Star+Flower

SOMO ♥

STORY OF MY OWN March kit. It looks absolutely amazing. Red, yellow, blue, flowers, butterflies and cute deer. I have been coveting that stamp set ever since I laid my eyes on it. I cannot wait. This kit may just get me out of my rut.

Inspired

I have loved Rebecca Sower's work ever since I started scrapbooking and, after looking at her blog for inspiration, I made these four little tags. Of course I plan on making more and filling up the corkboard which probably amounts to 26 more tags! That's cool because they're fun and fast to make. (The tags are MM Dyed Tags.)

Something New

Allan can attest to the fact that I'm obsessed with my magazines. I love going to the mailbox and finding that it's stuffed with new issues. My most favorite is Domino, but my list includes Home Companion, Martha Stewart Living, Cookie, Wondertime, Sunset, Real Simple, and Cloth, Paper, Scissors. I'm so sad that Blueprint has just put out it's last issue.

I have ever-growing piles of old magazines just sitting on my shelves and sometimes I get the urge to look through them again, but last month I gave myself the liberty to cut them up. I started on (I guess I can call it) this inspiration book of sorts. It's an extremely old Canson journal that I bought when I started scrapbooking 7 years ago. Finally put to use! I'm only two pages in. I got an idea for another page, but I changed my mind and I have other plans for the clippings. I just wanted to share what I have so far:

I drew those lines for journaling, but I'm still thinking about what to say. And it looks pretty simple right now but who knows what it'll evolve into as I progress. I'm not giving myself a time frame or schedule either. I'll just create when the mood strikes me.

P.S. I'm almost all better. My sore throat doesn't seem to want to go away though. Thank you so much to those of you who commented and wished me well! ♥ 

Super Size Me

When I first started scrapbooking about seven years ago, I remember one of the hardest decisions was what size my pages should be. I picked up an 8.5" x 11" book because I thought it would be easier for a beginner like me and with the way I scrapped back then I filled up every single inch of my pages. I had no concept of white space.

As I continued to read and learn more about scrapbooking it seemed to me that the 12" x 12" size was the norm and, being the way I am, I wanted to conform. All of Aidan's pages until his third year was 12" x 12", but then I got tired. I felt that the pages were so big and so hard to fill. I remember feeling really frustrated about it so I turned to a different hobby and just kept my cherished memories of Aidan through my blog.

I finally got the urge to scrap again after Mia was born. Yes, it was a long hiatus! I remember picking up a Creating Keepsakes mag and thought, "Wow! Scrapbooking has really changed since 2001!" Now it was back to same ol' dilemma. What size? And then there was the added question of whether to go digital or not. I did try it for a while but I realized that I loved being able to handle all the papers and embellishments instead. Well, I chose to do 8.5" x 11" again and for the longest time I scrapped only that size with usually a single photo.

When I first got onto a design team I groaned at the thought of having to do 12" x 12" pages, but after last month I feel like I've had an epiphany! It took me almost seven years, but I can finally say that I'm OK with doing 12" x 12", multiple-photo layouts and that makes me really happy.

And, yes, I CAN do a layout without flowers too :)

Can't think of a Title

I love these new Paintables papers from Prima because, before scrapbooking, painting was my thing. For this page I used Twinkling H20s watercolor paints and I'm so impressed with them because the colors are so bright and sparkly. Prima is having a contest using these papers and the prizes are very generous :) Here's the link: contest details.

Here's my projects for Story Of My Own's August kit.

I couldn't get this song out my head so I had to scrap it.

And here's most of the pages from my little project book. I barely have any Autumn-y pictures so I had to think of something different to do. I decided to just make it about the important days of my family...birthdays, anniversary, some of the holidays. I have to add six more pages to the beginning of this book.

 

It's been quite busy now that we're back in school mode. And now I can't pull any late-nighters. I have to sleep between 11 pm - 12 am or else I'm a mess in the morning.

(Sigh) I've got 11 minutes before I hit mid-30 and I know age ain't nuthin' but a number but I hate to see that number getting higher and higher. My life is wonderful right now, though, and I'm so SO blessed with what I have. Allan and I will be headed to San Francisco this Friday to celebrate our 11th anniversary, but what I love is that we've really been together for almost 20 years already. I had just turned 15 when we met and it's fun for me to think back on that time. At that fateful party that I didn't want to attend in the first place...

