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 ;-)

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 :)

Please, Not The Bottom Lip {October Kit: Birds of a Feather Kit Co; Crate Paper: Farmhouse Collection}

This is my third layout using the October kit from Birds of a Feather Kit Co. 

Let's talk about this picture. It was from 4 years ago so I can't really remember why she was crying, but I'm pretty sure it was a combination of being tired, hot, hungry and also jealous.  Her cousin was with us for pictures and she wasn't used to sharing attention! I promise, she was not hurt ;-) Both of my girls learned very quickly, if they curl their bottom lip, we give in pretty quickly so I bet that I picked her up right after this picture was taken.

 I was so excited to see a zipper in the kit. I have zippers already waiting to be used in my stash but I felt forced to finally try making a zipper flower and this is what I came up with. They are SO easy to make! 

 But, they are bulky so I had to add some dimension to the page. I started with pleating the brown paper and then I also added a layer behind this chipboard flower. 

I added a layer of cardboard behind the picture to help it pop up off the page too. I don't normally like so much bulk on my layouts but every once in a while, it's fun! I also distressed many of the edges with my Heidi Swapp distresser as well as inked most everything on the page. I even pulled out my mists for this page! (click on the first image to be able to see the inking & misting best!)

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great weekend coming up!

August Project 12 {Echo Park: Life Is Good}

I'm entering this layout into this week's challenge over at The Paper Variety to use stickers. The flourish and flowers are all stickers. The blue flower & brown circle w/pink flower are stickers that I took the sticky out of before adding dimensional stickers to the back. I also used stickers for the date and title. 

I actually finished this layout a while back but haven't felt motivated to post it. August was a hard month here. I had spent the summer preparing to go on a 10 day vacation to Oregon and Washington to visit family and also get to meet an online friend. I worked so hard to be prepared for the trip and then the school year starting right as we returned. Two days before we were to leave, and the day after we told my daughter about the trip, we lost a very important family member. I am still glad that I prepared so much in advance for the school year so that I wasn't thinking about that while also dealing with the trauma of loosing a loved one.  So August wasn't what I thought it would be and that alone made it difficult to scrap. I didn't want the focus to only be on what we lost, but I also couldn't scrap just the happy, beginning of school times.

I realized toward the end of the month that it was a month of beginnings and endings so I went with that for a "title".

 With the obvious ending of a life, we also ended karate lessons for my oldest daughter. In just one more month, she would have been in it for 2 years. In turn, she was able to start a new gymnastics class, which she LOVES. She also started Kindergarten and we had a special dinner the night before to celebrate (idea for that stolen from here, but not quite as fancy!). We celebrated one birthday in this house and at least 2 birthdays for friends...ending one year and starting another.

I originally thought I would use a different sketch...because how could I fit everything in with just 3 pictures? But then I decided that the most important part was documenting the girls at this moment in time, and not every picture from every event. If an event is important enough to me anyway, it deserves its own layout.

I really did want this layout to focus on how much this month has changed our family and the heavy emotions that we have felt all month long. This is partly why I chose to print the pictures in black and white - to create more of an emotional, somber feel. However, in my journaling, I tried not to focus on the loss so much as get in all of the day to day details that aren't documented in the photos.

So sorry to have rambled on and on so much in this post ;-) and thanks so much for looking (and reading if you made it this far!).

Our Girl is One

I'm cutting it close to enter this layout for two contests! This is the FINAL page in this girl's first year album. I'll be back later this week to show you the whole album. 

I created this for The Paper Variety's challenge this week to do a birthday theme and use a banner. The picture used here on the layout is from her 1st birthday photo shoot. I used the sketch located here at Pretty Little Studio.

Happy Girl {Echo Park: Victoria Gardens; Birds of a Feather September Kit}

 When I saw the September kit at Birds of a Feather, I knew these pictures needed those papers! I have at least two more layouts to complete from this photo session and can't wait to use the kit for them. I took the girls for some pictures and I was trying to be serious about them but then my daughter busted her hands in front of her face and reminded me to have fun :-)

She has this thing about painting her nails in a pattern - makes this former math teacher so proud! I have to admit I thought I would never use the lamp post rubons in the kit - but I love the look of this one with this layout! I was in a bit of a time crunch trying to get the color challenge done for August, so I didn't play around too much with this or maybe I would have distressed the edges of the papers. But I did manage to squeeze in some stitching in a few spots and that makes me happy :-)

 Thanks for stopping by!

Our Little Kinder-gator {Basic Grey: Out of Print; Birds of a Feather August Kit}

Last week my oldest started Kindergarten and I couldn't be more proud of her! She was so brave about going and didn't hesitate a bit ;-) The school district's mascot is a Gator, so I played on Kindergartener to be Kinder-gator for the title. I fully expect that next year I'll use "First Gator" instead of "First Grader" :-)

I was inspired by Lisa's layout that you can see here as well as the layouts in this post. I really need to look into a better tool to distress the cardstock...

