I Love You

This one is just for the pretty. No story, just pretty pics and pretty product. This month’s Buffet at Gingerscraps is just perfect for our renewal pages.

Credits:
Winter Romance allies by Luv Ewe
Bear Hugs papers by Boomersgirl
Feeling Love template by Pixelily

*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.

Together

The complete title to this LO should be “Getting My Shit Together”, but I’ll stick with the shortened version. I had a completely different idea for this kit, but seeing the word strips took me in a whole different direction. I love it when products inspire in that way, making you think of a story you might not have otherwise told.

Journaling reads- I SO did not have my sh*t together this morning. We’d been crazy busy the past few weeks with Charles and John visiting, Christmas, recovering from Vegas and a cold, etc. The vow renewal felt almost like an afterthought. I was so stressed out and didn’t feel like myself at all. It was a challenge getting into that right, loving headspace. At first I was thinking of 100 different little annoyances, from not having my nails done to my hair blowing around, to the freakin’ sun, who was NOT cooperating! But once we were there, in front of each other, all my stress started melting away and I began to really enjoy myself. And to remember why we were there in the first place. It had nothing to do with my hair, or the tractor that kept going up and down the beach, or that the sun was hiding behind the clouds instead of providing a nice backdrop for pictures. It was about sharing something special with our little family. It was about smiling and laughing together like we do every day. It was about celebrating  ten years of marriage, and many more to come.

Sidenote- Who else starts out wedding layouts by talking about how junky they feel, and how their stepson is trying not to throw up? Apparently I do, LOL. Next up is a page about how we only spent $15 on new wedding clothes! (I’m totally not kidding) It really was an amazingly beautiful day though, but also so “us” in that ridiculous things happened. And yes, I will eventually get to the tractor story.

Credits
Cherry on Top Essentials bundle, Splatters, and Wordbits by JB Studio

*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.

Before I Do….

This is the first of approximately 52,000 pages I plan to do about renewing our wedding vows last weekend. I have a lot to say, and there are A LOT of pictures! My father-in-law is a fantastic photographer and he really outdid himself.

When faced with an overwhelmingly large number of photos, I did like I normally do and scrapped something silly. I will most definitely get to the big lovey dovey pages eventually though, no worries.

Also you can ignore all the snowflakes on this page if using snowflakes on a beach page offends you. I think they’re pretty. A lot of the kits I’m planning to use to scrap this event have snowflakes, so I might just make it a theme. I’ll take a page out of Nancy Nally’s book and call them “ironic snowflakes“.

Journaling reads- Just hanging out a couple of minutes before the ceremony. I’m gesticulating (as usual), Jason is making me laugh (as usual), and poor Charles looks like he’s about to be sick. I think he was nervous. Jason had to give him a Sprite to settle his stomach. Poor guy!

Credits:
No Two Alike bundle by Mandy King

*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.

New Release Day

So much tasty goodness releasing today at GingerScraps!

One of my goals for 2015 is to scrap 2005. That was a huge year, and I’ve been looking forward to digging into it since late last year. The frogs in Aprilisa’s new kit reminded me of my old pj’s, so I went on the hunt for pictures. I found these, from my very first trip to visit Jason in West Palm Beach.

Journaling reads- We spent the first of what would become many evenings together on the patio talking. Jason smoking, and me in my froggy pajamas. I wish I could remember those conversations. I’m sure we talked about everything and nothing. Plans for our future, how much we missed each other when we were apart. How his work was going, and how much I enjoyed my first taste of taquitos.

The next page I made just for the sentiment on the card. Because, yes, yes you do…

Credits for both: Toad-ally Adorable by Aprilisa (kit, journal cards, flair, and templates)

There are going to be a lot of photo-less LO’s for 2005. (I shared a few last year). So much of our communication revolved around text- IM’s and emails. I like the challenge of figuring out page designs that hold up to lots of words.

