Do you wanna build a snowman?

Once Upon A Snowball by Mandy King

I think these are the only snow pictures I have left that haven’t been scrapped. They’re from our trip to West Virginia in 2013, which was the first time we’d seen snow in years. I told Jason that means we need to travel somewhere snowy next winter or I’ll have nothing to work with. 🙂

Journaling reads- We met Jason’s mom at Dairy Queen for lunch. While we were waiting, we came across a little bitty patch of snow in the shade. Of course we were goofily excited and had to make little snowballs. That was the most snow we’d seen in years! November 11, 2013

Credits: Once Upon A Snowball 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.

Five pages | Lilypad Challenges

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a challenge at a digiscrapping site. Franky, with recent changes in the rewards points for several sites, they’re just not worth it anymore. I don’t want to wait three months to get my gift certificates, and I want to get more than 5 cents for completing a challenge. /end rant.

I was all set to finish up the Month of Challenges at TLP, but when I realized I’d be out of town the last few days of January, I knew I wouldn’t be able to complete them. But there’s always next year! (and I might go back and do some of them anyway)

I decided on the spur of the moment to participate in this month’s TLP challenges. I was able to knock them out pretty quickly (except that darned haiku page!) It feels good to do challenges again. It feels especially good knowing I’ll get a 30% off coupon next month. I’m obsessed with Just Jaimee’s monthly kits and I want to collect them all!

You can see two of my challenge pages in this post. Here are the rest-

favorite web

The first challenge was to use products from this month’s BYOC. I’m in love with that huge word art.

Journaling reads- Still my favorite after all these years. Palm Beach 2005

Credits:
Inspired papers
So Messed Up paint
Imprint on Me brushes (some altered) by Just Jaimee

September 2013 Storyteller by Just Jaimee

The next challenge was to use the word “wish” in a page. It was a no-brainer to use this pic of the Little Man blowing out his candles last summer.

Credits: September 2013 Storyteller by Just Jaimee

September 2013 Storyteller by Just Jaimee

This page was So Hard! We had to write the journaling in the form of a haiku. I am clearly no poet.

Journaling reads-
Random silly acts
Sitting with Grandma today
Caught with the camera

Credits:
September 2013 Storyteller by Just Jaimee
Made with the new Template Builder actions by Mommyish (which are AWESOME)

September 2013 Storyteller by Just Jaimee March freebie template by Amy Martin

 

The next challenge was a Template Challenge. Do you sense a “silly” theme going on with these pages?

Journaling reads- I love that, even after not seeing each other in almost a year, they immediately start horsing around like no time has passed. Fort Lauderdale International Airport June 1, 2013.

surprise web

 

And for the last challenge we were asked to lift a LO from the fabulous Shanna Noel’s SC gallery. I picked this one. Loved the script-y painted title and the paint smears behind the photo. My page tells the story of the surprise we threw LM for his birthday.

Journaling reads- [Little Man] didn’t know, but we had big plans for the day. Daddy asked for help “taking out the trash”, and ended up taking him to the movies instead! But that wasn’t all- when they got home, there were more surprises… Zombie Farm cupcakes and birthday presents! We usually celebrate his birthday on his last weekend with us, but we decided to change things up this year. He was so surprised! It was awesome!

Credits:
September 2013 Storyteller by Just Jaimee
Careless and Painted alpha by Allison Pennington
Lifted from “silly” LO by Shanna Noel

These were fun to make. I’m already excited for next month’s round of challenges!

Five Pages | Summer

I went on a page making spree last month, and I’m just getting around to sharing all of them. Here are five more pages about last summer. All of these pages were made using mostly freebies.

Starter Pack by Anna BV

As soon as I saw the little origami bird in this kit, I had to snag it and make a page right away. I’ve ben looking for ages for origami kits! Of course I could have made the same page with a non-themed kit too. But who could resist that cute bird?

Journaling reads- Charles made the sweetest little origami bird for me. June 9, 2013

Credits:
Starter Pack by Anna BV

Calm Life web

I love the phrase card that inspired this page. It’s a sentiment we definitely embrace.

Journaling reads- It’s ok to be happy with a calm life. We had some really great adventures this summer, but some of my favorite times were when we were having quiet time at home

Credits:
Happy Calm by Bella Gypsy
Camera and heart stamp by Cathy Z
Template by Simple Scrapper
Wood styles by Just Jaimee

not a fan web

So I’m pretty sure this one is going to piss off LM. That face! But it was such a cute story I had to scrap it.

Journaling reads- We stopped at a fancy coffee shop one morning and Charles ordered a frappuccino. He was surprised to learn it had actual coffee in it.