 This is for the August color challenge at Birds of a Feather and is made of products that are from the August kit! Thanks for looking :)

Our Everyday Life {Birds of a Feather Kit Co: February Kit; Lily Bee Lovely Collection}

Amy challenged us to take a portrait this month and this is what *I* consider to be a good portrait of my girls. I tried getting a shot of them both looking at the camera, but the little one just doesn't do it unless her finger is up her nose! lol But to me, this perfectly represents how I see my girls, hand in hand :)

 My older daughter is my "little mommy" so this quote was perfect for our life right now, and this picture. When I asked her to take her sister's hand and walk, she jumped at the opportunity "sure, mom!"

 I used sketch #74 at Inspired Blueprints for this layout.

This week has been so fun to see how the girls interact now that they are not spending 24 hours a day together. They really enjoy each other's company and made it a point to be together tonight - I hope their friendship continues on this path!

Alllllmost done! {Little Yellow Bicycle: Baby Safari}

I finally had the urge to finish the first year album for my youngest. I haven't done a layout in oh, say over a year? I did really good with her album, stayed up to date till the end when she started moving ;) This is what I came up with for month 11:

As I was working on it, I realized it was almost the same colors in this week's color challenge at The Paper Variety:

I didn't think it had enough yellow though, and too much pink. So for month 12, I really tried to concentrate on using mainly green, orange and yellow.  I couldn't avoid the pink though! 

All I have left for this album is the back page -a picture of her 1 year photo shoot. As soon as I get that done, I'll recap the whole album...I can't wait! Thanks for looking :-) 

July Project 12 {Pretty Little Studio: April Showers}

I've been having lots of fun playing with the Pretty Little Studio papers! For the month of August, if you complete a sketch challenge, you are automatically going to receive a $5 gift card - go check it out, they have one per week!  I won a $5 gift card two times now and with just a few extra bucks, I've gotten all of the pattern paper & tags used on this layout. (Do I need to mention that I have tons left over?) The only thing not from PLS is the cardstock. 

 The left side. My oldest daughter told me I should add "rain drops" with my glimmer glam, and upon my husbands approval I decided to go for it. I think I went a little too crazy but this is one of those things that can't be undone! I fussy cut those umbrellas, trying to make it like a banner. If I had just a few more of them, i would have taken the banner to the edge of the cardstock ;)

 And the right side. I don't think you can read my journaling on the little tag, but July was a month of rain for us after a 6 month drought! It wasn't much rain, but enough to make us happy :)

 I had to include a closeup of this picture. My youngest daughter avoids bedtime like any 2 year old. But she'll play possum for a while and then walk out with her blanket on her head. Not sure how she sees to walk so far out without hurting herself, but it sure is cute :)

Simple Pleasures {American Crafts:Dear Lizzy}

This layout is a two-fer! There is a great sketch challenge right now at The Paper Variety and I combined that with the July color challenge at Birds of a Feather. I had to add in some green and brown for the color challenge but tried to limit it as much as I could!

 I had two extra pictures that I had printed to go with the smaller ones so included those on a flap inside. I loved the expressions of delight that were on my girls' faces!

Head over to the two sites - you have until Tuesday for the sketch challenge at TPV and till the end of the month for the color challenge at BOAF! Thanks for stopping by :)

Fun Day {Echo Park: Splash}

Look familiar? It's very similar to yesterday's layout ;) I switched which daughter was the focus and I also used Echo Park's Splash instead of Fancy Pants. 

 I still added some stitching and used some black & white photos...

 as well as other fun details - like google eyes & a banner!

This one came together in record time because I had so many great pattern papers and embellishments to choose from - they happened to be just the right size!

Relax {Fancy Pants Design: Beach Babe}

This layout is a lift that I lifted from an email that I got this week from Archivers! I normally don't look since I can't afford to go shopping there...but I'll be looking from now on just for the layout ideas ;) Everything is the new Beach Babe line from Fancy Pants that I got a great discount on at my LSS since they are closing down.. 

Closeup of the banner:

 Closeup of the fish that I added google eyes to:

 No layout is complete without a little stitching ;)

I've linked this up to The Paper Variety for this week's challenge to create a summer theme project.

First Year Album

This project started nearly 6 years ago with me buying a baby book and matching 12x12 scrapbook during my pregnancy with my oldest. I also attended a Creative Memories party where I bought the calendar pages and decided that I wanted to use those to record milestones on one page, with the other page being a collage of pictures. I believe I completed one layout in a timely fashion and then the rest were completed over the last 3 years. Not my original plan, but hey, it's done! Yay!!!!!!!!

The front page:

 Each month has it's own double page layout but I included the tail end of December with January since she was born at the very end of December.

 I created a hidden pocket for her very first daycare artwork!

 Some pages have flip books included - this one has a few extra pictures under the picture of clothes.

 Each of the pictures on the right has pictures underneath...

 There are some naked bath pictures under the June title spot-

 The tag pulls out on this one.

 This one is full of extra pictures too :)

 Can you tell I was embellishing less trying to just hurry up and get done? lol

 I was running out of milestones and notes...I tried to be good and write them down back then but as I got into December, I didn't write much down. Possibly I was too busy with a baby, work and the holidays? ;)

 This is the last page and is based on a PageMaps sketch.

Thanks for stopping by and suffering through these itty bitty pictures full of itty bitty writing ;) I'm just so glad to have this album completed!