5 pages | Summer 2014

Actually, nine pages. But who’s counting?

I love doing a “song of the summer” page every year. The whole world was singing this song, and we were no exception.

Journaling reads- This was the song of Summer 2014. It originated with Ferrel’s “Happy”, but srt of took on a life of it’s own. We made up Kitty versions, a zombie version, and it all culminated with Weird Al’s “Tacky”, the best of them all. 🙂 Artist At Work. I love all of Just Jaimee’s paint-y papers!

Credits:
June 2014 Storyteller by Just Jaimee

This is one of my favorite LO’s of the year. Love having all these pictures in one page.

Journaling reads- This summer, one of my goals was to get 100 family photos while Charles was with us. It was a pretty lofty goal, and I’m still not sure if I actually accomplished it, but we did take a lot. We got pictures on airplanes, at rest stops, in hotel rooms, at the movie theater, in the park, and in the car. There aren’t too many “stellar” photos, but I’m grateful for each one we took anyway- Summer 2014 Credits: Right Here, Right Now, Today kit by Inspired Designs Queen of Hearts vol. 3 by Queen Wild Scraps Sprinklers! Such a fun morning!

Credits:
I Am Happy by JB Studio

Journaling reads- We got a cool surprise when we went to the park this morning. There was a man from the Park Service testing out the sprinklers. Of course we took the opportunity to run through them all! It was kind of like our own personal water park. I especially loved being on the swings when the sprinklers turned on. I had to be careful not to get my phone wet, but I was super happy to get these pics of Charles running through. Such a fun morning!

Credits:
May Flowers Mega Mix collab
Picture Perfect 96 template (NSD grab bag) by Aprilisa

Now, onto the birthday pages!

Credits: Look Who’s Celebrating! by Magical Scraps Galore
Whitespace vol. 9 by Connie Prince

Credits:
It’s My Birthday by Little Rad Trio
June template challenge template by Dear Friends Design

Throw Your Hands in the Air

Journaling reads- When I was going through b-day photos, I noticed that he did this pose after opening each present. Too funny 🙂 Credits: It’s My Party kit by Little Rad Trio Fish Fingers and American Typewriter font

Credits:
It’s My Party kit by Little Rad Trio
Fish Fingers and American Typewriter font

Credits:
Pure Happiness kit by Blue Heart Scraps

And last, but not least, a Fourth of July page.

Fabulous Fourth kit by Dandelion Dust Designs
Triangular Volume 3 by Connie Prince
(part of the July 2015 Template bundle)

*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.

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 release day at GingerScraps!

I’m super excited to share that I’ll now be a permanent member of the GingerScraps CT! I guested for them back in November and had a really great time playing with all kinds of goodies! This will mean that Fridays on the blog I’ll have a New Release post with any pages I’ve made.

So here goes!

The first two LO’s are from our Louisiana trip. I’m really concentrating on those photos and stories this month, and I love the focus it’s giving me. I did the same thing last year with our first trip to California, and I made lots of pages. I plan on continuing this idea of a “monthly concentration” throughout 2015.

This page is a reminder to myself to take care of myself when we travel. I get motion sickness on planes, boats, and long mountain drives. And now I guess we can add very long bumpy bridges to the list too.

Inspired by- The red and blue of the kit reminded me of the red coke bottle and the blue of the sky as we crossed the bridge. I had to edit the photos pretty heavily to better match the kit, but I like them.

Journaling reads- Note to self- always, always take Dramamine when going over the Lake Ponchatrain Bridge into New Orleans. Those bumps are harsh!

Credits:
Let’s Party kit (Monthly Mix)
Make It Two templates by Dagi

LOM album- Places: Louisiana

The second LO is the first of what I’m sure will be many pages about St. Louis Cathedral. It’s one of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen.

Inspired by- The blues and purples in the kit. I’d originally wanted to scrap different photos, but they weren’t working out. The blue hombre paper reminded me of the sky (everything reminds me of the sky apparently) so I used these instead. Another heavily edited set of photos, but I felt like playing with filters that day, so I went with it.

Credits:
Winter Wonderland collab from the Gingerbread Ladies
Make It Two by Dagi’s Temp-tations

LOM album- Places: Louisiana

And lastly I have a page about a video game Jason has been obsessed with lately. I just couldn’t pass up that fabulous journaling card! I’m sure I’ll be making plenty more pages with this kit.

I’ll be continuing with the Project 52 that I started towards the end of last year, and this is my page for Week One. I’ll talk more about my version of P52 next week.

Inspired by- That awesome journaling card! We call ourselves the Awesome Family, so it totally feeds into our collective narcism.

Journaling reads- Jason and C finally got to play Vain Glory together this weekend. They’ve been wanting to for a long time. Yay for Skype and games with co-op!

Credits: Digital Besties collab by JB Studio

LOM album- All About Jason

*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.

December Daily, part one

We’re already halfway through the month, so I guess it’s about time I shared some DD pages, huh? I’ll start with some November pages. My cover and basic plan can be found here.

I wasn’t going to do an intro page, I always feel awkward doing those because it’s hard finding words. Then I started talking about DD on the GingerScraps forum and the words just came to me. I used Ali’s free word art for the title.

The next page is from a Shimmelle JYC prompt. My holiday manifesto took the form of a to-do list this year that I made in the middle of November. And I’m super happy that I’ve already crossed a lot of those items off.

