9-11-15 New Releases, featuring birthday cards and apple pancakes

This week’s new releases were a lot of fun to work with!

I love scrapping birthdays. I know a lot of scrappers see them as a bit of a chore, but I love finding all the little stories of someone’s special day. That never gets boring for me. If anything I probably over-scrap birthdays.

Jason’s 40th birthday was a pretty big deal, and definitely one of the most important things I’ll scrap this year. I have at least 20 stories I want to tell from that week, which I know sounds crazy. I’ve done several pages already, but none yet about the present opening extravaganza.

I narrowed the photos down to my favorite 30 or so. I wanted pictures of each present, plus a few more of him just looking happy and excited and cute. Then I stared at them for a few minutes feeling totally lost as to what to do. Slowly though, stories started to emerge. I jotted down a few ideas, enough to make three pages. I noticed three themes in the pictures I’d chosen- cards, 49ers gear, and handmade presents. I set those aside and the rest I’ll probably just plop down in a Project Life style template.

I’ll be sharing lots more birthday pages over the next couple of weeks.

Journaling reads- Jason got a bunch of cards for his birthday, including an origami card from Charles, a Braille card from Jeannie, and one from Steve from Japan!

Credits:
A Very Happy Birthday kit by Aprilisa
House Party template by Little Rad Trio

My second LO doesn’t have nearly as long of a backstory. It’s about some awesome apple pancakes that Jason makes.

Journaling reads- Jason made delicious apple pancakes this weekend for the first time. They would become one of our favorite brunch foods.

Credits:
Apple-licious kit by LJS Designs
House Party template by Little Rad Trio

*I am a Creative Team Member. This means that I receive free products in exchange for making and advertising layouts for designers. However, the opinions expressed here are my own. The enthusiasm expressed here is definitely my own. See more of my CT layouts here.

New Releases for February 1st

I have lots of pages to share today, so let’s get rolling!

First up are my LO’s for Simple Scrapper. I love that the monthly themes help me go beyond scrapping events, and tell different kinds of stories. I feel like I stretch myself with each one.

Journaling reads- My favorite parts of the day- watching the news together in the morning, because we’ve only been able to do that this past year. Snuggling with miss kitty after Jason leaves, because she’s only been doing that recently after years of standoffishness. Curling up together before we fall asleep, because we’ve done it for years and will do it for many more.

Credits:
Toad-ally Adorable kit by Aprilisa
January 2015 template #3 by Simple Scrapper
Inspired by a Story Starter from the Simple Scrapper premium membership (February 2015 #6)

Journaling reads- You make me cry every time you give me a card or letter. I know to grab tissue before I even open it. I can’t help it, your words mean so much to me.

Credits:
Quinn Storyteller collection by Just Jaimee
February 2015 template #1 by Simple Scrapper
Inspired by a story starter from the Simple Scrapper premium membership (Feb 2011)

Mandy has a sweet new release today called Touch the Sky, which I used to scrap another  Louisiana road trip page. I love that I kept notes along the way, or I totally would have forgotten about these little details.

Journaling reads-
I-75 Northbound
Car talk- Once Upon a Time, Taylor Swift, fall colors.
Seen- cows, Adult Superstore, the jerk who was tailgating us get pulled over by the police.

Credits:
Touch the Sky by Mandy King

As soon as I saw February’s Monthly Mix at GingerScraps, I knew exactly what I wanted to scrap, staying with Melissa last year.

Journaling reads- Melissa let us crash at her house while we were in town for Jon’s memorial service. It was great seeing her, even though it was for a sad reason. We stayed up late talking, and we got to meet Aaliyah for the first time. February 1, 2014

Credits:
Best Friends collab by the Gingerbread Ladies (kit and template)

One more from the Best Friends Monthly Mix, this time using one of the templates. I loved the cards from the Honeymoon collection, so I let those stand in for a title and journaling.

Credits-
Honeymoon Collection Bundle by JB Studio and Meagan’s Creations
Best Friends template by Dagi’s Temp-Tations

*I am a Creative Team Member. This means that I receive free products in exchange for making and advertising layouts for designers. However, the opinions expressed here are my own. The enthusiasm expressed here is definitely my own. See more of my CT layouts here.

Big Honkin’ Layout Share, featuring 2005, wedding, Christmas, travel, and an old school Project Life page

I have been scrapping my booty off lately! Here are a few of my latest pages.

First up are the new releases from the GingerScraps designers.

I think this might be one of my favorites, ever. As I mentioned last week, I’m working on scrapping some of my 2005 memories. One of the biggest themes of that year was all the traveling back and forth that Jason and I did to see each other. The honeymoon collection could not have been more perfect to scrap that! The map paper, oh I love it so much. I’ve been trying to come up with fresh ideas for photo-less pages, and the Word Paths were a great jumping off point in my design. I’m really proud of this page.