And here's one of my loves. She's wearing a Disney Princess shirt and when I put it on her she'll say, "Princess Mia!" And the shades...she said, "Oooo, I look beautiful!"

Be back next week! Oh, look, I'm one year older now...    

oh joy!

I've been having lots of fun scrapping lately so I'll just share my latest.

These are my layouts for Prima and they get to travel to Rosemont with me. I absolutely love the new papers because they're so pretty and romantic. There's loads of new product...flowers, embossed chipboard, epoxy stickers, ribbon, crystals, transparent tape... I feel so lucky to be on their DT because I love Prima.

The next two layouts are for October Afternoon which will be debuting at CHA. There's new papers, rub-ons, and, of course, the awesome stamps.

(I love this lo so much, mainly because I love that pic of the bubbies.)

And, finally, here's one of the layouts I did for Label Tulip. The site is finally live so please check it out if you haven't already! Cindee and Angela put together a fabulous kit and I love the custom gridmark stamp that comes along with it. They're having a DT call right now :)

I'm excited about going to CHA but I know Allan, Aidan and I will be missing our strawberry-scented Moo. I can just picture Aidan on the plane saying, "I miss Mia already." Oh, I'm sooo sad. Well, I'll be back next week, hopefully I'll come back with tons of pictures and no weight gain. Wish me luck because I'm not sure that I have enough self-control to deny myself some Chicago-style pizza! See you then!         

I Love SOMO

OK, I hope Kim doesn't mind that I'm doing this but before the whole month goes by I'm just going to show you what I did with the May kit from Story Of My Own. I had so much fun with the new Daisy D's papers. When I saw them at CHA Winter, I didn't think that I would like them as much as their Modern Romance collection, but now I think they're just wonderful and I must have them all.

I'm really looking forward to the June kit because I think the Love, Elsie stuff will be alot of fun to work with. And I'm so eager to see the launch of October Afternoon. Can't wait 'til June 4th!

Today we're going out to watch Shrek 3! I'm sure it's going to be a barrel of laughs. Aidan and I are big Shrek fans. We even finished playing the entire Shrek 2 video game together! The boy is requesting Olive Garden for dinner and I'm sure we'll be having some form of dessert, perhaps in the form of Starbucks frappucinos :)

Ta-da!!!!!

I hope Kristi doesn't mind that I took this pic from her blog, but I'm too excited. I know it's just the cover, but doesn't it look really good already? And It's on Amazon.com ----> here! I have so much love for the fabulous Dare girls for letting me be a part of it. Who else contributed? Jamaica Edgell, Jamie Bagley, Linda Buranasakorn, Alison Flynn, Laura Kurz, Anja Wade, Jessie Fulkerson, Jill Hornby, Sarah Bowen and Erika Hernandez. Talk about talent...these ladies are all so inspiring.

scrap stuff

I haven't posted layouts here in a while! These are my layouts for Cocoa Daisy's April kit. I was thinking at first that I was going to have such a hard time with this kit, but it actually became my favorite so far.

The stamps are sooooo pretty (Impression Obsession paisley flower stamp set). This is about my cousin, Ces. I'm so bad with communicating with her, but I hope she knows that she's special to me.

This page is about the hard questions that Aidan asks me. The conversation usually starts off with, "Mommy, how old will you be when I'm 32?" And as the numbers get higher and higher, the tears start rolling down. We end up hugging and him telling me he doesn't ever want me to die. (sniff)

I call this an artsy page. Not really much to say. I just want to decorate around the picture.

I also altered a 7Gypsies purse kit, but you can see that in the CD gallery ;)

I keep thinking how lucky I am to design for Story Of My Own. For those who get the kit, there's a challenge and a prize to be won in the newsletter section, plus hints for what's coming up in the next two months! Take a look-see!

Also, for those who might be interested, justjohanna is holding a design team call! Not only are her stamps wonderful, but Johanna is a great person to work with.

Happy Easter!! I'll be back again next week!

i {heart} today

Just wanted to show this little card I made for my Sweet Baboo. Happy Valentine's Day!! And Happy Birthday to Mom G. too!

(BG Blush, MM sticker, justjohanna stamps)