We Believe

I saw this weeks sketch at Sketchy Thursday and was immediately drawn to making a Christmas tree with my photos & papers. I strayed more from this sketch than normal...and was most excited by turning it into a 6" x 12" layout!

{please click on the image for better viewing}

This next layout by Janet totally inspired me, too. 

My papers are K&Company I think...I dug deep in my stash to find the perfect holiday papers for this one. I allowed myself one regular layout but now I need to return to my December Daily ;)

December Daily, part 1 {Birds of a Feather December Kit; Fancy Pants: Saint Nick}

I am desperately behind in my December Daily album, but I'm still trying to get caught up. Now that school is out and all of my photography sessions are edited, I should be able to catch up easier :) We had pictures with Santa before December but I wanted to be sure that I included that photo somewhere. I meant to put the date as 11/2011. Oops! Hard to see in the photo but I've used some Shimmerz paint around the border of the cover.

 The first picture is of our advent calendar that I made two years ago. You can see the blog post about it here. The second day is a picture of us before a much deserved date night :) The missing child is behind the camera and she was thrilled to get to use my camera for the first time!

 Days 3 and 4 were a blur mostly spent cleaning the house in preparation for putting up our trees. One is in our main living area and the smaller is in the girls' bedroom.

 Day 5's activity in the advent calendar was to make these cute little owl ornaments. Day 6 is a picture of my youngest sleeping with Snoopy...he's well loved but only comes out at Christmas :)

 Day 7 is our newest family member with his "wall" decorated for Christmas and day 8 was a picture of our first frost for the winter.

So I'm about 1/3 the way there since I'm only documenting through the 25th in this album. I hope I can get caught up in the next couple of days! All of the materials here are from the December kit at Birds of a Feather.

I'm linking up to The Paper Variety this week...for their anything goes challenge! :)

Project 12 - November {Birds of a Feather Kit Co; Simple Stories: Generations}

 I may not be scrapping much at this point in the year but I will always be sure to keep up with Project 12! Only one more month and then I'll have two years documented and one very full album :) I felt that the December and November sketches would be better flipped for me so this is using the December sketch. {Not at all that I'm afraid of the November sketch *wink wink*}

 The left side

 and right

 I used the Birds of a Feather November Kit and it came with Shimmerz Paint. Something new...so I got a brave streak and tried it. Not sure that I'm 100% happy with how it looks but I will say that it looks better in person.

The center for this flower is something I have saved for about a year - it came off of one of my daughter's shoes! lol I knew that eventually I would find the perfect use for it :)

I am working on a December Daily album so I hope to be able to show you a few pictures of that in the upcoming weeks :) Thanks for stopping by!

She sits! {American Crafts: Dear Lizzy}

This is my entry for this week's challenge at Sketchy Thursdays.

 The yellow strip is cardstock but the other three are fabric! Adds a nice texture to the page :)

 A closeup of the journaling (click the picture to see it larger). I thought it was funny that the pictures are 2 years old - almost to the day of my journaling! Feels good to use some older photos... And it feels good to have this figured out about my daughter now ;-)

Project 12 - October

We are on the downhill slide for another year documented with Project 12! I finished Sept just a few days ago *blushing* but was feeling more motivated for October. I love Halloween so that helps, but also, because 10 months done out of 12 feels awesome! 

 It was fun to include a 5x7 picture this month. I think I'm going to go back and doodle some around the title circle to fill in the black areas.

 I was worried about using the 3x6 pictures but it turned out to be a really good size!

 This is my favorite picture of the month :) My niece so excited to be carving pumpkins and getting all of the "gunk" out.

Thanks for looking and if you would like to know more about project 12, check it out here :)

The Hunt for Perfect Pumpkins {Crate Paper: Farmhouse}

I'm back today with another layout using my October kit from Birds of A Feather. I might be able to squeeze another few layouts out of the kit! This is using the sketch for this month's sketch challenge at BOAF and I'm also entering it at The Paper Variety this week for their family challenge.{I used the word "family" in my journaling.}

 A few closeups:

Thanks for looking and have a great weekend! :)

Cherish {Crate Paper}

I really liked this sketch from Sketchy Thursday:

and knew immediately what photos I wanted to use when I saw the challenge was to scrap a page that reflected gratitude/thankfulness. 

