Take Me the Way I Am

Got a LO done this morning, YAY!!! It seems like it has been forever since I've done a LO. Some pages can take me a couple days to hassle over because I do a little, come back, do a little more, come back, etc. And with a process like that I don't get too many LOs done. May need to revamp that style, not working so well.

So maybe hoping this page will get some scrapbooking juices flowing again.

I used some inspiration from my Creating Keepsakes magazine to make a LO using song lyrics. Loved that idea and it wasn't hard for me at all to pick a song. Have always loved "The Way I Am" by Ingrid Michaelson. It always reminds me of my husband and myself, we love each other and will do anything for each other no matter what.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Supplies:

cardstock - Papertrey Ink

patterned paper - BasicGrey, October Afternoon (grid)

stamps - Stampin' Up!

rubons - American Crafts

chipboard hearts - Colorbox

border punches - EK Success, Martha Stewart

Cricut cartridges - Paper Lace, Straight From the Nest

True Love

Just a simple LO for ya today. I normally don't make 8.5 x 11 scrapbook pages but I had a idea to start a new album just for myself that has everything in it that is important to me and means the world to me. And someday whenever I should leave this world I will know that I put down all of my thoughts and feelings, happy and sad, that represent me. So my family will remember the real me whether it is 50 years down the road or 10. I only have a few pages done but am happy with the start of this album.

Supplies:

cardstock - Papertrey Ink (kraft)

patterned paper - October Afternoon, Jillibean Soup (flowers)

journaling spot - October Afternoon

border punch - EK Success

buttons - Papertrey Ink

stickers - BasicGrey (flourishes)

letters - Jillibean Soup

pen - American Crafts

Sending a Smile Across the Miles

Hi everyone. I have my computer back to normal, yay!!! I was getting so frustrated not being able to upload pictures to my blog and I can't go without my pictures, otherwise you have to sit and read all my boring stuff. :o)

Anyway, here is a card I created using a bunch of deco scissors. I used five different styles of scissors and just layered them. Love how the look turned out. And I can't believe how the bow turned out. I never have good luck with bows and I am totally loving this one. Let's hope I have mastered the art of bow making because I go crazy not having a good bow on my cards. Even if I really want one on my card, sometimes I skip it just because I can't do the bows justice.

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Supplies:

cardstock - Papertrey Ink

patterned paper - BasicGrey

stamps - Papertrey Ink

ribbon - American Crafts

flowers - Creative Memories

brads - Making Memories

ink - Papertrey Ink

deco scissors - Provo Craft and Fiskars

A Few LOs for You!!

Oh how I wish I could have a way to take better shots of my layouts for you. My camera just doesn't capture the true feeling of the LO and I don't have a scanner to use to scan them. Hopefully someday I can master taking pictures of a LO. Until then you will have to make due with these not so good pics. :)

This first LO is of Jordan's 6th grade year of basketball. I always have a hard time trying to pick a couple of photos so I try my best to fit 3 or 4 on a page. I have to do a little cropping here and there but I am happy because I am able to put more pics on a page.

This next LO is of Jordan's State swim meet. I have had a lot of LOs to do to try and catch up some so I have kept these pages pretty simple. After all, I still have three more kids to catch up on. And I'm not doing so good. But, I am happy with simple pages because it still gets my story across and that is the main thing.

This last page is of Jordan's Regional swim meet in Minnesota where 9 states competed in this meet. So exciting for Jordan and the rest of us. Again, I kept this page fast and simple but I was happy at all the photos I was able to include.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great week!!!

Your A Game

In honor of Jordan's birthday yesterday, I thought I would post a LO of him and his good grades. Jordan has always been a great student and always works hard for his grades. I just wanted to finally put that accomplishment on paper or actually on a LO. I never have to help him study for a test or help him with any of his homework. He does it all by himself and actually gets most of his work done in school, it was rare he brought any homework home. Just very proud of him.

Supplies:

cardstock - Bazzill Basics Paper

patterned paper - Jenni Bowlin (large diecut paper), October afternoon (apple paper, striped paper on tree), BasicGrey (red paper)

chipboard tree - Maya Road

ink - Signo Uniball (white), American Crafts (black)

cricut - Making the Grade cartridge (A), George and Basic Shapes (rest of title)

Father's Day Cards

Here are the cards I sent out for Father's Day. Actually I sent two out and just handed the one to my amazing hubby. The first card I made for my hubby, the second card for Curt's dad and the last card for my dad. It is really hard for me to make masculine cards sometimes especially when I am making a bunch at once, but I liked how these turned out. I always seem to want to add a feminine touch to all my cards and so I have resist that with masculine cards. I even carefully choose my border punches because even some of those I consider feminine. Hopefully someday this will get easier for me.

Supplies (card #1)

cardstock - Stampin Up!

stamps - Hero Arts

patterned paper - October Afternoon

letter stickers - American Crafts

ink - Colorbox (blue), Memento (brown)

Supplies (card #2)

cardstock - Stampin Up!

stamps - Stampin Up!

patterned paper - BasicGrey

twine - Papertrey Ink

ink - Memento

embossing folder - Cuttlebug

Supplies (card#3)

cardstock - Stampin Up!

stamps - Papertrey Ink

border punch - Fiskars

embossing powder - Hero Arts (white)

ink - Colorbox (blue), Versamark (for embossing)

My Little Cheerleader

Wow, I hadn't realized it had been since the middle of last week since I posted. Sorry!! The end of the school year gets a little busy with the last of soccer and graduations and all. I have a great page for you today to make up for it.

