, but I found that leaning them against the wall works too (there's glass on the top of this chest that is about 3/4" out from the wall, so there's a nice little spot for the letters to fit).

Project Life, 9/16 - 10/2 (plus a couple make-ups)

Brandon's first soccer game :)

Abbie & her purple doggy...MOPS park day at Olympus Park.

Olivia & Samantha putting on one of many shows, set to Miley Cyrus music (or California Gurls...I see so many of these shows I no longer pay attention...bad mommy!). Here they're doing somersaults.

two little fairies

Brandon drinking his Vitamin Water during a soccer game.

Olivia & Misty at Auntie Nicole's house.

Yay! The playroom is organized, thanks to Ikea & David :)

(And sadly, we still have books, playdoh, arts & crafts, and much more all over the house. Sigh. At least most of it has a new home.) 
 

I'm not quite sure what the kids were doing. They all had their feet touching & microphones down their shirts at one point. Okay...

Two clients cancelled this morning, so I got to drop Olivia off at school & then go to Whole Foods with Abbie. And no, your eyes are fooling you; her shoes are on the wrong feet.

Mmmm...Eggplant Bolognese for dinner tonight :)

Margarita Friday! Our new neighborhood tradition: Costco pizza & margaritas while the kids entertain each other & we catch-up. I'm so happy we have been blessed with such great neighbors!

On our way in to the Greek Festival in Elk Grove, we realized that all five of these could be ours (which we were asked countless times thoughout the evening). And, as scary as that sounds, really all five kids are so much easier than just our three.

David picked up some new mums today to get our yard all pretty for fall.

We love going to Chipotle, and the kids love that they can sit at the bar there.

Shaving cream fun in the shower!

Fashion show time! Olivia & Samantha helped Abbie get all dressed up in her princess dress with wings, purse, crown, band-aid bracelet, and high heels. Priceless.

No school today, so David, Lori, & I took the kids to the $3 movies at Sunrise Mall. (Abbie was napping at my mom's...thank you!)

Got my tea, my phone, my sandwich, and my chart notes that desperately need updating. It must be lunchtime on Friday.

My mom & Abbie playing Barbies.

two

I changed up the title again to fit my two year old:

Now I have three "everyday you" layouts, and really, none look the same? Same idea, but different.

I was able to use thickers from my stash (yay!). The patterned paper is from Jillibean Soup's Pasta Fagioli collection (more from my winning stash) and the nice border sticker is leftover from my August 2009 GT kit.

For this little embellisment, I punched out a circle of paper (more Pasta Fagioli), adhered it to a chipboard button (Cosmo Cricket), and inked the edges. It still needed something so I plunked a button on top & threaded some twine through it.



everyday

 When I decided to do the "everyday you" layouts, I knew I'd do one about each of my three children. Originally they were all going to be titled "everyday you", until I thought about how (at least this time) they'd all be together in my album, and I didn't really want three identical layouts in a row. In the future I may not do them all at the same time, but obviously they're my layouts so I can title them how I want to, right? :)

For Olivia's layout I wanted to do something a bit more girly, since she is my very girly girl. I chose papers from Cosmo Cricket's Delovely line that I had sitting around. So bright & pretty!

This blue flower (and the pink & yellow ones) are from the accompanying chipboard stickers.

These letters are chipboard that I inked to make the perfect shade of turquoise. I had the ink leftover from my April month in review from Green Tangerines...perfect :)

everyday you

A few weeks ago I was inspired by Cathy Zielske's blog. Well, let me rephrase that because I'm inspired by her blog daily. I was inspired to create this layout

because of this.

She offers a great digital kit, and the weekend that she posted about it, it was on sale. But I scrap 12x12 & really didn't feel like doing an 8 1/2 x 11 page. So I made up my own. Please forgive the crookedness, but I could not get it to lay flat enough nor lean over enough to get a great picture. Life goes on :)

Anyhow, the point of the layout is to document something that is very "everyday." Like something your kids do every single day.

The patterned paper I used is from Jillibean Soup's Atomic Soup Collection. I won one of each of their new sheets on facebook recently, so I was pretty excited to finally get to use some of it.

The atom sticker & periodic table border are from the cardstock stickers that accompany that line. I didn't win those, so I picked them up at Green Tangerines (now that it's open again...yay!).

Here I used one of the journaling sprouts tucked under my photo strip as a tab. I saw this on one of the layouts on their blog a while back & thought it was such a fun idea.