Last weekend we had my niece over for a sleepover - first time in over 2 years! My girls love their cousin and I am thankful that they are close. I was not close to any of my cousins growing up since we lived so far away...but I have always wanted for my girls to know their cousins - especially this one since she is so close in age :) This is my take on the sketch:

{please click on the images for better viewing ;-) Not sure why the first one looks so blurry... }

And a closeup:

 My youngest initiated the hugging on her own - SO SWEET!

I am linking this post up to this challenge at The Paper Variety for showing "thanks" :) Thanks for stopping by today :)

Abundance of Love {Simple Stories: Generations}

I've been missing here on the blog for a few weeks - sorry about that! I haven't had much time to scrap since I've recently just started a photography business! You can check out some of my photos on my facebook page here and like my page while you are there! ;-) {I tried to add a link in my sidebar but haven't quite figured it out yet... if anyone has done that, I'd love some pointers!}

Anyway, I needed a day off and forced myself to scrap yesterday! I was inspired by the current sketch at Sketchy Thursdays and the proofs that came home last week for pictures at my daughter's preschool. I used the November kit from Birds of a Feather Kit Co - the damask patterned paper from Simple Stories was perfect for the portrait background! 

I lightly misted the green leaves that came in the kit since they were a little too bright for the page.

 And I had to find a place to include the key embellishment. I think they are so cute but I never know how to include little embellishments like that. I finally decided to tuck it away hidden under the crochet flower.

After several weeks of no scrapping, it felt like I was learning how to do it all over again! Hopefully I will find a way to fit scrapping in more often again :-)

Winner and a layout! {Echo Park: Walk in the Park}

Are you on Pinterest yet? If not, let me know, I'm all for bringing people over to the dark side! See...I saw a pin by Kayla. It was a layout of Jan's. This one: 

Isn't it great?! Clouds, kites, banner...ahhh!

Instead of printing it out, saving it to a folder on my desktop or bookmarking it, I "pinned" it. Then as I was working on a layout for a challenge at Birds of a Feather...I needed some inspiration. I was stuck. Off to my "Scrapping Board" at Pinterest I went. And when I saw Jan's layout, I knew it was the one I would lift! And this is what I came up with:

 Obsessed with banners much? Guilty!

The only thing not from Echo Park is the "sweet cutie pie" element there on the left. Well...the twine, too ;) Our challenge at BOAF was to scrap the title or lyrics from a group of Birthday theme songs. I have saved this picture knowing what that the title would be "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to" so this seemed like the perfect time to scrap it! I think this is my current favorite layout of mine. :)

Speaking of birthdays, I have a blog hop winner to announce! I can't figure out how to actually post the image from random.org here on my blog, but with 19 comments, it told me that #2 was the winner which is JennyBean! Congrats, Jen!!! I'll be messaging you here very soon with your gift card info to Scrapbook.com. Thanks to everyone for commenting!

Fun with Sand {Cosmo Cricket: Salt Air}

I created today's layout using this week's sketch at Sketchy Thursdays. I also created it based on some requirements for a challenge at last weekend's crop at BOAF. Everyone's requirements were different based on what year you were born and mine were: 3 photos, 5 different pattern papers, a 3 word title and 10 of my favorite embellishment (butterflies). This is what I came up with:

I had to throw in a little stitching to make it feel right and I even tried TWO mists this time...I'm really getting brave! lol

I got lucky and this week's challenge at The Paper Variety is to create a project with a ocean theme so I'm linking up there as well...a three-fer! :)

Thanks for looking!

Look Whoooooo's Cute

I've been busy scrapping all weekend so I will have lots of layouts to share this week! First up, I made this page for this week's challenge at The Paper Variety to use a forest critter. I have tons of owl paper and embellies...this paper just happens to be my most recent find. 

If you click on the image it should be easier to see...with the bad weather yesterday I didn't take the time to get closeups! The owl in the grid is fussy cut and popped up for dimension, same with the owl on the banner. I used my sew easy to make the banner and so this layout also fit for a banner challenge at this weekend's crop at Birds of a Feather. Speaking of the crop, you still have a couple of days to enter for my giveaway (and I think one or two others on the hop as well!). If you are interested, see this post. Thanks for stopping by!