Credits:
Be Mine by Lisa Rose Designs
I Feel Like faces by Dream Big Designs
House Blend Journal Cards by Danielle Young Designs
Garden Party alpha by Forever Joy Designs
Stamped Alpha brushes by Mommyish
Clear styles by Bekkah E.

grandma z2 web

I mentioned before that I want to get more family photos into our albums. These two photos don’t necessarily have stories, but I like them a lot. So why not scrap them anyway?

Also I cannot express how much I adore these plain glitter styles. You can make them any color! Now I want to glitter everything!

Credits:
A Lovely Day by Sugarplum Paperie
Careless and Painted Alpha by Allison Pennington
Glitter styles by Mommyish

Hello Sunshine web

And one last page from our trip to the water park. I will eventually make pages with more photos and words, but I wanted to scrap this photo by itself for our Family album.

Credits:
Hello Sunshine by Zoey Pearn
Pretty Awesome flair by Bella Gypsy
Template Revisited 19 by Scrappin’ with Liz

You can see more of our Summer 2013 adventures here.

MOC pages 10-15

I’m participating in The Lilypad’s Month of Challenges this month. I’m excited to stretch creatively, and really want to knock out a bunch of summer pages.

2014 January Storyteller by Just Jaimee

Our 10th challenge was to do a page about our One Word. I must admit, I haven’t done much with my word yet, not even introducing it on here. So there you go, my word is Health. It is very needed this year, especially after December, which I “took off”. Biggest mistake of 2013! It took me all year to lose 25 pounds, but only a month to undo a lot of my hard work. We’ll chalk that up to learning experience and move on.

Journaling reads- This year we are striving for Health. Physical health, financial health, and keeping our relationship healthy. We celebrated our anniversary in December by doing a 5k together. I can’t wait to do more healthy things together in 2014!

2014 January Storyteller by Just Jaimee

We were given a template to use on the next challenge. I love blocky LO’s so this one was a breeze.

Journaling reads- Awkward Family Photo. The mirror in this elevator did quite strange things to my face. Hotel Morgan. Morgantown, West Virginia. 6.9.13.

2014 January Storyteller by Just Jaimee

The next challenge was a template one also. But this time we were given two templates that we were supposed to join and make into one page. Very cool technique that I’ve never done before.

Journaling reads- Maryland Rest Stop. Driving between D.C. and West Virginia, we stopped at a rest stop with absolutely spectacular views. June 8, 2013

All of the above pages, plus every other page I’ve made for these challenges, have been made with the January 2014 Storyteller kit by Just Jaimee. I wanted to see how many pages I could make with one collection.

I love the idea of “killing a kit” that some paper scrappers do. They try to use every paper and embellishment in a kit so that there’s nothing left. That idea fascinates me. I have never ever “killed” a full sized digi kit. In digi, things move so quickly. You use a kit once, then it’s on to the next kit. I’m trying to adjust that way of thinking and make multiple pages with my new kits. I’m not sure if I’ll manage to kill the January kit (that collection is HUGE). But to date, I’ve used a piece of that kit on 17 different pages! That is completely unheard of for me. I’ve definitely got my money’s worth with that one. And I love that woodgrain alpha so much, I’m sure I won’t be finished with it anytime soon.

TLP had a sale this past weekend, so I was able to pick up a few other things, including Just Jaimee’s September kit from last year. I combined that with January’s kit for my next two pages.

Yogi web

The next challenge was to use a fancy shadowing technique to give your layers a more realistic look. It’s a pain in the butt to do in PSE. (I miss full photoshop sometimes!) It’s probably not something I’ll do often unless PSE ever starts letting you separate styles from their layers without a workaround.

Journaling reads- I caught him doing this pose in the car one afternoon..

Not the most deep, thought provoking journaling going on this month…

January 2014 Storyteller by Just Jaimee

The next challenge was to do a page with fourteen goals or resolutions for this year. I took mine from this post.

Journaling reads- 2014 Memory Keeping Goals. Get a photo of me and Jason each week | Project Life | Three Times Twelve (a photo of our family once a month) | Summer Daily | Get (and stay) current with printing | Scan photos | Tag photos | 100 family photos this summer | One Little Word | I Choose class | Inspired Scrapbooking class | self portrait challenge | Organize digi supplies | Print a book

Blessed and Lucky Collab January 2014 Storyteller alpha by Just Jaimee

The last challenge I have to share today was to lift a paper scrapbook page. I was All Over that one! I lifted this lovely page from Adrienne Alvis. I loved the quote bubbles, perfect for a story I wanted to tell about me and Jamie! I used the FWP collab Blessed + Lucky, along with my favorite alpha from the January Storyteller kit.

