Breakfast at Denny's......

Good morning!  I have been dying to share this next layout, in fact it's been ready to go and all edited since Sunday, but my computer time this week has been limited to my morning blog reading and puppy searches!  Yes, a puppy!! I have been campaigning for a dog for awhile now and finally, my husband jumped on board-yeah!!  It has taken us months to decide on what breed of dog to get and now that we have narrowed it down to the one, the search is on!  I will admit though that I have been feeling a little overwhelmed with it all--seriously hard work looking at and contacting breeders....oh well, it will all be worth it :-).

Back to scrapping......here's the layout I want to share:

Ha!  Love the look on Hayden's face!!  I took these photos during a breakfast date with my kiddos using my iPhone.  I ran the pics through PicTapGo and used their "Troy" filter which tweaked the colors to make the blues darker and the reds more orange--worked perfectly with these papers from Basic Grey and Teresa Collins.  (And those Red, White, and Blue Pancakes were awesome!!)

Here's a close up....

Love the paper clip embellie from Basic Grey, such a fun, tiny detail (and something I could totally make myself!)

Wishing you a great weekend!

Michelle

Favorites.....

Does anyone ever find themselves stopping several times to look at a fave layout after its completed??  Well, I did that with the next three!  Seriously, I had them all lined up and would do a detour into the room just to look at them.  Ha!  I have some issues :-).

When I recieved my June kit from Citrus Twist I knew immediately that it had claimed the number one spot on my all-time favorite kit list (*note:  this is a mental list, not a list that is written down somewhere-I am not that crazy.....maybe!)  The combination of papers, embellies, and gold Thickers had me instantly smitten! 

So here are the three layouts I obsessed over ....

 

Sweet Allora.  Sweet Allora was almost a disaster when I went to apply ink droplets--when I flicked the dropper, the little rubber thingy fell off and landed, thankfully, on the piece of cardstock I had covering my picture--thank you scrapbooking gods.....

 

 



Adhering sequins to the balloons was the best decision ever!  Love the effect.

Poppy.  Simple design and doodles.  Very scary to draw on a layout, but I lowered the anxiety by using my clear quilting ruler--why had I not thought of this before???   The ruler is see through and has all sorts of lines to keep me straight....now only if I can straigten out my sewing lines.....

Close up of doodling.......

Joy was made using mostly the kit add-on, as well as a sketch from Citrus Twist.  Am absolutely over the moon about the background doily-cloud paper from Crate Paper.  So pretty.  Butterflies and doilies---I still love them and hope they continue to show up in products.  I myself consider them more of a staple as opposed to a trend. 

Tied a bow for the tag out of a piece of thread. 

Wishing everyone a great week!

Michelle

A Two-Pager.....Sort Of

Up until a few years ago, I was a devout two-pager and a big believer in 4 x 6 photos.  After discovering the gi-normous scrapping community in the summer of 2010, I changed my ways.  I became a single page girl and cropped my pics. 

And I am not going back anytime soon.

I lost my mojo for double pagers, the smaller canvas is just easier for me to wrap my brain around.  Double pages would do a lot for shrinking my stash, but it just is not going to happen.

That is not to say I do not like to see what other scrappers do with two-pages and sometimes I long for a simpler way to document a big event/multi-photo extravaganza. 

After I came upon this post at 2peas from Melissa Stinson, I decided she had the solution to my problem: I would do two one page layouts and I would sandwich a multi-pic page protector in the middle.   A marriage of my desire to scrap a single page layout and get multi-pics in my album at the same time.

 

 

 

 Here is another example of the rest of my aquarium photos as they sit inside my album.

 

 

 

 

This type of scrapping has also been a solution to the many sport photos of my son.  Thanks to myself and a few other parents, I have loads of really cool pictures of Hayden playing football and baseball, but man, I was sort of overwhelmed when it came to deciding how I wanted to scrap them.  The solution of adding in a multi-pic page protector solved that for me!

Michelle

The Cherry Tree....

My daughter was so excited to be able to "climb" the cherry tree in the backyard of my uncle's house, that she happily smiled for the camera!  LOL. 

 

 

 

I based this lo off of a sketch from Elle's Studio which is probably in my favorite place to go for sketches.  They are usually pretty clean with white space, something that appeals to me.  This one  (obviously) had a grid design, a quality that I like because it always offers a chance to use more than one picture. 

 

I also used a journaling card to layer underneath my title work.  This was actually on my "to-do" list.  I have lots of journaling cards, but I only seem to use them for Project Life.  My goal was to stretch beyond my norm and use them on layouts.  And I have!  Very happy to be using up my product and not letting it sit around!

 

Michelle

Hello Sunshine.....

I am a lover of all things yellow...in fact, I have allowed myself to hoard to the most perfect package of yellow Lullabye Thickers from years ago even though I have parted ways with most of my hoarding tendencies...

I just LOVE the colors in this layout---blue, green, yellow, gray, kraft...yummy colors!  In fact I think my single favorite release from CHA Winter is the butterfly paper from Jillibean's Chilled Cucumber Soup line.  Seriously, after looking back at all the awesomeness that came out of CHA, this paper is what I was most excited for! 

Speaking of CHA, which is right around the corner, I am not very excited for it yet.  I am still deep in awe of everything that came out in the winter as well as mid-season releases.  I am NOT ready for all things autumn and Christmas!  LOL. 

Have a great day!

Michelle

Snapshots of the Beach.....

Just a few snapshots from a recent trip to the beach in June.......

 

Love this boy and this picture reminds me of how much he has grown this past year......

 

Maleia and her daddy.......

 

The sandcrabs were amazing and occupied much of Maleia and Hayden's time.

 

 

 

Found a big one mixed in with lots of little ones......

 

 

Um, hello???  How awesome is this?!  See, I knew these two could get along!

 

Baby girl was feeling puny earlier in the week, but was well enough to let me dress her up in this awesome swim suit!

 

Wishing everyone a great Summer!

 

Michelle

 

Summer Reading List.....Defending Jacob

Defending Jacob by William Landay was.......suspenseful.  I say suspenseful because the murder mystery centers around Jacob, the 14 year old son of Assistent District Attorney Andy Barber.  Like an episode of Law and Order (any variety!), I spent the entire novel wondering "who did it?" 



 

 

The book moves along at a heartbreaking pace.  The circumstances surrounding the family of the deceased and the family of the accused is harsh.  I never had stopped to think about how the latter would feel prior to reading this.  Andy's world is absolutely shattered by the accusation:  he loses his job; he has no control over an investigation that he would ususally be knee deep in;  and because he's a lawyer, he agonizes over every little detail as he fights for his son.  Andy's wife, whom had been the center of a group of mothers, is left isolated and questioning her own mothering. 

I think the story is also agonizing.  My goodness, what would you do if your own child was accused of murder??  I was rooting for Jacob and his family one moment and the next I wanted to shake them for their thoughts and actions.  And then there is the question that weighs heavily throughout the entire book:  do you think he did it???  

Good book, but I need something a little bit more lighthearted for my next one :-).

Michelle