Scrapping!

I really haven't done a lot of scrapbooking posts in the past... umm... eight months?! After my miscarriage in September, I just didn't feel like doing *any*thing crafty. And it was really hard to get back into it. Ironically, this was the first project I decided to do:

It's a pregnancy journal, and I'm totally excited about it! I've already added photos to the first five months (okay, one photo is missing... :-p ), and I did take notes, so I just need to add those to the insides of the envelopes. I'm totally stoked to see it finished and have it to look back on. :-)

{It's made with Maya Road envelopes, the Bind It All, October Afternoon Mini Market stickers,

plus the SC Metropolitan kit.}

Then I did a layout with some old and new Jillibean Soup...
Those photos are actually from when we went to NYC in 2006!!! Crazy I'm finally scrapping them! ;-) That was our Christmas card photo that year (I just LOVE the colors... and my super-cute hubby ;-), and this photo of the puppies is one of my favorites EVER! They LOVED Central Park. LOVED it. We let them off the leashes a few times, so they could run and play, and they had a blast!

{Inspiration for that layout came from this pillow at LL Bean Home.}

And this is my newest layout. I just did this the other day...

My sweet Ruby. :-) She really is the cutest and sweetest dog ever. Truly. :-D I used this month's SC Singin in the Rain kit. I did use some white Mister Huey though to tone it down a bit. I like how soft it ended up being. :-)

Oh! And the inspiration for the design of the layout came from cards I saw at Tokketok.

Thanks for stopping by to see my new projects!

Organizing and Editing (and okay, Decorating too).

Well, today I was in the mood to play in PhotoShop, which is a rarity. LOL. I edit all my photos in iPhoto these days, and by "edit," I mean quickly crop and lighten up... takes me a grand total of 15 seconds.

So I took some more photos of my scrap room and then played with my PW Actions. (Okay, I was inspired by Jennifer Johner. Who the heck is *not* inspired by that woman? She's so talented... it sickens me. In a good way. :-)

So still a few sneak peeks because I'm not completely done yet. And I've been a scrapping fool the past couple days, so my table isn't as clean as I'd like for photos. ;-)

My border punches, stapler and paint brushes are stored here in this vintage Squirt container:

On the top shelf, along one wall, I have just odds and ends. Favorites of mine that inspire me... things I've been collecting for years and years. Most of the things on this shelf do *not* have any storage/organizational purpose. However, this cute little blue train case (which is open because I used my snowflake punches out of there... tee hee) holds all my Christmas embellishments. :-)

I just adore vintage books. And photos of Shirley Temple. ;-) This one came from a magazine, I think...

Ahhhhh.... one of my favorite things is next. Found this chair at the Goodwill for like $2. I gave it a paint touch-up and then added some October Afternoon paper on the seat. The bird was a gift from a friend. It's sitting on the bottom shelf of a cabinet that I *completely* made over.

I keep staples, paper clips, mini punches, and cat's eye inks in these blue boxes. And as for the baker's twine... I started out with 2 or 3, and they looked so cute displayed on a shelf. Then I got more and more and I set them all out, so I could decide *where* I wanted them and in what container I'd *place* them. But then I fell in love with having them displayed all the time... and very convenient to just grab. Hee hee... so I left them, and this is their home now. :-)

Looked through, literally, hundreds of wine holders before I found the perfect one for my pens. I spray painted it to match my room. The little boxes are from IKEA (which were a STEAL for the set)!

And that's it for now. Hopefully, I'll get it all cleaned up and photographed this weekend! :-)

Oh! And here's a layout I did last night. My bestie, Camille, left me an awesome comment on my FB the other day, and it totally inspired this layout. Thank you, Camille! You're the bestest, and I miss you something fierce! ;-)

(Cardstock: Bazzill Basics, Patterned Papers: SEI, Alphas: Sassafras,

Punches: EK Success, Creative Memories, Pearls: Basic Grey, Pen: American Crafts)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Gluing First. Story Second.

I went to Archiver's the other day, and I found the SUPER-cute Paper Doll by Crate Paper. I had to play with it right away! Funny, this was the first time I had the layout glued and had *no* idea what photo or story I was using! LOL. That was a first for me, but I thought it would be a fun challenge. It was!