Journaling reads- Being in a long distance relationship involved a lot of travel for both of us. After that first visit, we tried to get together once every month or so. He would fly to Nashville or I would fly to West Palm. Those visits were one of the lifelines of our relationship. We measured time by how long it was until we would see each other next. So many of our conversations centered around planning the logistics of our visits, where we would stay, what we would do together. Thinking back, I remember it was hard, but it was all so worth it to see each other.

Credits:
Honeymoon Collection Bundle by JB Studio and Meagan’s Creations 
Word Paths {You & Me} by Little Rad Trio

I’m working my way through wedding photos this year too. I’m so glad that I didn’t scrap all of them when I first started. I like that my wedding pages reflect the evolution of my style, and aren’t stuck back in my 2010 style. I have hundreds of photos, so I figure I’ll scrap a few each year, and I’ll be finished sometime around 2075-sh.

Credits:
Skip A Beat by Luv Ewe Designs

Tracie, from Clever Monkey Graphics released a couple of Christmas kits this week, so y’all know I snatched those up! You can’t have too many Christmas kits, right?

The first one documents our doughnut obsession.

Journaling reads- Let’s not talk about the amount of Christmas doughnuts we ingested this year…. Dec. 2014

Credits:
Holiday Cookie Exchange by Clever Monkey Graphics

And the next one shows off some more photos from Four Freedoms Park, where we stopped on our way to Louisiana. I’ve already done a few pages about it, but I wanted to do one that showed how they had it decorated.

Credits:
Merry and Bright by Clever Monkey Graphics
Day By Day by Dagi’s Temp-tations

Last year, I took the Catch Up with Project Life class at BPC, where I made several pages for my 2011 Project Life album. (Which I just realize I never shared here) I’m coming close to finishing, and I’m pretty excited!

That year I made a single page spread for each week. So I knew Dagi’s new templates would be great to use for my next unfinished week. In a stroke of scrapping serendipity, the colors in Blue Heart Scrap’s newest kit worked out just perfect for that week too.

It was neat looking back at our “old old” apartment. You can just barely see the little Kitty head peeking out from around the stairs.

But I have to say, thank goodness for Rad Lab, because a lot of those pictures were kind of rough. I’m resisting the urge to try and fix the photos in my PL pages from that year before I get them printed. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

Credits:
Make Memories by Blue Heart Scraps
Day by Day template by Dagi’s Temp-Tations

I have lots more pages to share this weekend. It has been an amazingly busy scrappy month around here!

*I am a Creative Team Member. This means that I receive free products in exchange for making and advertising layouts for designers. However, the opinions expressed here are my own. The enthusiasm expressed here is definitely my own. See more of my CT layouts here.

Simple Scrapper LO’s for January

Welcome to 2015! Here are my pages inspired by January Simple Scrapper Premium membership materials.

The first tells the story of my Christmas tree procrastination. I know some people like taking them down early, but I like to extend the season as long as possible! Although this year we had Christmas in June too, so my need to keep it up an extra month might be tempered a bit. We’ll see…

Journaling reads- I like to keep the Christmas tree up longer than most people. It doesn’t happen every year, but ideally I like to keep it up until around my birthday in February. It sounds weird, but I like to stretch the season out as long as I can.

Credits:
Holiday Traditions by Connie Prince
January 2015 template by Simple Scrapper (modified)
Inspired by a Story Starter from Simple Scrapper January 2011

My second page talks about how excited we were to move to Coral Springs. I love the journal card with the row of houses. I feel like the past few months have shown me over and over how much I have to be grateful for living here and being able to spend so much more time together.

Journaling reads- Moving from West Palm to Coral Springs was the opportunity for a fresh start. We were so excited to explore a new town. We loved our new apartment. We loved all the parks. Most of all we were excited to have more time together. No more two hour a day commute!

Credits:
November 2014 Storyteller by Just Jaime
Inspired by a Story Starter from Simple Scrapper (Jan 2015)
February 2013 sketch by Simple Scrapper

*I am a Creative Team Member. This means that I receive free products in exchange for making and advertising layouts for designers. However, the opinions expressed here are my own. The enthusiasm expressed here is definitely my own. See more of my CT layouts here.

Layouts using Slow Me Down, a collab from Mandy King and Saxon

Mandy is killing it with the awesome collars lately! This time she teamed up with Saxon to bring us Slow Me Down. It’s full of rich colors, and just perfect for scrapping those quiet moments.

My first page tells the story of our first morning in our new apartment. It was kind of like the eye of a storm between the craziness of moving, and the busyness of having my sister stay with us. Jason and I took a few quiet moments out on the balcony to try and let everything sink in.