Journaling reads- I don’t believe in horoscopes, but back in the early 2000’s, I used to get my horoscope delivered to my email every morning. It was just something fun to look at every once in a while. Now, at the beginning of 2015, I’m mining old emails to piece together some of our early relationship. It was interesting to find these horoscopes in my “Jason” folder, not only because I’d forgotten I ever used to get a daily horoscope, but because I thought they were worth keeping at the time. I was totally falling for this guy, and apparently the stars (and whoever writes this stuff) were in agreement 🙂

Credits: Be My Valentine kit and journal cards by Clever Monkey Graphics

Next up is another Louisiana trip page. Because I can’t let a single week go by without one. This is just a picture that we take nearly every trip, the super exciting Fort Drum rest stop. I promise I’m almost finished with the rest stop LO’s. Almost.

Credits: Lovin’ My Life collab by the Gingerbread Ladies
Round and Round vol. 3 by Dagi’s Temp-Tations

Whew! It’s been a crazy busy week, with no signs of slowing down anytime soon. But I’m so grateful for the opportunity to work with so many fabulous ladies that help me stretch and grow in my scrapping. I’m having a blast!

*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 goodies from GingerScraps designers!

I’m thoroughly enjoying my second week scrapping with the awesome GS designers! I snagged a new pack of Dagi’s templates (of course I did). And I got to scrap my first Christmas LO of the season! I’m ridiculously excited about that. I’m not rushing Thanksgiving… I’m just happy to invite glitter back into my scrappy world again.

So the story of this page is… kind of sappy. Sometimes I write lovey things to Jason but don’t show him. Then I find them in Evernote months later and think hmmm that would make a nice LO… Now you know my secret, I have a whole scrapbook of love letters I’m too embarrassed to send to my husband. Here’s one. And another. And a couple more. It’s kind of gross. But I just like him. A lot.

Journaling reads- I love how you… Hold my hand. Make me laugh so hard. Flirt with me at the grocery store. Hold open doors. Pretend to be a monster and chase me around the house. Get so enthusiastic about things. Chase sunsets with me. Share the joys and tears of life with me. Move me, and get me moving. Listen

Credits: Good Reads kit by Aprilisa
Falling For You by Dagi’s Temp-tations

My second LO isn’t quite so embarrassing. Also, Yay cookies! Also also note to self- try not to make all the cookies next month. It took like three months to get rid of all that cookie weight this winter!

Moving on…. Yay Christmas kits! And glittery snowflakes! This kit is a definite contender for  my holiday book this year. Yep that’s right folks, I’m going to try a December Daily type thing this year. Stay tuned.

Journaling reads- This year I decided to shake up my usual Christmas baking and try a couple of new recipes. Trisha Yearwood’s cranberry white chocolate chip cookies were a new favorite, but Alton Brown’s were pretty tasty too.

Credits: Christmas Countdown kit and journal cards by JB Studios
Falling For You templates by Dagi’s Temp-Tations

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.

Autumn Adoration LO’s

Mandy has a very pretty new fall kit out today called Autumn Adoration.

I went very simple for my first page, about our love for Gone Girl. I’ve often thought of doing LO’s for books that I love, but they’re not very high on my list for some reason. So I was excited to see that one of the challenges at Gotta Pixel this week was to scrap a favorite book.

Journaling reads- Our favorite book recently has definitely been Gone Girl. I read it this spring, then when I heard it was going to be a movie, I read it again. One night we were in bed and I was blathering on about the book. Jason got out the iPad and went to find it on the iBooks store. He asked me if it was worth eight dollars, and I said “Definitely!” I love that we live in a time when you can buy books on a whim and get them almost instantly! He stayed awake late that night reading, then finished it up on the weekend. It was so hard not to give him spoilers! He would act sneaky and try to get info out of me, but I kept quiet. (Though I think I let something slip, I’m not sure if he noticed). After he finished the book, we obsessively watched the movie trailer and dissected it for way longer than it warranted, I’m sure. It’s funny though, that when we finally saw the movie, we didn’t have much to say. It was a pretty faithful adaptation and we were both pretty satisfied.. But I love that we both got so excited about a book together. It has made for hours of lively discussions for the past few weeks.

I girly-ed it up for my next page, about my sister’s changing style.

Journaling reads- And somehow, without my knowlege or approval, my sister has morphed herself into Stevie Nicks, complete with scarves and long swirly skirts. I find this hilarious coming from a girl who used to throw fits when I made her put on dresses for church as a child.

(template by Angelclaud Artroom)

Thanks for looking 🙂

*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.

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.