And I used mist! Woo! I punched out some labels, put them down, and then started misting. When I took off the labels, the spaces were nice and white, so I could journal there (and put photos/title). :-) Title is a bunch of Thickers.

I love this photo of my dad with my nieces! He is such a great grandpa! He always has *so* much fun with them, and on this particular day, he let them do *whatever* they wanted to dress him up. HEEEE! So cute!

Thanks for stopping by today! :-)

Finishing 28 Before 29 Comes Along...

I can't believe it. I'll be 29 in 37 days. *sigh* Well, at least I got this album done *before* I turned 29! ;-)

I did this entire album with the Joyland kit from Studio Calico. I also used the add-on, Skycoaster, and I had some from Whacky Shack too. This was SUCH a fun kit with some awesome colors!

This is a pretty simple mini. I stamped a whole bunch of journal blocks, and I created my own from some of the K & Company packaging that came in the kit as well!

(How fun is it to make your own pinwheels?! EEEE! :-D )

(On this last page, I'm going to hopefully add this stamp. I don't own it though!
Ha! So I guess I'll have to get it with my next SC order! :-)

Thanks for taking a peek! Soon, I'll have photos and a tutorial of an altering project I did with FabRips. Man, I love those things! :-D

Journaling Jeremy's Favorites.

One of my favorite times of the month! A new challenge at the Journal Challenges blog!

This month, we let someone else do our journaling. I had hubby write down some of his faves, and I had a great time with this layout! (Love the colors/textures in these Crate Paper patterned papers [teal & yellow-green]!)

Cardstock: American Crafts. Patterned papers: Crate Paper, Jillibean Soup, Studio Calico.
Frames: K & Company. Alphas: Making Memories, October Afternoon.
Punches: EK Success, Fiskars. Stickers: Sassafras. Kit: Studio Calico's Joyland.

The design of this layout was inspired by a painting I saw at a Chinese restaurant. Yes, I guess I get inspiration from everywhere! ;-)

Where did you get the inspiration for your last layout or project? :-)

Creating More... YAY!

It's nice to have time to scrap lately. And *that* is awesome, since Studio Calico's May kit (plus this add-on) is one of my faves EVER! I don't ever want to put it away... LOL. Though, I've realized that I'm happier when I do simple, quick pages. For some reason, I have ADD when I scrap. LOL.

I channeled my inner-Caroline for the strips on this one... ;-)

This next page took me WAY longer than it should have, and I was glad when it was over. LOL. Jeremy works A LOT, and he's been so tired. Poor guy. :-(

Mmm... quick and clean and simple. :-)

This last layout makes me so happy! This is me (and my aunt, Joy) in 1982. The photos my dad took that day are some of my favorite photos ever.

That's it for now. I'll have more to share soon. And I think it's about time I took photos of my new scrap room... LOL. :-p

Creating. Mmm... Creating is Therapy.

This month's Studio Calico kit?

Is GORGEOUS. It just may be pure perfection in a box. I'm just sayin... ;-)

Thank goodness this kit is all cozy and warm like a blanket. I'm not gonna lie... since quitting my job, I've been kinda down about it. But trying not to get *too* down, so on with creating! :-D

I had so much fun making this layout! I used the negative of the October Afternoon journaling cards, and I was totally inspired by Paige to bust out my VersaMark ink pad that I haven't used in ages!

I love that this design left open THREE spots for my journaling. I just really had a lot to say. And I when people see this photo and layout, I want them to know what I think of when I see this photo of myself, my mom and both my grandmothers. And that's exactly what I wrote down. :-)





Tomorrow, I'll show my Before & After shots of my awesome Nightstand Makeover! You won't wanna miss it!

p.s. Products used on this layout...
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics
Patterned Papers: October Afternoon, Studio Calico
Flowers: American Crafts, K&Company
Buttons/Stamps/Baker's Twine: Studio Calico
Chipboard Cloud: Buzz & Bloom
Alphabets: Making Memories, October Afternoon
Kit: Studio Calico
Stamping Ink: VersaMark
Pen: Copic

Sharing a Journaling Challenge!