Journaling reads- Our first morning at the new apartment. It didn’t seem real. Were we really going to live here? Was this really going to be our home? It seemed too good to be true, like we were going to wake up from a dream any minute.

Library of Memories album- Places: Coral Springs

My second LO is a bit on the personal side. I took this photo for Week in the Life, and scrapped it that same night. I love love love it, one of my favorites of us together, ever. I wrote the journaling months ago. I’m not sure what prompted those words, sometimes I just start writing whatever’s on my mind. I saved it to Evernote and it sat there, waiting for me to figure out what to do with it. I went very minimal with the embellishments. I’ll probably cut this in half vertically to create two 4×8 pages that I’ll store back to back.

Journaling reads-
He doesn’t want her help putting together furniture or washing the car.
She doesn’t want his help packing, whether it’s a suitcase or the whole house.
He could probably use more help planning trips.
She could probably use some help with the dishes.
He doesn’t do laundry or cat boxes.
She doesn’t drive or pay bills.
Sometimes it’s best if they divide and conquer. They go with their strengths.
They are both excellent e-mail and card writers.
They both know pretty well when to give hugs and when to give space.
They always have each others’ backs.
If they don’t agree, they can usually find a compromise.
They grocery shop quite well together.
They are each other’s biggest fan.
They make a great team.
That is their strength.

Library of Memories album- All About Us: Jason and Jen

*I am a Creative Team Member. This means that I receive free products in exchange for making and advertising layouts for designers. However, the opinions expressed here are my own. The enthusiasm expressed here is definitely my own. See more of my CT layouts here.

Week in the Life 2014 | Tuesday Photos

This week I’m playing along with Week in the Life, an intense documentation project from Ali Edwards. My Week in the Life posts can be found here.

Tuesday and Wednesday were not fabulous days. I wrote a lot of words for those days, but I don’t necessarily want to share them publicly. Here are some of the photos.

Currently

Visiting the pumpkin patch, finding it way too crowded, and deciding to try again in November.

Putting in applications for creative jobs and jobs that pay actual money.

Feeling incredibly anxious.

Doing it anyway.

Walking in the park.

Loving that the weather is down in the 70’s!

Closing doors so others can open.

Watching new episodes of Once Upon A Time and Sleepy Hollow.

Waiting for a fun delivery today or tomorrow.

Talking my sister through setting up her first iPad.

Squirting a naughty Miss Kitty with the water bottle.

Having nightmares regularly.

Pinning iPhone accessories.

Looking for more Halloween themed mysteries.

Eating homemade mac and cheese.

Worrying about family drama, always.

Planning a strategy for Week in the Life.

Signing up for our second 5k.

Feeling sad for three friends who’ve lost loved ones this week.

Division of Labor using Chore Monster by Mandy King

Mandy’s new collection is a fun departure from her usual kit style. This one is all about chores!

I decided to make a LO about the “division of labor” in our house. I did a similar page back in 2011, but it’s always interesting to revisit themes like this to see changes through time.

Here’s my older page. It’s funny, I didn’t look at the page from 2011 before I made this one, but they’re very similar. No photos, turquoise, and neutral colors. I think I’ll put them next to each other in my Home album.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a totally different way to use the kit, which doesn’t involve cleaning at all 🙂

*I am a Creative Team Member. This means that I receive free products in exchange for making and advertising layouts for designers. However, the opinions expressed here are my own. The enthusiasm expressed here is definitely my own. See more of my CT layouts here.

Currently

Burning fall candles every day

Planning fun things to do this season.

Scrapbooking my booty off.

Reconnecting with my sister.

Writing long emails.

Practicing gratitude.

Making chicken with apples.

Playing with the laser pointer.

Getting excited for fall TV.

Pretending it’s not 90 degrees outside.

Wearing skirts and tights.

Anticipating watching Gone Girl this weekend. (Can’t wait!)

Waiting and waiting and waiting for a certain store to restock a certain phone.

Loving that the “Summer of Burgers” is turning into the “Year of Burgers”.

 

LO- New tub

I’m sure by now everyone is sick of hearing about my bath tub. Is it getting awkward? Probably…

Okay just one more….

Inspired by- Needing to do a quick page about something, I scanned my Evernote “list of LO’s to make someday” and this one jumped out at me. Simple story, simple page. The pictures are terrible and blurry, but I don’t really care.

Journaling reads- I had some company during my first bath at the new apartment. Miss Kitty was very interested in the water filling up the tub. I’m sure she was wondering what I was doing in her new gigantic water bowl. 4-9-14.

Credits- Bathtime mini by Sugar Kissed Designs

Library of Memories album- Places: Coral Springs.

This is number 5 of 25 layouts I want to make in September.