Here's One for You Pal.....

Hi there! I hope you are all enjoying a lovely fall day! I had a special request here at my house, so I thought I'd share it with you today. I don't know about you, but being the mother of 3 young children I always find myself trying to make sure things are "fair/equal." You know, things like "why does Connor get the green one, I wanted green," are always popping up. ;) Now as far as I'm concerned the phrase "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit" applies to most situations, but I have to admit when it comes to photographs I'm a bit paranoid. I've heard so many sob stories from fello grown-ups over the years who have said things like, "there are 80,000 pictures of my older sibling(s) and 10 of me," that I vowed I would not do that with my own kids. I think I should've set the bar a little lower with my firstborn. ;) The other day I was scrapbooking, and most of the layouts happened to be of Parker and Maddie. So when my youngest, Connor, came in the room and checked it out he said, "Mama where is one just me?" He has been randomly asking me since then so.... here you go Connor one of just you!

I'm not sure how much he appreciated the pink glasses and the baby stroller, especially since he is 3 1/2 now and thinks pink is girly, but I love it! It will be one of those perfectly adorable photos to share at highschool graduation or his wedding! ;) Have a wonderful day! I've got some fall crafts I've been wanting to share, so hopefully I'll get them photographed soon!

Get out your needles and thread...

...cause we are going to do some stitching today! I love to use my sewing machine or hand stitch on scrapbook pages! So I thought I'd share a layout today with a lot of stitching.
I used my handy dandy paper trimmer to cut squares out of red cardstock. Then I trimmed them into triangles using my pinking sheers. I tacked them to my page to form a banner for my title and then used my sewing machine to stitch a "string" across the top. For the title I punched circles out of cardstock and backed them with a pop dot for dimension.
I also stitched this quilt like paper to my page and added extra stitching to give it even more of a quilted effect.

For a quick and colorful border for the top of my page I added a row of brightly colored buttons.

Be sure to stop by my shop today and see all the new Christmas goodies! There are all kinds of things perfect for giving this time of year!

A Guest Designer for April!

I'm so excited to announce that the very talented Jami Rodolph is my Guest Designer for April! So all you lucky readers will get to see glimpses of her fabulous creativity all month long! Starting today with this adorable layout.



Jami used a combination of my Bright and Funky and Classic Hip Journaling Cards. I love how she cut them in half and stitched them to the side of her page as an accent. More bang for your buck too right?! Go here to get some for yourself!


Thanks Jami for your amazing layout! Isn't she a brilliant talent!?!

A New Sketch!

It's been a while since I posted a sketch, so here is one I did recently:


....and here is the layout I made with it...

I fell in love with these papers the moment I saw them, Colorbok's Friendly Forest line. Love it! I was glad to finally put them to use! I added some chipboard stars, twine, buttons, and doodling to the layout. I decided to use the orange frame for a pop of color and to highlight my kids sweet faces.

The cute bracket is a new journaling card I made for my shop. I haven't listed them yet, but I couldn't wait to use them. They are big, fun, and perfect for layering too! I'll be listing them soon... you can contact me in the shop if you'd like some in the mean time.
I don't know about you, but I love graph and ledger type papers. I love anything that resembles and office supply for scrapbooking. They are marvelous and just go with everything. I guess you could say they are my crafty version of the "little black dress," when in doubt they always work!:)

Have a fabulous Monday! Be sure and stop by the shop this week, I'll be adding lots of new goodies! Go here to check them out!

A new layout with 2 of my FAVORITE techniques...

Hey all! I have a few favorite scrapbooking/crafting techniques that I just love to use, so I thought I'd share 2 of them with you today.

Here is a layout I did using another one of those Valentine photo cards I made, this time of my son Connor.



I love to make little collages on my layouts. They add so much texture and dimension and are super fun to do. I think it works best if you use a combination of paper elements and 3-D elements. For this one I used a bingo card, 2 different journaling spots, an acrylic crown, and a cute clip.



I also love to use gathers and ruffles on my projects. (like the crepe paper ruffles I used on the previous layout...) This is such a simple technique, but it adds so much to your page. I take a spool of ribbon, in this case I used some yummy blue seam binding and some twill, or cut a length of ribbon about double the actual length you want it to be after sewing. Then I machine stitch (but you could hand stitch it too) the ribbon to my page using either a zig-zag stitch or a straight stitch. The trick is to "fold and clump" the ribbon up as you stitch it down to create those fun ruffles. It's really simple and the WONDERFUL thing about it, besides how it looks, is the more imperfect the sewing the better! :) So no fear!!

You can find some of this yummy seam binding in my shop. Just go here to check out all the colors!

Got a favorite technique of your own? Love for you to share it with us! Leave a comment here for inspiration!

A Pretty New Layout

HELLO!!! Well I think I'm really back for good this time! :) I know, your snickering right now since I keep saying things to that effect, but there it is anyway! :) My 3 children have had the WORST stomach flu bug ever. It has lasted about 1 1/2 - 2 weeks. Not fun!! The poor kids! My little guy, my only chubby toddler, has lost so much of his baby chubs since being sick. I could just cry. (...but not for long...that fella is an eater, let me tell you, it won't take long for him to get back to normal once he is better.) You moms out there will know what I mean when I say I feel like my life lately has been nothing but puke and other lovely tummy related problems ;), so I am thrilled to be getting back to some crafty fun!!

So.... I thought I'd share this layout I made of my daughter Maddie. Remember those Valentine photo cards I made a while back? Well this is how I scrapbooked one for me to keep.
I know I am biased, but isn't she lovely! Maddie is just a doll, inside and out!

That cute little bracket card is one of the Bright and Funky Journaling Cards from my shop. I love to layer them and use them as embellishments as well as journaling spots. I also used a vintage hat pin tied with some lovely blue seam binding. (you can find the seam binding ribbon in the shop too!)

I wanted to show you this fun crepe paper trim I used too. I absolutely love it! It makes great ruffles on pages and cards, is so cute as a trim around banners and home dec projects, and can be turned into those cute little crepe paper rosettes. I've been making it to put on projects etc for about a year now, and I was kicking around the idea of making some for the shop. Let me know if you like it and would use it too! Those fun pink plastic letters are from Heidi Swapp-- LOVE THEM!

I've also been adding some new stuff to my online shop, finally! :) Some of the things I previewed here have started going in with lots more to come. As you know, I am hopelessly addicted to designing journaling cards. Well my hubby was out of town for a week (during the puking etc...sigh)so lets just say I have lots more to show you. :)

Here's a Sketch

Happy Monday! I thought I'd start out the week with a sketch I did! It's for a 1 page layout, but if you wanted to do a 2 page spread you could just flip the sketch and use that for the second page. It could also be "shrunk" for a cute color blocked card layout.



I'll be back later today with the layout I made using this sketch. I'd love to see any ideas you use it for too! So use it as little jump start and see what wonderfully creative things you come up with!