Now onto our Louisiana pages! We went up to LA to visit Jason’s dad and brother for Thanksgiving. We haven’t been there for a few years, so we were really looking forward to it! (Posts recapping that trip are here and here). I didn’t want to overwhelm my holiday book with a hundred pictures from our trip, so I limited myself to one page per day. The first page is from the trip up.

I wanted to use pictures with holiday decorations in this book, and as soon as we stepped off the trolley, I knew this would be my photo for Monday.

I took a lot of photos of the Cathedral, planning to use one of those for Tuesday. Then I found this one that Jason’s dad caught and it became one of my favorites for the whole trip.

On Wednesday we went to our very first wine tasting at the vineyard where Jason’s dad volunteers. It was a lot of fun, and Jason wasn’t nearly as pissed off as he looks here. 😛

And Thanksgiving! I’ll do a page for that in my Seasons and Holidays scrapbook, so I kept it simple here.

Another very simple page for our trip home on Friday. We stopped in Panama City Beach, and it was one of my favorite things all year.

I used a 30 Days of Lists prompt for Saturday. We didn’t do much that day except rest and do laundry, so I wrote about what little lushes we were.

 

And then, November came to a close. Poor Jason was back at work and I got my new GS praise team avi.

Supplies used- Christmas Countdown by JB Studio, Forever Joy Holiday Basics papers, Ali Edwards WA Fonts- Avenir, Chunk Five, CK Ali’s Hand

Thanks for stopping by! I’ll be sharing more pages in a few days.

Scrapping our New York trip

I think I’ll be scrapping last year’s New York trip for the next ten years or so. And I’m totally fine with that 🙂 Queen Wild Scraps is releasing some fabulous templates today that are perfect for scrapping the Northeast. (And now I really want to visit Connecticut and Rhode Island so I can use the other two templates in the set!)

The first page is an overview of some of the things we did over the course of the trip. I picked a photo or two from each day we were there. I had initially done enough journaling to fill in the entire state layer, but after I finished the New Jersey page, I realized it needed a photo enlargement instead. But a few of the other CT’s filled theirs with words, and it looks great either way. I’ll save that journaling for a different page.

Credits:
Case of the Mondays collab FWP
State of Mind: East Coast by Queen Wild Scraps

The second page shows scenes from the airport coming and going from Newark. I love the shots from the airplane looking down. Jason always takes great “out the window of planes” pictures for me. (I can’t look out the window without feeling sick)

Journaling reads- Newark airport. We arrived early, as always because Jason is the most punctual person I’ve ever met. He started going through photos while we waited in the terminal, but I needed some quiet time to just process everything. It was an amazing trip, but we were so happy to be heading home.

Credits:
Project January 2013 by Connie Prince
State of Mind- East Coast by Queen Wild Scraps

Thanksgiving Eve 2013 using Flower Power templates from Dagi’s Temp-Tations

I love me some Dagi templates! I will snag as many of them as possible during my month at GingerScraps, that’s for sure. I’ve known her since the SDD days (she was one of my Love Birds *sniff*) and I’ve done a bunch of pages with her earlier templates. It’s been very cool seeing her progress through the years.

I seem to be binge-making Thanksgiving LO’s this week. And I don’t see that changing anytime soon! I took the journaling from this post. I know I’ve said it a billion times before, but I love having the blog to look back on so I can capture little details for my pages.

Journaling reads- We had a really nice low-key Thanksgiving this year. It was just the two of us and I have to say, we rocked it!
I tried to get as much done on Wednesday as possible. I made cornbread for dressing the next day. Jason was having a rough day at work, so I put up the tree as a surprise for him. His face lit up like a little kid’s, which was just the reaction I was hoping for
I made our traditional Thanksgiving Eve dinner of panzanella and sausage balls. I don’t know how this tradition started, but we’ve been doing it for three or for years now. It’s nice because we have leftovers that we can munch on while we make Thanksgiving dinner.

Credits-
November Spice, the Monthly Mix collab from GingerScraps (November 2014)
Flower Power template by Dagi’s Temp-tations
Appleberry and Architect’s Daughter fonts

Library of Memories album- Celebrations: Thanksgiving/ Fall

*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.

November Guest at GingerScraps!

I’m excited to share that I’ll be guesting at GingerScraps this month! It’s been a couple of years since I’ve CT’ed for a site. I love being able to work with a variety of awesome products each month, and I’m enjoying getting more involved in a digi community. That’s something I’ve really missed since SDD closed. I’ve thought a lot about whether I want to work my way up through the ranks of another site, and now seems like a good time. There are a lot of familiar faces at GS, and everyone has been super nice. Not to mention the fabulous designers!

Here’s my first page for November. Oh the pretty, pretty fall colors! Makes me wanna scrap about turkey! My scrapbooks are sadly lacking in Thanksgiving pages. I want to work on that, especially since that’s my favorite holiday. (All the excellent food of Christmas, without the stress of presents!)

I took the journaling directly from last year’s Thanksgiving post. It reads- We brined a turkey for the first time ever and it was So Good! We will be doing that again for sure.It was a bit cumbersome wrestling with our 18 pound turkey, but it was so worth it for the juicy deliciousness.

I used this month’s Monthly Mix, November Spice. The template is part of collab too!

Library of Memories album- Celebrations: Thanksgiving/ Fall

*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.