Family Photos

I finally made another paper scrap! These photos were taken at Wal-mart when I was out in Indiana at the beginning of April. I just love them. I'm so happy we had them done as I'm sure they'll be something we'll treasure through the years. It's the first time I think any of us have been in a professional picture with my dad. So that was great.
Here's the details. Paper is We R Memory Keepers Hoopla collection. Ink is Colorbox Rose Petals. Random rub-ons and random acrylic stamp (together).
On other news...this weekend is conversion weekend for the bank I work at. Very stressful time, but kind of exciting too as we get to learn new things and offer new products. Should be interesting. It's also Memorial Day weekend! We're having a BBQ in a few hours here, so I really should get ready for that...

April Calendar Page

I finally got to my April calendar page. I really really like this one. I got a great shot of my one flowering bush outside...and it just inspired me. It's such a beautiful day out right now considering it's supposed to be raining. I think that part is coming, unfortunately. The papers are from Piggy Tales, Gretel collection. And, I just noticed I have my dates a day off...sigh...I'll have to fix that soemhow.
My sister called a bit ago to tell me one of her chihuahuas is in labor. Unfortunately, it's not poor Daisy who looks like she's ready to pop...but Glory. I'm sure I'll be scrapping some puppy pages for her in the not too distant future.
I also did this layout today...boy I've been busy! This one is for a challenge on the Memory Works boards. It's always great when challenges get me motivated to actually do some paper scrapping! The challenge was to use yellow, hopefully I lived up to it...haha.

Megan & Grace

My darling nieces, Megan and Grace. They live in Minnesota, so I don't get to see them too often. I took these pictures while I was home in Indiana at the beginning of the month. God was smiling on our trips, and they just happened to coincide with each other. Always exciting when something unplanned works out so well. Hopefully we'll be able to plan a trip to meet up again like that soon.
In other news...in just over a week (April 29th) I'll be heading to California for a visit with my friends. They're traveling nurses. They just started doing that last fall. First they were in Texas, and I unfortunately didn't get to visit them there. This time they're in California, and I can't miss an opportunity like this. It worked out so well because her mom is going out to see them, but didn't really want to fly alone. I can't wait. VACATION!
Scrapping got cancelled this afternoon...but I went ahead and scrapped a bit anyways. I did this for a journaling challenge at Memory Works. They wanted us to focus on journaling in the layout. So I found this great picture of my grandma reading to us kids like she did pretty much every day and it all stemmed from there.

The paper is by Fancy Pants, rubon is Basic Grey and photo corners are American Crafts.

Busy scrapping day...

I got another scrapbook page done today. An actual paper one! Amazing, I know. But I just couldn't wait to use some of my new goodies from Memory Works. I used the new Sultry kit by Basic Grey. The heart sticker and arrow sticker were also part of the kit found here. I really love that paisley paper. I might have to get another kit so I can have more of it. I put a rub-on on the picture, it's from Basic Grey, Sultry as well. I inked the edges of the heart sticker with Colorbox fluid chalk. I love that stuff. And the pink alpha is by Three Bugs in a Rug. I had fun putting this little layout together.

**Updated with a much better picture of the layout. I actually figured out how to make it work with my scanner. So tech savvy...haha!

Some challenge entries

I'm back from my fun, quick trip home to Indiana. I finally got rested up, and now I'm starting on some challenges. I love the ones Lacey is posting over at Memory Works. On this project, she gave us the "ingredients" of flower(s), tag(s) and ribbon(s). I made a cute little book to put pictures of my nieces in for my sister in Minnesota...once I get the pictures printed I'll just have to pop them in and get it in the mail.

This one was a "recipe" of a sketch for us to turn into a layout. I'm not sure that I am in love with it, I may do a bit of tweaking later on. We'll see.

Now I should probably get back to laundry and all that fun stuff that piles up while you're away...but I may go check out what digital challenges I can find first. We'll see.

Feb. and March calendars

So I got behind on Lacey's calendar challenge. I'm caught up now, and hopefully I'll stay that way. Here's my Feb. and March pages...only 9 more to go!

I'm headed home to Indiana on a quick trip to visit my dad come Monday. I can't wait. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor on March 17 (his birthday) and we've had a bit of a rocky road since. This is my first chance to get home and give him a hug. Luckily, they're feeling better about his prognosis everytime he goes to the doctor. They still don't know if it's cancer or not, and won't really know much more for at least 6 weeks. But for now, it's not as big a worry as it originally was...thank goodness!

Gotta start somewhere...

Well, this will be my first blog here. What would I like for the world to know? I guess I will share a little of my scrap-philosophy. I'm not a perfect scrapper, far from it actually. I enjoy my imperfections, though. They set me apart. I rarely measure my cuts, and I often end up with some wonky looking mats. I eyeball all of my placements, and don't sweat the small stuff like the picture is just a fraction of a centimeter not level. These things make us human, and should be embraced. Scrapbooking allows everyone to do things their own way, and no one person can say that theirs is the right way. I love that. It truly is an art-form, but yet, you don't have to be extremely creative to enjoy it. There are products that anyone can use, and there are products that most people don't even know where to begin with. I'm enjoying learning new things and being able to let my creativity shine.

I have done traditional paper scrapping for about 10 years off and on and have within the past year started digital scrapping. I like how quickly the digital scrap pages are to make, but have yet to print any of them out to put in books. So, traditional is my main focus, and that's OK. I'll share some of both here, honestly, it's hard to tell the difference sometimes!

My scrapping interests right now are mostly pictures of myself as a child. I was fortunate enough to have a mother who loved taking pictures as much as I do, so I have tons of lovely pictures to work with. This particular photo was for a challenge on the Memory Works forum where we were to use a sketch that was actually made for a card, and transform it into a layout. I'm really happy with the way this came out. I used the Vintage Brass collection from We R Memory Keepers for all of my patterned card stock and Heidi Swapp's "cherish" acrylic stamp. The ribbon is just some random ribbon I had laying around. I was about 3 years old in these photos and mugging with my doll I had gotten for Christmas. I hope to continue scrapping my childhood over the next few weeks and hopefully finish my "baby" album before Christmas so that I can work on a few other crafty projects to give as Christmas gifts.