(Papers/Thickers: American Crafts, Bee: hand-drawn, Markers/Pens: Copic,
Baker's Twine: Studio Calico, Photo Label Punch: EK Success)

A new challenge is up over at Journal Challenges! Yay! This one is really fun... Humour! Or "Humor" if you live in the States, which I do, but using the "ou" is just so much fun! :-)

Here's my journaling:

Jeremy: I’m a bee! I’m a bee! I’m a - I’m a - I’m a bee!

Me: You’re a BEE?!

Jeremy: No... I’m a bee! It’s a song by the Black Eyed Peas!

Me: Hmmm... Why are the Black Eyed Peas singing about being bees?

Jeremy (laughing at me): No, they’re not singing about being bees.
They’re singing, “Imma be,” as in, “I’m gonna be...” Get it?

Me: Oh. Okay. Huh. I’ve never heard that song.

Jeremy: No? Imma be! Imma be! Imma - Imma - Imma be!

Me: I guess I need to get out more. :-)

Okay, that's all for today. I'm really busy cleaning and organizing and decorating and just enjoying all my new-found time! :-D

Recording Uncommon Traditions.

Usually, journaling is pretty easy for me. I'm long-winded. I talk a lot. I tend to babble and provide you with irrelevant details. I come by this honestly though... you should talk to my dad's dad! You want a rundown of any family member's minute by minute plans, you go to him. He's our family crier! ;-)

Anywho, there I go getting off on a tangent again... I digress.

This month's Journal It challenge actually made me *think*... quite a bit. It was easy for me to come up with Christmas traditions, but I wanted to do something a bit different. I thought of EVERYTHING I possibly could. I flipped through quite a few family albums, looked at hundreds of photos. Then I called my sister, and she re-iterated everything I had come up with. LOL. But one stuck out for both of us, and she encouraged me to run with it. (Plus, I loved this photo, and thought it would look awesome with those Dear Lizzy flowers! Tee hee.)

She and I pretty much lived at Disneyland when we were kids. We were 4.5 miles away, we had annual passes, and seriously... they really lost money on us! We went ALL.THE.TIME. And sometimes, all we did was eat lunch. LOL.

Anywho, this layout records that time for us and our tradition of eating clam chowder in bread bowls in New Orleans Square. (Photo is summer 1996.) Do you see my hidden Mickey?! ;-)

(Cardstock is Bazzill Basics. Papers and Thickers are American Crafts.
Butterfly punch is Martha Stewart. Ribbon is Maya Road. Pearls are Crystal.)

After I turned in the layout, I added the yellow mat and ribbon. (Hopefully, they'll update it, but if not, no worries. :-) ) I really like how it turned out... clean and simple, keeping the focus on the photo and story. :-)

Do you have an uncommon tradition? I love hearing those! :-D You should totally join in the challenge!

Listening and Creating.

Okay, so for like... WEEKS now, I kept hearing this song at work, but I could never figure out the words *enough* to look it up. And I couldn't get back to the back of the store to see who sings it or what it was called. But today... I did. :-D

*sigh*

I was positively GIDDY after I found out. The thought that I new *exactly* what it was, and I could get it on iTunes the second I walked in my front door... awww... bliss. Pure bliss. Seriously, I think my co-workers though I was high or something because I was literally *bouncing* up and down excited about this song...

Crack the Shutters by Snow Patrol (I don't like the video, but I LOVE the melody and lyrics.)

Poor Jeremy... I will have this song on repeat for the next month... LOL. (Best $0.99 I've spent in a while! ;-) Tee hee.)

And here are a bunch of pages I've done with Studio Calico's March kit:

That layout above (all papers are Cosmo Cricket's Material Girl and one from JoyRide) is from Halloween 2008. My sister, her best friend, and I went as the Three Blind Mice. :-) SO fun! I love homemade costumes! We got those glasses from an eye doctor (for free... LOL). The ears were from a costume shop, and the canes were just dowels from Home Depot. We stuck them in the grass and spray painted them black. LOL. We had HUGE band-aids on our bottoms... where the tails *should* have been. ;-)

And this layout about my nieces (all Sass papers, except the type which is SC), and how I tried SO hard not to cry as I left them... to no avail...

