Pumpkin Jammies & Planting Fall....

Happy Halloween!  Hope everyone has some spooky and fun plans for the day!   In the spirit of the day I wanted to share my first Halloween layout of the season.....

Pumpkin Pajamas are so much fun!  These pics were especially fun to take because the jammies were previously worn by my daughter Maleia two years ago.  I purposely posed  (as much as you can pose a six month old!) Allora in the same way as her sister.  Which you can see here from this layout from my scrapbook past....

 

Yeah, seriously noticed the similarity in design!

Up next, and because this is the last day to post challenge entries, is a layout I did for a Scraptastic sketch Challenge using their October Hall Pass Kit, which I cannot believe has yet to sell out?! 

Note the dirt onMaleia's red skinny jeans---she is all about dirt which I think is so great.  She is part princess, part her dad.  She loves to dress up, but is all about getting dirty and exploring like my husband.  Love this about her!

Wishing everyone all treats and no tricks tonight!

Michelle

You and Me Together.....Creative Scrappers

First off--Happy National Pumpkin Day!  What a perfectly good excuse to hit the drive thru at Starbucks for a Pumpkin Spice Latte :-).  

Anyways....

I  will occasionally scrap the same picture twice and this is why:  I have several albums going all at once   (Each of my three kiddos have their own albums going; I have a family album; and I have a Project Life album) and sometimes I have a picture(s) that can apply to more than one.  This layout features one of the photos that I had previously scrapped and placed inside my family album because the story I told in that instance was about how happy I am being a mother. 

You and Me Together will go in Allora's album.......

In my children's albums I try hard to include pages that pertain to their own special relationships with family members and I wanted my daughter to have this moment of us together in her own album. 

This layout is based off of  Sketch 229 at Creative Scrappers.  When I saw the sketch I knew I had to use it and the layout instantly became a fave.  Lots of white space with layers--right up my ally! And I was bold and used a die cut word bubble--very trendy :-). 

Michelle 

Truly Happy.....

It is not very often that I find myself in front of the camera.  This is something that I really need to rectify.  Besides being the one who loves to take the pictures, I shy away from the camera because I do not always like what I see when I look at myself.  I know, super lame and horribly vain, but weight plays a lot of tricks on the self-esteem and I am not immune.  HOWEVER, I know how important it is that I put more of myself in my work because I am documenting our lives for my children who will probably be sad one day when they are older and cannot find any pictures of their mom.  So during a little photo shoot with my youngest, I handed my beloved camera over to my son and had him snap away. 

And I loved the finished result!  As I posed with Allora in front of the camera, I pushed aside all anxities and came up with some shots that really captured me and how I felt at that moment--truly happy.  I have to do this more often.

Happy Scrapping!

Michelle

Beach Baby.......

I have really been drawn to simple layouts lately.  I love details and layers, but there is something about simplicity that draws the eyes to the photo, allowing it to truly shine.  Here is an example........

I took a simple and classic shape--the square--rounded two of its four corners and laid them out on my cardstock, moving them around.  I finally decided on this flower-like layout next to my picture.  Keeping super true to myself, I incorporated some doilies too.  

When picking out my papers for this, I instantly thought of the stack of For the Record 2 Documented that I had.  At first glance, the collection does not scream "beachy," but when I paired the line with the photo, I think it worked.  

Also please note, I allowed my hoarding self to break into my package of yellow Lullabye Thickers that I have had for two years!  Yeah me!  

Hope everyone is having a great Sunday.  Here, we are planning a little time at the park followed my some hot chocolate.   Happy scrapping.

Michelle
 

Last Call for Summer.....

I took lots of pics of this past summer's beach trips and I have been slowly scrapping them.  This next layout features SIX of them!  This is a multi-multi photo layout !  LOL.  Okay, I am probably the only one who thinks that is funny....

Sadly, I did not come up with the layout on my own.  I had been stumped as to what to do with this set of pics and when I saw this layout by Stephanie Dagan, I knew I had my solution.  I scraplifted the overall design, keeping the pics and the papers in the same position but changing up everything else.  I usually do not like to keep it so close to someone else's work, but occasionally, it's nice do a no brainer :-).

 I also incorporated a challenge for the Scraptastic Kit Club using their September Just Beachy kit.  The challenge was to use a die cut and back it with 3 patterned papers.  Here is a close up......