Journaling reads- Wodehouse Fangirls. Our family has been huge P.G. Wodehouse fans for generations. My sister and I have read some of the books so many times that we have whole chunks memorized. We will often randomly quote passages to each other, which is probably strange to a lot of people. I’m sure not very many people get Super Excited over cow creamers like we do.

Holy balls this is a long post!

Thanks for looking 🙂

MOC pages 7-9

I’m participating in The Lilypad’s Month of Challenges this month. I’m excited to stretch creatively, and really want to knock out a bunch of summer pages.

January 2014 Storyteller by Just Jaimee

Number 7 was an easy challenge, just use word art. This page is probably the most “my style” of the MOC pages so far. Or at least Jason’s idea of what my style is… “You put a couple of pictures up in one corner and put some stuff around them”. (Picture him waving his arms and gesturing)…

I altered the word art by using the clone tool to get rid of the “2014”. I didn’t notice that the year was also 2014 on this page, so I went back and fixed it.

Journaling reads- We were so happy to finally see that plane touch down! Only a few more minutes and we’d see [Little Man]!

January 2014 Storyteller by Just Jaimee paper

Number 8 was pretty tricky. The challenge was to layer the photo so that it looks like it’s a watercolor or sketch along the edges. Masking always looks romantic to me, so I thought this would be a great time to use pictures from Jason’s brother’s wedding. I’m not usually a technique-y person, but definitely something I’d like to play around with more. And it helps to have beautiful photos as inspiration!

2014 January Storyteller by Just Jaimee

Number 9 was to re-do a past page. I don’t like to do that, so I just took a picture that I’d already scrapped a couple of years ago and paired it with new photos to tell a different story. Also, that very awkward “sweet” label was used to cover up an even more awkward part of the photo where a lady was standing with her mouth wide open in the background. I am not enough of a photoshop master to fix that, so if all else fails, stick an ellie over it. 🙂

I’m running a bit behind on my MOC pages, but hoping to get caught up in the next couple of days!

I want to remember: West Virginia edition

Last weekend we travelled to WV for the wedding of Jason’s younger brother and his new wife. We had an amazing time, and it was so great meeting more of his family and adding pieces to the “Jason puzzle”. I’ll post pics as soon as I can get them together, but I wanted to get the words out first.

Some things I don’t want to forget…

Some of the best flights we’ve ever had. I have a much higher opinion of Southwest than I had previously. (although they have been some of the last to implement the new policy that allows electronic devices on takeoff and landing, which was disappointing).

Sitting at a restaurant in the Atlanta airport eating burgers and watching planes take off.

Seeing snow for the first time in almost eight years (over 20 years for Jason) and running around laughing like little kids.

Kissing my husband in the snow for the first time ever!

Getting totally stressed out in Pittsburg due to unexpected tolls, and the city’s complete inability to make change for anything over $5.

Riding the tram to see the gorgeous view of the skyline and river.

Having coffee and a brownie to ward off the chill.

Staying at one of the best hotels so far in Morgantown.

Marveling over mountains like we do every time we visit.

Dinner at the Black Bear.

Feeling very grateful for fantastic weather- no new snow and not too cold, we came between cold snaps.

Seeing the ice scraper in the rental car and thinking it was a vacuum cleaner attachment.

Forgetting to pack Jason’s ties, so making a mad trip to Walmart to replace them, only to find out he was severely overdressed for the rehearsal dinner. (my fault, I “made” him wear a tie :P)

Searching for the perfect pepperoni rolls.

Trying on Furby hats.

Driving to the site of the rehearsal dinner and completely missing it the first time because we were distracted by the ice on the lake.

Being late to pretty much everything.

Jason’s cousin’s sons who were completely adorable and crazy rambunctious.

Seeing Jason with them and wishing for a moment that I could give him those experiences  with our own kids.

Finding that “snug” runs in the family.

Sitting across from the priest at two different dinners and literally biting my tongue for fear of curse words spontaneously erupting from my mouth for no reason. (People in my life know how much of a potty mouth I have in everyday conversation, but I didn’t let a single f**k or s**t or even d**n slip out)

Feeling like a complete failure as a parents when we realized neither of us had pictures of the Little Man on our phones to show off.

Meeting so many in-laws!

Having drinks with Steve and Jacob after the rehearsal dinner. (one of my favorite parts of the whole trip)

Observing many similarities between the brothers even after such a long absence.

Seeing Jason all dressed up and looking fiiinneee.

