Ready for Takeoff!

I made this double page LO to show off some photos from our first shuttle launch. Going to see launches was a big part of our lives for many years and I still miss them.

I got to play around with this month’s Buffet goodies at Gingerscraps. I used both kits off-theme this time, which was fun.

Journaling reads- Hanging out in Space View Park before our first shuttle launch 5-31-08

Credits:
Old Friends bundle by Aprilisa
Sew Memories bundle by Keley Designs
Forget Me Not template by Dear Friends Designs

*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.

12-11 New Releases, featuring bad airport photos and flamingoes!

Lots of goodies to in this week’s Fresh Baked from Gingerscraps. I only wish I had more time to play!

Airport Christmas tree

Journaling reads- I decided early on that I was going to take a photo of every single Christmas tree we passed during the trip, starting with the one at the airport.

Credits:
Tinsel Town kit by Connie Prince
Blessed Days template by Dear Friends Design

Welcome to Vegas!

Journaling reads-The first thing we saw when we got off the plane was a slot machine. The second thing we saw was a sign for the airport liquor store. Welcome to Vegas!

You can see more of my Vegas layouts here.

Credits-
Gotta Love This kit and cards by Aprilisa
Blessed Days template by Dear Friends Design

And last, but not least, a page from a couple of days later. And an excuse to use one of those hot pink Christmas kits!

Flamingo Christmas

Journaling reads- After breakfast, we walked around and explored outside the Flamingo, stopping at Starbucks to get some coffee.

Credits:
Christmas Ho Ho kit by Clever Monkey Graphics
Blessed Days templates by Dear Friends Designs

*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 2015, part one

Hey little blog, long time no see 🙂

It’s December Daily/Journal Your Christmas/ Holiday Listing time again! I have to say, I think this is the most relaxed I’ve ever felt about Holiday scrapping. Except maybe that first year when I didn’t know anything about Holiday Projects *cue sinister music*, and I was just rolling along making pages with no rhyme or reason.

I think a couple of things have added to my sense of calm this time around.

1). I’m doing something very similar to last year, so I’m combining a few projects but only doing the parts that inspire me at that time.

2). I’m making holiday pages that will go into my regular 2015 album, as opposed to a separate project. I have realized that instead of inspiring me, separate projects like mini books actually stress me out and drive me crazy. That only took like, five years to learn. I think they are beautiful and amazing when other people do them, they just don’t work for me right now.

3). I’m using one set of supplies, the December Buffet from Gingerscraps. I am not the biggest fan of pink, unless it’s for a specific purpose like a race, or to make a big statement. But this year’s color scheme has really grown on me. I’ve also made my own set of templates, which I’ll talk about in another post if anyone’s interested.

So my first page, we’ll call it Day Zero, is a sort of intentions/ manifesto page. Neither of those words felt right for my journaling, so I just called it “This Christmas”. And now every time I see it I think of the song. Which isn’t a bad thing because I love that song. The journaling is taken from a JYC prompt.

Speaking of journaling, I have one more thing to say before I show you the darn page already. All year long I’ve been keeping a “2015 Stories to Tell” file in Evernote. I’ve kept lists of LO’s I wanted to make for years, but something shifted this year. Maybe it was just the change in wording from “Layouts to Make” to “Stories to Tell”. Maybe it was that I stopped blogging for most of the year so I needed another writing outlet. Whatever it was, something changed, and now I’m writing almost daily, in addition to taking photos. It has become a habit. So I’m not worried at all about finishing my holiday pages this month. I’m actually 100% sure that I won’t. But I’m totally okay with that. As my friend Megan always says, “Document now, make later”.

Journaling reads- Hello December This year will be a very different holiday season for us. We will have Charles on Christmas for the first time in our ten year marriage. I could not be more psyched! I have this driving urge to make everything “perfect” because lord knows if we’ll ever get this opportunity again. On top of that, Jason’s dad will be visiting, and we’ll be celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary! I want to throw myself into this season wholeheartedly, and try to keep sadness and bitterness at bay as much as possible. I want to embrace it all, the sights, smells, tastes, and most of all, the feeling of having family here for the holidays. I’m sure it will be a bit of a roller coaster, and it will never be “perfect”, but it will be “ours”. And that’s what matters the most.

Credits
Most Wonderful Time ellies by Key Lime Pie Design
North Pole Candy Shoppe by Trixie Scraps
Gingerbread alpha by Aprilisa

*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.

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.

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.