My first instinct was to adhere the die cut with a pop dot, but later decided I wanted to layer a pinwheel over it.

Thanks for letting my share.

Michelle

A Sewing Challenge......

On Saturdays, 2 Peas issues their weekly challenges and this week one of them is a sewing challenge.  The challenge is to sew journaling lines.  At first I was a little wary, but then I got over being a chicken and tackled it.  Here is the result:

I wasn't too bold and kept the journaling in one spot as opposed to the example Wilna gave here.  And being a little Type A, I drew my lines with a ruler and pencil prior to sewing because I cannot sew straight :-).

I also want to give a shout out to Heidi Swapp's new Color Shine--it is awesome and the pics do not do it justice! 

The color is pretty opaque much like Mr. Huey's, BUT it has some amazing shine and sparkle in the color which has absolutely sold me on the product.  So much so, that on my next order, I am ordering more colors!  (Plus, it has more--2 oz compared to the usual 1.)

Michelle

Hello Fall......

Just a quick share today because Saturdays are always full of things of to do.....

Here's Hello Fall.  A layout featuring lots of Lilybee's Persnickety.....

I love the grey in this line.  In fact I love grey in everything (*note the grey I have dressed my daughter in).  This is not the traditional autumn line from Lilybee, but I really think it works due to the pops of orange, the harvesty yellow, and the popular teal.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and has something fun planned.  I have a football game to attend and hopefully photograph if the girls cooperate, laundry to do, enchiladas to make, some fall flowers to plant, some pics to scrap, and some hot chocolate to drink!

Michelle

Allora @ 6 Months.....

At six months old Allora is sitting up.  She now has a total of two teeth which popped up within days of each other.  She is almost crawling!  Yes, she gets on all fours and rocks back and forth AND as of yesterday, she is now scooting and trying to use her arms to crawl.  Cannot believe how fast six months has gone by!  Love this beautiful little girl!

Here's to the next 6 months!  Love you lots Allora.

Mama

Surf and Sand......

I have a gi-normous stack of beach photos from this summer and even though I am in the mood for autumn I am determined to scrap summer and put it to rest before I get too entrenched in fall. 

Here's a layout featuring my son on our last trip.......

This kid is non-stop when he gets to the beach and is usually in the water before I can get the towells laid out!

This layout is very blue thanks to the colored cardstock.  I am trying to branch out a bit from my usual white cardstock, but it is making me uncomfortable.  Ha.  Paper can make me uncomfortable.  That makes me laugh at myself.  I guess it is something only a fellow scrapbooker could understand....or maybe I need counciling.

Happy Monday.

Michelle

Pooltime Fun........Scraptastic Kit Club

I am a bit of a kit junkie.  Ever since I received my first box in July of 2010 I have been hooked on the delight I get from opening up a beautiful box full of happiness....I love kits for so many reasons, the major being that they challenge me.  Often I am given a product or products that I normally would not have picked out for myself and I end up loving those layouts made with them the most.  But more recently, I have really began to enjoy kits for the sense of community they create among it subscribers.

So, in my search for a fabulous kit with an awesome community, I found the Scraptastic Kit Club.   And here is a layout I did with my first kit--the September Just Beachy Kit and add-on--for a challenge posted on their blog that required us to use a color scheme from a kit and a punch. 

Such a lovely kit!  Lots of  American Crafts goodness, with some Elles's Studio, Little Yellow Bicycle, and October Afternoon.

Had lots of fun working with the kit and the layout came together super fast.  And I am just in love with the sparkly alphas!  Seriously, I am thinking about requiring myself to add sparkle to EVERY layout because I love it so much! 

Have a great day! 

Michelle

Adorable.....

Seriously, this girl IS adorable.......

So super excited when I got this shot of Allora!  She is such a bright and happy baby and I set out to capture that in this layout.  What gave me the idea for the overal design was this layout done by Mel Blackburn.  What I took from it were the vertical overlapping papers--I thought it would be a great way of showcasing all the papers. 

 

For a finishing touch I added some stitching--a tiny detail, but well worth the effort of hauling out the sewing machine to use for a total of five minutes :-).  I even stamped!  As an afterthought though, I wished I had used some of my new silver, glittery embossing powder--next time for sure.  (I also failed to realize unitil it was way too late that my pink rectangle is not straight.) 

Well thanks for letting me share.  I {heart} this hobby a whole lot and would be lost without my scrapbooking.....

Michelle