I made this page for Riley a month or two ago using all of my favorite BasicGrey stuff. I just love their patterned papers. They are so full of great designs and color, especially the Urban Prairie line. That is one of my favorites. And for this time of year, the colors are perfect for springtime.

The pictures for this LO are from last spring at Homecoming time here in Rockwell City. Every year our cheerleading squad puts on a morning camp to teach the kids some cheers and the school fight song. Riley just happened to be old enough to go this year and she loved it. Then the night of skit night all the little kids get to perform their cheers and the school song. She did great and really loved being in front of everyone. She is sooo going to be a cheerleader when she grows up. But then again, she does love her sports as well. Tough decisions for a little kid. :)

Supplies:

all BasicGrey

Honorable Mention

I was checking out the Hero Blog this morning and found out I received an honorable mention for some bookmarks I made for Jordan and Zach. Click HERE to view the Hero Arts blog post. The challenge for the week was to make our own message either by using a variety of stamps to word it, or by creating our own message using Hero Arts letter stamps. I chose to create a message to my kids on a bookmark about how proud I was of their reading accomplishments with a variety of Hero Arts word stamps.

It turns out that not only did the kids really like the bookmarks, but now Zach has most of his class wanting some bookmarks as well. I may have to find some time to make these and give them away at the end of the year. It is a good way to encourage summer reading for the kids.

Supplies:

cardstock - Stampin Up!

patterned paper - BasicGrey

stamps - Hero Arts

felt stars - American Crafts

ink - Memento

thread - DMC

buttons - ?

6th Grade

I knew I was forgetting to post a LO for you. I wanted to post this a few days after I posted Zach's school LO but I guess it slipped my mind. Anyway, here is Jordan's school LO. It is pretty simple but I still fuss and fret over everything that I put on my pages. So this page probably looks like it took only a half an hour or so, it really took over an hour, maybe even close to an hour and a half to fully complete. I love having my Cricut machine, it cut out the number 6 and the title for me. All I have to do is press a few buttons and it does all the work for me. Gotta love that!! I didn't do any journaling on the page, instead I listed all of his supplies for the school year. Much simpler for me and I like to go back and see how the lists change over the years.

Products used: CS - Bazzill, PP - BasicGrey, Pen - Zig, Cricut cartridge - Making the Grade & Teardrop, Glitter - Making Memories, Chipboard - ?

Mini Christmas Album

I got some mini albums about a month ago and I knew when I bought them what they were going to be used for. This one of course was going to be used for this Christmas album and the other one I bought was going to be used for a sledding album (I will show that one at a later date). Since I take so many pictures at Christmas time, I thought it would be better to put my favorite ones into a small album instead of making 4 or more 12X12 pages. It is just nice to keep a special holidays like this all on its own to easily go back to time and time again.

Products used: Album - Maya Road, PP - BasicGrey Wassail Collection, Journaling cards - October Afternoon, Snowflake punch - Martha Stewart, Scalloped punch - Stampin Up, Stickers - BasicGrey, Stamps(front page) - Stampin Up, Berry Brads and leaves - Making Memories, Ink - Staz On, Pen - Zig

Thank You Card

This card came about because I had a vision in my head of colors I wanted to use on a card. And the colors that popped out in my head were a dark, rich blue and orange. I used the blue for the card base and then added hints of orange in my patterned paper background and in the flower I stamped. I didn't want an overwhelming amount of orange, just enough to make the blue more vibrant. I'm not sure why I chose this to be a thank you card, but the greeting seemed to fit well in the chipboard oval I wanted to use. I am always thankful for many things, so I'm sure this card will be used. :)

Products used: CS - Stampin Up, PP - BasicGrey, Stamps - Hero Arts, Ink - Colorbox, Decorative Brad - Making Memories, Photo corners - Heidi Swapp, Ribbon - Robert Stanley Collection, Scalloped Frame - Cricut Storybook diecut

Autumn Fallin' From Trees

I thought I would share with you one of my favorite layouts. I made this a few months ago for a challenge and I was so thrilled when I got a comment on it by one of my favorite scrapbookers/cardmakers, Jennifer McGuire. She is one of the Hero Blog top designers and has her own column in the monthly Creating Keepsakes magazine. Her work is amazing and she inspires me in so many ways.

Anyway, for this challenge we had to pick a sketch to go off of and with the sketch I chose I knew exactly what pictures I wanted to use. And yes, I said pictures, plural. So many people thought that this was one big picture of the kids but really it is four pictures put together. In case you can't read it the title is Autumn Fallin' From Trees (a title to one of my favorite songs by Jaymay) and the journaling says, "How could you not love the autumn with these cute faces peekin' out at you?"

Products used: CS - Bazzill, PP - BasicGrey, Stamps - Hero Arts, Letter stickers - Making Memories, Die cut letters - Ellison Sunset die cuts, Ink - Memento, Pen - Zig

Wishing You the Best Day Ever

I was making some valentine cards a couple of weeks ago and thought that since I had out my heart stamps, I would use one of them to make a birthday card. Who said hearts were only for Valentine's Day? I love to use hearts for lots of things and even use them on my scrapbook pages. On this card I added the black ribbon at the last minute and thought that it turned out really well. It makes the card pop and helps bring out the darker colors of the background paper.

Products used: CS - Stampin Up& Bazzill, PP - BasicGrey, Stamps - Hero Arts, Flowers - Bazzill, Brad - Making Memories, Ink - Colorbox, Dot embossing - cuttlebug