Second mad dash to Walmart after discovering that my feet have mysteriously shrunk and shoes no longer fit.

My first Catholic wedding, which was incredibly lovely.

Helping the bride with her butt (i.e. her train)

Wishing for a minute that we had had a religious ceremony for our wedding.

Remembering our wedding and realizing how different weddings are after you’re a married person.

Having a blast at the reception.

Finally figuring out the name of the champagne we drank after our wedding.

Drinking my first honey whiskey.

The morning after my first honey whiskey (ok maybe don’t want to remember that one)

Seeing Jason so giddy with excitement over seeing family again, and not wanting the night to end.

So much more, but this post is getting out of hand, so I’ll leave it at that, the very best memory of all. This weekend meant so much to him and I’m so glad I got to be there with him and share in his happiness.

Some recent layouts

Here are some pages I’ve made recently. I’ve been on a crazy page making spree lately and having so much fun being inspired by my Un-Challenge Challenge last month. I have also done a few challenge LO’s for SBB already this month, so I’m just going to lump them all together. My Projects folder is getting out of hand again, so I want to move them all to my EHD. And I’m excited to add more pages to my Summer Pages page.

First up are several pages I made for Mandy’s DSD Grab Bag called Beautiful Blessings. I fell madly in love with this kit and could not stop making pages. (And FYI, you can still get this HUGE grab bag for only $5)

Beautiful blessings kit by Mandy King Architect's Daughter font

Blessings
Journaling reads- I feel so grateful, not only to have had these wonderful adventures with you, but to have a hobby that allows me to relive them on a regular basis. I am the luckiest of women.

(I know… super sappy…. I was in a mood :P)

Beautiful Blessings kit and Word Art by Mandy King

Grandma Z
Journaling reads- Taking pictures in Grandma Z’s yard.

Beautiful Blessings by Mandy King Architect's Daughter font

My Flower
Journaling reads- Jason picked up this flower for me at a rest stop on our way through Maryland

Back together web

Back Together
Journaling reads- Not the best photo, but what do you expect from an airport parking lot?

(I need to change that to “parking garage)

Credits:
Inspired papers and journaling cards by Mandy King
Chunk Five and Architect’s Daughter font

I made the next three for challenges at SBB this month. It’s really nice to be inspired by challenges again. I think I needed that break.

Plans Change web

Plans Change
Journaling reads- In early 2011, we were all set to buy the townhouse we were living in. We had been renting it for years and our landlord was giving us a great deal. Then all of a sudden we were told that he had received a better offer from someone else. We went from “We’re buying a house” to “We have a week and a half to pack up everything and find a new place to live”. At the time it was incredibly stressful. We were pretty devastated, but we did what we had to do. We worked as a team to find a new home and move. Our new apartment is in a better neighborhood and we’ve made a wonderful home for ourselves here. It’s the first place we’ve lived that I felt like was truly “ours”. Having the sale fall through was definitely a blessing in disguise!

Credits:
On the Move by Blue Heart Scraps

Creative Me by Simple Girl Scraps

How It All Began
Journaling reads- I was never a paper scrapbooker. Scissors and glue intimidate me. I’ve never considered myself to be a particularly creative person, but when my sister began designing chat icons, I started playing around in Photoshop to keep her company. While researching tutorials for photo manipulations, I discovered this thing called digital scrapbooking. I was totally hooked! Finally, something fun to do with all those photos my husband insisted on taking! I joined a wonderful forum called Scrappity Doo Dah, found some friends, joined some challenges, and the rest is history. A few hundred layouts later, I’m still madly in love with this hobby.

Credits: Creative Me by Simple Girl Scraps

Teen Life by Word Art World template by Seatrout Scraps

Reflecting Pool Shenanigans

Credits: Teen Life by Word Art World
template by Seatrout Scraps

And here are two more pages from a couple of months ago that I forgot to post.

Pinstriped by Inspired by Dominic Architect's Daughter font

Capitol
Journaling reads- The guys went to sit down and rest once we got to the Capitol. I was so glad I got to snap a few pictures of them together.

Credits:
Pinstriped by Inspired by Dominic
Architect’s Daughter font

yorktown web

USS Yorktown
Credits: Capture Life: Spring by Crisdam
Keep Calm by Word Art World
Springtime by Connie Prince
Based on Sketch 22 by Shimelle

I thought for sure I’d shared that last one before. I made it back in June!

Whew that was a lot of LO’s. That gives you a little taste of the complete randomness of my pages. I’m concentrating on summer pages, but I love throwing in other kinds of pages too. It’s all good, it all counts 🙂