Husbands in Training

One day over at ScrapHappy Lain Ehmann issued a challenge to use a window display as inspiration for a layout. I immediately knew which window I wanted to use.

I snapped these photos during Week in the Life. I love having everyday pics! And having photos of my boys doing laundry seemed like the perfect everyday photo to scrap about.

Design Inspiration: I saw this amazing display in NYC. I loved the colors and shape of this window display!

Color Inspiration: My color inspiration also came from this photo. The yellow of the floor, the bright colors of the balls, and the silver in the window.

I found lots of tone on tone patterns for the circles. To replicate the window I used this lovely transparency. I just love how it turned out!

What can I say, husbands in training just seemed like the perfect title for this page! I recently discovered these plastic letters in my stash. They were perfect for this layout. Finding stash you didn't remember you had is like finding money in your pocket!

More handwritten journaling! So perfect for quick and easy pages! Draw some lines, write your words and done!

What are some skills that you are bound and determined that your children will learn? Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear all about it!

Owscream

Nothing says summer like a trip out for ice cream! I just had to honor that tradition with a scrapbook page!

Recognize these photos? I used them to make a collage for my 120 days album. But I also wanted to use them for their very own scrapbook page. Can I just say that I so love digital templates?!? Making pages can be so quick and easy!

Design Inspiration: Digital template. No more inspiration needed. :) You can download your own here.

Color Inspiration: The papers and banners all came from Crystal Wilkerson (who else?). The papers are from her Color Combo #2.

For the ice cream cones I used one of Crystal's banners. Then I added the ice cream tops. I really had a lot of fun with this section of the layout!

But a page, for me, isn't done until I've told a story. So here is the story about where the title comes from!

What's your favorite summer tradition?

Shadow Play

While waiting for the bus my son had lots of fun making shadow pictures. And I had a lot of fun playing with my iPhone!

I just knew I had a page in the making. One of the everyday pages that I'm having so much fun with lately!

Design Inspiration: This adorable layout was one of my Pinterest finds originally from here.

Color Inspiration: I wanted my layout to feel like shadows so I used a very neutral palette.

But I wanted a little bit of color so I edged the photos in green.  It's subtle but adds that little bit of pop I wanted.

I wanted to stamp some words on these label stickers. I used Staz On ink since the labels have a slick surface. Be sure to let them really dry before you touch them. The ink will smear.

To add the shadow effect I stamped the same word multiple times within the grid.

This thread is one of my favorite finds. I love how the color varies!

See how the shade transitions as it moves across the page. love, Love, LOVE!

The same sticker page the labels came from had these letter stickers spelling out "Hello My Friend." By stamping the words My Shadow I was able to adapt the title to fit my page. Love the pops of color in this title block!

And then I added another sticker for the date. Once again handwriting my journaling made the page quick and easy. The whole thing was complete in under an hour. Perfect fit for scrapping during my son's nap! :)

When it Rains

So I'm still rocking the Mother LOAD.  I can't believe I've kept up with a layout a day for all of September so far.  Every day Lain gives us a challenge that we can choose to use or not.  One of the challenges was to use a less than your best photo.  My cell phone has not been "smart" and I only recently figured out how to get photos off it without internet access on the phone.  (although those of you following me on facebook know I'm now totally in love with my new iPhone and instagram)  I knew these photos accompanied a story that needed to be told.

This page focuses on a day that was full of struggles but finishes with how friends and family bring sunlight into your gray rainy days.

Notice the photo collage on the bottom 4x6?  Wanna know how I did it?  Check out the tutorial here!

Design Inspiration: I always get so many ideas from the Write.Click.Scrapbook monthly galleries.  I pinned this layout awhile ago and while scrolling through my Pinterest board I knew that this design would leave plenty of room for the LONG story I wanted to tell.


Color Inspiration:  My story set the tones for my page.  Gray background for the gray skies and yellow for the sunshine.

I cut these little clouds out of a piece of pattern paper.  Just to make them stand out a bit I inked the edges with blue and popped up one with pop dots.

I debated making my own sunshine but in the end decided to use this FREE digi one by Crystal Wilkerson.  To top it off I added a little yellow brad.  And added a little cloud.  Love this part of the page!

I gotta say, this is quite a story.  Hope you can read it, cause it's much too long to retype.  :)  Just to add some interest in the long text I altered the color of certain lines to make them stand out.

I am so glad this crazy story is documented!  And I truly love how the page turned out.





























How do you use your iPhone pics?  Have you ever scrapped about a gray skies kinda day in your life?  Or do you have a story about a day that just seemed like a comedy of errors?  Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear all about it!

Summer Memories

When you are participating in a challenge like LOAD (Layout a Day) sometimes you gotta keep things simple!

I grabbed another free quick page by Crystal Wilkerson to complete a layout on a day that was CRAZY busy!

And I love that I have a layout to document our evenings playing in the yard with the neighbors.  Scrapping this everyday stuff just makes me happy!















What is your favorite summer memory?  Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear all about it!

