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 :-)

NYOBC Kit and White Balance

I owe a big thanks to Lisa for encouraging us to learn how to adjust our white balance...because this is what my pictures normally look like:
BUT THIS is what they REALLY look like! The blue haze is gone :)

She posted it over a month ago, but a month ago, I was doing good just to read blogs...I certainly didn't feel like reading my camera manual!

I've had this project completed for a while now, just too lazy & busy to get it up on the blog. The products came in one of the kits from last month's book club meeting. There wasn't a lot of guidance on the project so this is one I've done pretty much on my own.

I almost didn't post the project because I made a HUGE mistake :( This page is upside down and I didn't realize it until after I covered it in Modge Podge *sniff sniff*. But I wanted to share the project with my sister since it's about her boys! ;) This also happens to be my favorite picture because of the expression on my middle nephew's face - fits him perfectly!
I had lots of fun because I used my Silhouette for so many of the embellishments. LOVE that machine!

The ribbon holding it all together-Yes, those are strips of denim in there. I never would have thought to use denim but it was easy to use and looks great!

Thanks for looking :)

So I Lied...

I have my book club meeting coming up and I really want to go to get my next kit - but didn't want to go empty-handed... Certainly, they would have understood & I would say half of the people come without a project to any of the meetings anyway.

But I found the Flower Book interesting and so I really did want to use the kit. I actually preferred the blue papers that came in the kit - and wanted to use pictures of my family with my sibling's families - but it was just taking too long to figure out the layout. I love the pictures so much that I want the layout to be perfect!

This book provided a lot of masculine layouts (using flowers somewhere on the page) so I am looking forward to scrapping some of the photos I have of my nephews...one day! Many of the flowers in this book are not your typical flower...

So instead, I picked a great picture of my niece. It's printed on metallic paper and has a wonderful shine to it. The layout is copied almost exactly from the book.... It's not necessarily something I would have come up with, but it works. I'm finding it's a lot easier to work on projects that don't include my kids! I guess because I really want what I leave for them to be perfect...and I can let go of that easier for other pictures. Since I was just copying a layout, I completed this much faster than I normally would. And I also gave up on it being a 2 page layout. If that's a requirement for my layouts, I may never end up scrapping half of my photos!

So I've done my homework and plan on making it to class this week. Now, I really do need to force myself to put my stuff away and go get ready for a new arrival this week :)

Picture taken by Tasha (and so were the ones that I really wanted to scrap!)