Birds of a Feather Birthday Blog Hop {Basic Grey: Out of Print; Pink Paislee: Soiree}

 Birds of a Feather Kit Co is having a birthday party! 

Amy started her company one year ago this month and she is also celebrating her very own birthday today ;-) What better way than to celebrate with a crop, right? To start the crop off, the design team and a few of the guest design team alumni have put together a blog hop for you! If you arrived here from Linda's blog, you are headed in the right direction. If you came to my blog first, be sure to head back to the BOAF blog to get started so that you don't miss out on any eye candy!

I have two birthday theme layouts to share with you - both using the August kit (there are still 3 kits left in stock!).

The first layout is using the sketch from October's sketch challenge which is posted in the forum here. Did you know that completing all 5 monthly challenges puts you in the running to be a guest designer? If you want to try one of Amy's kits, this is a great way to do it! 

The pictures are from mine and my sister's joint birthday celebration from last year. We celebrate our birthdays just 3 days apart so we took ourselves to lunch and then for cupcakes after. We even repeated the tradition just a few months ago but without my daughters in tow ;-)

I created the banner by fussy cutting from one of the Pink Paislee papers in the extra patterned paper kit. The twine, tiny type alphas and paper clips are from my stash... but everything else is from the August kit.

I also fussy cut these flowers, outlined them with my white signo pen, layered with embellishments from the kit and then added bits of bling. The bling is in the kit as one piece, but I cut it into pieces and still have some left for future projects.

This next layout is based on a Pagemaps Sketch. I loved the cake piece that I fussy cut from the same Pink Paislee paper and thought it would be perfect for this picture of my daughter's princess cake from her 4th birthday.

I used mixed pieces for the banner, added the same twine from my stash and added a couple of pins as well.

I contracted a case of Stickles sneeze on this layout! Amy included a bottle with the August kit and then I also added a couple of other colors from my stash. I outlined many of the flowers on the busy background piece, but I also added Stickles to most of the other embellishments as well.

Hard to see all of the stickles in these photos but ALL of those green dots were accented!

One of the many reasons I love the August kit is the Core'dinations cardstock. The first layout was with the white back so when I filed the edges, a white frame develops. But this second layout, I used the pink back so all of my distressed edges are pink. Love that!

What is a birthday celebration without presents, right? I've got a present for one lucky person who comments on this post...a $10 gift card to scrapbook.com! We are cropping all weekend long and the entries are due by the 12th, so I will post my blog candy winner on the 13th. You do not have to be a follower of my blog, but if you like what you see, I'd love for you to stick around! 

All of the crop challenges and games can be found in the forum here. The grand prize is going to be a kit of your choice! Oh, and the boutique will be having a BIG sale this weekend! 

If you've made your way through the blog hop, you'll want to keep going so that you can be entered to win a prize package of Bella Blvd products valued at $50! You'll need this word to add to your collection for the mystery phrase: 

and then you'll want to hop on over to Kayla's blog here to continue with the celebrating. I hope to see you in the forums cropping with us this weekend! 

Birds of a Feather Blog Hop & Crop {Crate Paper: Farmhouse Collection}

Just a quick post to let you know that this weekend, Birds of a Feather is having a birthday crop AND blog hop! I was honored to be asked to participate in the blog hop so check back on Friday to participate. I'm offering up a $10 gift card to scrapbook.com and I know there will be other prizes as well - including a $50 prize package of Bella Blvd products!

To participate in the crop, you'll want to register in the forum (totally free). Don't miss the bingo game on Saturday. Wanna know what the prize is? THIS:

I already won one so you don't have to worry about beating me ;-)

The blog hop will start at the BOAF blog and you can find that right here...or you can stop by here and I'll direct you back to the beginning so you don't miss out on the fun!

Here's another card that I made using the October Kit:


I'm busy working on a couple of layouts to share with you on Friday...I hope you join me this weekend for some fun!

A Fun Time {October Kit: Birds of a Feather Kit Co; Crate Paper: Farmhouse Collection}

I created this layout using a sketch for this week's challenge at The Paper Variety and still using my October kit for BOAF :-)

 Some closeups:

 Get it? "Time"...and the clock chipboard behind "Fun"? :-)

Hope your weekend is great - the weather for us is looking fantastic!