Some Nana Love

One of the recent challenges in the Mother LOAD class was to scrap a more thoughtful page.  Last week I showed you this page about how much I love my Mama so this week I decided to document the relationship between my boys and their Nana.

My Mom hates to have her picture taken.  But recently I've decided she can just get over it!  :)  Cause we want pictures of her, even if she doesn't!  So this summer I snapped the bottom pic of my boys with Nana.  And you can just feel the love, can't you?!?  Perfect pic for documenting their relationship.

Design Inspiration: I found this page over at Scrapbooks Etc and promptly pinned it to my Favorite Layouts board on Pinterest. (You can read all about my love affair with Pinterest here)

Color Inspiration: I used a kraft background as in the inspiration layout.  The rest of the colors came from the adorable banner by Crystal Wilkerson.

I simply printed out the digi banner and fussy cut it out.  Perfect thing to do while sitting at soccer practice!

I found this tag in my stash and knew it was perfect for my title!  I love the mix of sticker fonts in my title.  I just added a bit of twine and some pop dots to finish it off.

The texture of the background paper makes it a bit difficult to photograph the journaling, but I assure you it is very readable in real life!  I forgot to include a picture of the little shipping tag just above the journaling.  I used it to simply record the dates of the two photos at the top.

Love that I have this page to document the relationship between my boys and their Nana!  My People We Love album is finally starting to fill up!

Have someone special in your life that hates to have their picture taken?  Any tips of tricks to share for getting good shots anyway?  I think I may have to start using the shooting from the hip trick with my Mom too!  :)  Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

First Day of School

Last year I started the School of Life album for my oldest.  So when the first day of school rolled around I wasn't sure what to do with the pics.  I know that I will use them in the School of Life albom but I still wanted to document the day with a page.

Enter Crystal Wilkerson and her awesome templates!  She posted this one (and several other color variations) as free downloads over at Ella Publishing.  It took all of 5 minutes to add my photo and the date.  And DONE!  It's cute, it was quick, and it marks his first day of school.  Love that!
















What did you do to honor the first day of school in your home?  Ever used a digi quick page?  Ever wish you could go back to simpler times and be in elementary school again?  Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear all about it!

Hard 2 Wait

Every day when my youngest wakes up from his nap the countdown begins.  He doesn't want to do anything until brother comes home.

I took these photos the day I practiced shooting from the hip.  As soon as I took these photos I knew exactly what story I wanted to tell!

Design Inspiration: I just love Ella's sketch challenge!  Sketch #9 seemed perfect!  To make it work for my story I flipped the photos around and the title/journal blocks.  Simply love!

Color Inspiration: I've really been wanting to use this alphabet paper by Crystal Wilkerson.  I decided now was the time, but I didn't want to go digi so I just printed out this digi paper!  Love me some hybrid!

Isn't it cute?!?  And I love the notebook border punch for the paper strip!  So school-ish!

Added another border punch at the tip.  Total fluke that the yellow stickers had the same blue lines as the background paper.  But love how it looks!

Notebook pattern paper is perfect for journaling on.  Brilliant little tidbit right?  :)  But it was perfect for this quick layout!



















Ever printed out digi paper to create a hybrid layout?  What's your favorite digi paper out there?  Tell me something that's hard for you to wait for!  For me it's waiting for brownie's to cool!  ;)  Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear all about it!

I Feel Pretty

I'm still on the Mother LOAD wagon.  ;)  One week in and I've made a layout every day.  Some more intricate than others but I'm ok with that!  And the layout I'm sharing today I actually made, from start to finish, in less than 30 min!  How awesome is that?!?!

In Basic Training (the first 9 weeks of the Mother LOAD class) Lain had us take a photo a week.  One week the challenge was to take a photo of ourselves.  For this layout we were challenged to scrap that photo.

Color Inspiration: I LOVE this paper but wasn't sure when I'd get the chance to use it.  A photo of me seemed like the perfect opportunity!

Design Inspiration: I wish I could show it to you!  The sketch came from a 15 min layout challenge over at ScrapHappy.  It's password protected so I can't show you, but you could join and get the inspiration for yourself all year long!

I've been trying to figure out what to do with these pins for a long time  I love them but didn't know how to use them.  Truth is...I still don't.  :)  But this was a start.  I used Glossy Accents to glue them down and hid the point of the pin behind the photo. I also added a little sparkle to the butterfly with some Diamond Stickles.  So pretty!

Sing it with me, "I feel pretty....oh so pretty..."  It doesn't happen all that often.  But this day I felt pretty AND managed to capture it with a camera. Doubly amazing!  ;)  So I just had to honor that with my title.

Check out my tips for taking a self portrait and snap a shot of yourself on a day you feel pretty.  It's worth it, I promise!

My husband is right.  How I feel about my looks does have an impact on how my day goes.  As a stay at home mom I am realizing more and more how important it is to still get up and do myself up for the day.  Even if...maybe especially if...I'm not going anywhere.









What is it that makes you feel pretty?  When was the last time you scrapped a picture of yourself?  Heck, when was the last time you TOOK a picture of yourself?  Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear all about it!