All it takes is a little...

Courage - this week, my daughter & I had an interesting conversation regarding courage. It all stems from the theme for our VBS this week, which was Becoming Fearless. My daughter is somewhat of a scaredy cat, so I am glad that we got to approach the subject, and from the look in her eyes, I think she actually got it!! The layout itself is based on a sketch from PageMaps, and I used some of my all time favorite papers (and I still have 3 sheets left - enough to make another layout!!) May everyone have a little extra courage today! My journaling reads: At VBS this week, one of the crafts you made was a "Courage " bracelet. While talking about the craft, you asked what courage meant. It was hard to put into words that I thought you could understand, but I told you it was doing something that was hard, but making yourself do it, like walking into a room full of people you don't know, but making yourself do it because you can. Then, we had a great discussion about things we do daily that take courage. In the words of Walt Disney, "All our dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them." May you always have the courage to dream BIG!

Yup - it's a good one!

It's been almost a month since I blogged, but it's not because I haven't been on the computer, just been so busy lately! Now that Spring is here, I can't wait for Summer either!!

The latest Pagemaps sketch was PERFECT for my layout. It is about my staff Christmas Party, which is never typical, so therefore my choice of patterned papers is not typical either...for a Christmas layout! My friend, Gretchen Howard took the pictures at the party, and they turned out adorable. We all dressed up in our "country" best, and had a great time:

The next two photos include detail shots of my hidden journaling, and the actual invitation we received, which I definitely wanted to keep with the layout.

Have You Ever?

I got the title/journaling idea for this layout from one of those papers that cover the trays at fast food restaurants. This particular paper came from Culvers (mmmmm!!). The sketch came from the latest Pagemaps contest. And I just used the journaling idea to document some of the fun things that have happened with Madison, rather than make a layout for each fun thing. The picture is one of my favorites, taken quickly the morning of the first day of 3rd grade while we waited for the bus. Thanks for looking!

A WOOF kind of relationship!

I'm getting some time to scrapbook again, so I wanted to try the latest PageMaps sketch. It was an odd sketch for me, but I was determined to make it work. So determined that I took more than 4 hours to do this layout. I just worked & worked on all the little details. I am so happy with the layout, I think it conveys what I wanted to say. I don't do many canine layouts as some, as our dogs are "outside" dogs, and I don't necessarily consider them "part of the family". But Madison does, and I wanted to document that.
Here is a close up of the stitching, raised paw prints, bling-y eyes & the ribbon colllar...just a few of the details that took me **4** hours of my life to do!! Gotta love it!

Butterfly Kisses

OK, sometimes layouts are about the pictures, sometimes they are about the journaling, and well, sometimes they are just about creating. This layout was definitely about the creating. I played with Glimmer Mist, basically a spray ink. I wanted to see what it would do. The "orange" paper is really white cardstock, that I covered with paper masks, sprayed it, removed the mask, and voila...instant "orange" patterned paper (the color on the bottle says "Mimosa" - that sounds so much more exotic, doesn't it?). I had this photo that I had been saving for awhile, and I put it with the layout. I love that photo, we look so happy in it. Plus the swirl patterned paper, and ALL those butterflies - it just makes me happy! I love that they were already 3-D for me! The journaling is just lyrics from the song to help tie everything in. OK, on to the next creation!

Family layout

I like this layout...a lot...because it used a lot of scraps of one of my favorite paper lines - Basic Grey's Bittersweet line, and because it's not a typical fall layout with oranges & other fall colors. I, however, did scraplift this one from someone (I'm sorry...I don't have a link to it...) almost exactly as their's was - well almost - I changed it to fit my one picture. Also, the picture is like the one we used on our Christmas photo cards this year - we don't get many of the three of us together, so it was a treat to scrap it. Love using pinks & browns for a family layout!!

Here's the Rules:

For Christmas morn', that is!!
1.) Don't get up before 7:00 AM (for our house, that is reasonable...).
2.) Don't open any presents until we all get down to the tree.
3.) Don't whine!!
This is pretty much the guidelines set before we go to bed on Christmas Eve. Thought I should list them, as one day, there will be no need for guidelines.
Merry Christmas to all & to all a good night!