And the next layout is my FAVORITE layout I've done in a *long* time. It's just *so* me. If I had to choose a layout to define my "style," this would be it. And it totally defines me too... I'm so goofy and dorky. ;-) (And I LOVE, LOVE this paper from Sassafras. A new fave for me too! What is up with me and their blue paper?! Blueberry Grove is also a FAVE! LOL.)

Can you tell I LOVE this paper? I've already used it on three layouts, but I had to devote this next layout to it. Oh, and this adorable photo of Kissa! LOL. (This blue, though, does *not* photograph well. It's more like a pale navy in real life. Ah well.) And what I think every day when I see her, I had to put on this page... it says: "I am so glad she found us."

And a layout about a Jeremy-ism. :-D He says this ALL the time to me, and I love it. I'm going to make it a point to scrap all the silly things he makes up and says to me. They're so cute! (Look Steph and Paige, I used TULLE! Yay!! Go me. :-D )
Only the papers are from the kit (exclusive SC this month)... the others are stuff I had in my stash. :-)

Thanks for stopping by today! What's your favorite song these days?

Creating Into the Night.

I stayed up LATE last night. Why? Because I got my Studio Calico March kit! WOOHOO! Well, I missed out on the Main, but I got the Wedding Ring add-on, and all the paper I could POSSIBLY get! HA! LOVE, LOVE these papers. Oh my!


I love taking my puppies in the car with me. Ruby enjoys it a *bit* more than Amber does, so I actually take her with me more often, but in these photos, we went to visit Jeremy while he was working in McAllen, TX. It was a 5-hour road trip to visit him, and they were SO good the whole time. :-)

As soon as I saw those Jenni Bowlin journaling cards, they looked like photo mats to me, so this idea instantly popped in my head. And I had tacked up these photos to remind myself to scrap them this month... perfect. :-) Alphas and that Dear Lizzy brad are American Crafts. Twine is Studio Calico... which now I'm thinking perhaps I should have used red twine instead of yellow. Ah well. :-p I went with yellow because I wanted a softer look.

And I totally didn't get around to posting this layout I did a couple weeks ago. I LOVE Dear Lizzy! LOVE.

All this stuff is Dear Lizzy (paper, alphas, Flair badge, stickers)... except for the October Afternoon mini alphas. Don't those match so well?! I was totally stoked on that! :-) Also used a Martha Stewart butterfly punch and a Marvy scallop square punch to make the photo corner. :-)

That's all for today. I feel totally wasted. I'm going back to sleep until work tonight. :-p

Creating a Mantra.

I'd been feeling kinda down... *so* not me. I needed a motivational and inspirational mantra. I saw the quote, "Be you. Find you. Be happy with that." on Elizabeth K's blog. I liked it, but I needed to change it a bit to fit *me*...

"Be inspired to be you. Be inspired to find you."

Hakuna matata, yes? ;-)

I decided that I wanted and needed to look at this every day. But I wanted the colors and patterns to be inspiring too! Enter greens, blues and yellows... and throw in some white cardstock, some October Afternoon papers (Hometown is my absolute favorite paper line of all time), and a super-cute birdy stamp. ;-)

Alphas: American Crafts and Basic Grey, cardstock: American Crafts,
Patterned papers: October Afternoon, stamp: Studio Calico, punch: Fiskars

Oh my! How stoked am I?! (Tee hee. That rhymed.)

Can't WAIT to hang this baby in my scrap room. Now to find a place for it... :-D

Do you have a mantra too? A daily affirmation or words to live by? Please share! I'd love to hear. :-)

Remembering October 2009.

Umm... October was a VERY stressful month in 2009. You know how I know?! The ONLY photos I took were of HOUSES! LOL.

October 1st: Started loan process.

October 2nd: Pre-approval and house-hunting commenced. (Honestly, when our processor told us we could find a house that weekend and put in an offer that weekend, I pretty much told her she was NUTS! LOL.)

