9 Years....

My husband and I have been together for 9 Valentines (Yes, I know V-Day has come and gone, but better late than never!)  and for each Valentines I have received a dozen roses.  So that is like 108 roses!  I am a very lucky girl :-).  

Crate Paper issued a challenge in April to create a project focusing on color and collage.  And even though I did not submit it (I am a chicken) I still wanted to share it.

 

I went with the color red and was able to pull out almost everything from Gossamer Blue's April kit--which is why I must remind myself to buy supplies sparingly because I ALWAYS get everything I want in my kits!

Wishing everyone a great day!

Michelle

Gossamer Blue Member Scraplift Challenge.......

Hi!  I recently participated in the April Member Scraplift Challenge at Gossamer Blue where I chose to lift Valerie Huang's Spring layout.  For March's Scraplift Challenge, I found myself more inspired by a particular element.  However this time, I was drawn to the overall design and started with that.  

Here's my take on Valerie's layout using Gossamer Blue's April Kit.....

I just absolutely LOVED the colors that I pulled from the kit for this.  There is just something about the whitewashed woodgrain paper in the background mixed with the soft colors, the bokah, and the gold glitter letters....the layout is almost....serene.  LOL.  

Michelle

A Little Late to the Darling Dear Party......

To be quite honest, I was not too stoked about SC's Darling Dear when it was released.  I really thought that the the colors and patterns were just not me at all.  Boy, was I wrong! LOL. 

Recently, I sat down with Citrus Twist's March Kit, which had several pieces from Darling Dear, and looked through some instagrams I recently had printed.  The reason I went to my instagram pile was because they have a more vintage look to them, much like the Darling Dear collection.  And these next three layouts absolutely blew my first opinion of this line away......

This is an absolute fave layout......these pics of Allora absolutely captured the happy little girl that she is.   They were snapped on my iphone and run through Instagram.  I kept the page fairly simple, just to let them shine.  The confetti was a fun addition, mimicking the the bokah print on Allora's shirt.  And if anyone wants to know the technique behind the confetti--I simply punched a piece of patterned paper using this punch directly over the layout and then glued each little dot down with a glue stick pen.  Tedious, but worth it.  

The next two are layouts I made using sketches from Citrus Twist.......

The picture in this one, featuring my brother, sister-in-law, and my kiddos, is actually an instagram printed in a Polaroid format from Persnickety Prints.  This is a new service they are offering and in my last order I included a few.   I was really pleased with how nice they looked.



This final layout came together super quickly and I kept it super simple.  I had originally experimented with large drops of white mist on the paper, but had not liked the results.  I think I should have shaken the mist more before applying because the drops left a bit of a water ring around the droplet that never disappeared, even after drying.  

So there you go--I absolutely <3 Darling Dear after working with it.  LOL.  (Which, by the way, is one of my reasons for loving kits--they take me out of my comfort zone!)

Michelle

Love....

This next layout features a picture I have been holding onto since October.  It is an absolute favorite because it highlights the relationship between my husband and oldest daughter.

Seriously the sweetest thing watching these two walk hand in hand during a fall hike :-).  Love, love!  And this has totally inspired me to try to get more moments like this one photographed.  

I chose a beautiful spring palette for the layout courtesy of Scrapbook Circles' April kit.  I am not a subscriber, but when I saw this kit I knew I had to have it.  The colors were just absolutely me.  I also used their April Sketch.  The sketch called for three photos, but as I was perusing my pics this is the one that popped out at me and I made the sketch work--the larger photo filled the two stacked photos and the diecut filled the third. 

Michelle

 

Austenland by Shannon Hale......

Um, seriously??  Austenland??  Like Disneyland??  Honestly, a whole world dedicated to the works of Jane Austen would be a dream come true.  I would totally book a vacation there.  Probably a solo one though, since no one else close to me shares the same sort of Austen obsession I have.  LOL.

So after I finished daydreaming about empire waist dresses, long walks in the garden, and Colin Firth....er, I mean Mr. Darcy, I started and quickly finished this book, Austenland, by Shannon Hale. 

This book had been on a list of possible reads for a little while, however when reading an older People magazine, I came upon an article talking about the new films featured at Sundance.  "Austenland," based off of the book,  was one them.  So I quickly downloaded the book and read it.  And it was a funny, funny book. 

The book starts out with Jane lamenting over her terrible luck with men and wondering if perhaps she needs to accept that there just is not a Mr. Darcy out there for her (what?!) when an aunt leaves Jane a 3 week vacation to Austenland in her will.  What occurs next is just simply a whole lot of fun.  Written with an Austenesque plot, the book borders on predictable, but it is utterly entertaining as modern day Jane navigates the Regency Era.  Really, who has not imagined themselves as Lizzy Bennet???  A must read and definitely a must see when the movie comes out this summer (August 16th).

Michelle

Our Girl is Fabulous & We Adore You......

In a recent post I talked about my new philosophy/process in attacking kits and here is another example of me doing just that----2 layouts, done back to back, using the same kit.

Just to recap, each week I am pulling out one kit, printing out pics, and committing to doing 2 or 3 layouts.  The rest of the week, I bounce around using whatever product I want.  The end result--making a dent in my "little" kit stash.

For these two layouts I pulled out my February kit from Scraptastic and these are the layouts I came up with......

First off, LOVE the honeycomb patterned paper from Glitz!  Seriously, it looks like I did a lot of work here!  

I am not a newbie when it comes to layering up my butterflies, but for some reason it never occurred to me to layer them with vellum until I saw this layout.  

I have never loved a paper as much as I love the floral patterned paper from Glitz (Cashmere Dame line).  Honestly, it is so pretty.  And of course I am hoarding the little scraps of it that I have left.  LOL.  

And a close-up of some tiny details--thread, hearts punched out of AC's glitter tape, and the lovely pink washi tape.

Wishing everyone a great weekend!

Michelle
 

Hello Baseball....

Good morning!  I am finally recovering from a long weekend of baseball and birthday festivities as well as catching up on a giant pile of laundry that built up do to a dryer deciding it did not want to heat up anymore :-).

Here is a layout I finished a few weeks ago using SC's add-on Hook.....

Such perfect colors for a boy layout!  Really loved the background patterned paper--made all the colors pop right out!  And really, why they waited this long to come out with enamel dots is beyond me--they are so much fun!

Very happy that I snapped this pic of my son during a scrimmage......as I sat in the stands that night watching him play, I was blown away by how much he has grown since last season.  He is 12 and he is really starting to look...manly.  My little boy is almost gone and in his place, is this man-child.  He has also really asserted himself as a leader among the boys and it makes me so proud to listen to him talk to his team mates.  I am a very proud mama.

Michelle