October 2nd-5th: We viewed TWELVE houses in FOUR days. Our realtor = AMAZING-NESS.

We first thought we were going to get this house, which we LOVED, but it was one block from a busy street AND railroad tracks (read: You could see them both from the backyard). It ended up that it wasn't even available for sale... the listing agent totally took us for a ride (our realtor was NOT happy with the listing agent's lack of ethics)... what a disappointment the house wasn't available. It had the MOST amazing scrap room (and backyard)... EVER.


When this fell through, we were crushed, but we were confident that it wasn't meant to be, and that we'd find something better!

October 4th: 10th and 12th houses (viewed by Jeremy and our realtor, while I was at work) were moved into the Top/Final Two. He loved the 10th house most (I got rid of the photos, darn it!), but he knew I'd love the 12th house most (I was in love, just by the photos)...



Seriously... how could I not love these beautiful floors and all this open space?!

October 5th: 12th House was made 1st choice because it had just about everything we wanted (save two things). 10th House had a beautiful yard (read: lonely, elderly Korean man who loves to garden = immaculate back/front yards), but we decided we could make the 12th House yard wonderful AND have the inside how we wanted, and we put in an offer.

October 6th: Offer accepted!

October 11th: Inspection done. We passed! ;-)

October 12th: We ask them to fix the roof.

October 17th: Still talking about the roof... LOL.

October 18th: They agree to fix the roof! (It was covered under insurance anyway! :-D )

October 21st: Appraisal done. (Note: I was SO stressed and PETRIFIED that this would hurt us.)

October 22nd: Appraised for more than we were paying, so we were in the clear! PHEW!

We pretty much visited the house four or five more times during the month of October. We set closing for November 4th... less than one month after we put in the offer! WOW!

I did NOT get my hopes up or start packing our apartment this WHOLE time. I'm usually very optimistic, but this time, I was VERY wary. Pretty much all my friends and family thought I was CRAZY. LOL. Thank GOD Jeremy stayed very patient and calm through this whole process because I was a WRECK! LOL.

I also did only ONE layout (I think) during October. Well, maybe I didn't do one at all, but I *posted* one in my gallery! ;-)


And that was October. We were on our way to becoming homeowners! Gosh, it went by so quickly, but it seemed to last FOREVER! ;-)

Reverting.

*sigh*

Okay, so I love scrapbooking, but sometimes I try new things... like adding more to a page or doing the whole "collagey" thing and forgoing my "I LOVE WHITE SPACE" motto. And you know what ends up happening?! I *don't* like it! Ugh. I'm just... not good at it. LOL.

So... I got a Bind-it-All for my birthday. WOOHOO! Well, actually, I got *money* for my birthday, and then quickly went to Archiver's to spend it on said Bind-it-All, but I got it *on* my birthday, and that makes it doubly special! YESS!!!

And I decided to make a mini album (with each page being a different patterned paper from Studio Calico's July kit). But you know what?! It's SO hard! It's taking SO long! Well, I *am* doing a 16-page 6x6, so really, that's a bit bigger than your average "mini." Last night, I did like... six pages, and I got burnt out. And I was like, "GAH! I need to just... go back to my roots... simple, simple pages, white cardstock, and have some instant gratification here."

So I made this...

(Blech, that's a bad photo. I need to wait until the sun is shining on my patio, so I can get a better one...)

You know that episode of Friends where Joey and Chandler both sit in their chairs together (right after they move into Monica and Rachel's apartment?!), and they let out these huge sighs of relief as they recline?! Well, *that's* how I felt after I did this layout.

*sigh* Ahhhhh... mmm... feels good.

And *that* felt so good, that I had to do more, so then I made this...


Finished that one this morning. *insert another big sigh here*

You know who inspires me *so* much?! Jody Wenke. Holy cow, she's amazing! Her layouts make me feel SO good. And I just stare at them and sigh, and then she inspires me to go back to my clean and simple roots and scrap like that too. Mmmm.... yummy... white space... ahhhh. :)

So, thank you, Jody! Thank you OH-SO much! I'm loving you more than ever today. :)