Layout | Full of Heart

I subscribe to Ali Edwards Story Kits. January's topic was "heart" and as I watched the videos and looked at the content for that month, I knew I wanted to tell this story- the story of Ian and his kind, tender heart. But like with every kit, they generate a ton of ideas for me, but I never have much time to create them. Then I saw the a layout my friend Devra created, and I couldn't stop thinking about this layout. Spring break has arrived, and I have finished the layout. Coincidence? I think not.

The journaling reads:
You have the biggest, most tender heart. 
You play so well with your sister. 
You are Henry's big buddy and humor him.  
You tear up whenn you feel you've done something wrong. 
You stand up to bullies.
You help whenever we ask you to.
You hug, kiss, and snuggle with us. 
You prove love is a verb. 
I hope you always live life with such a kind heart. 

Summer Layouts

Nearly two months seems like a long enough hiatus... In late June, I caught up on project life through week 26 (even if not here on the blog), and then I lived summer with my kids; swimming in our pool, near daily trips to the library, bike rides to the park. It was the most relaxing and wonderful summer we've ever had. At the end of summer, while the kids spent a week with their grandparents, I flew out to Portland to spend time with friend scrapbooking. I had gone two years ago, and was so thankful to be able to make the trip again. Here are a few of the pages I was able to finish between laughing, eating, and chatting.

 I knew the minute she said this and I snapped the picture that I'd be scrapping this moment. I'm not sure she's ever been more right.

The opening page for our family vacation. The route we took each day is a different color of embroidery floss, with a corresponding color-coded key. The stars indicate stops on our trip. The large "go" is from one of Ali Edwards story kits- I stamped it with staz on and embossed it to get the aged wire look. 

 One of the story prompts for Ali Edwars story kits was roots, I used products from that kit and others to create this layout about the house I grew up in. One of my friends allowed me to steal some of her patterned paper, and the state one was perfect for this layout.

 This layout was inspired by this layout I first saw in the gallery for the story kits. I used many supplies to tell the story of July 8. I plan on doing one each season- I think back to summers before we moved to this house and how different they were. Wish I would have capture what they looked like.

 This final layout was one of the stops on our vacation- Enger Park.

Layout | I Loved You First

I subscribe to Ali Edwards's story kits, and the first kit I received was aptly titled, "Firsts."  With every kit, we get a large, plastic word. I love them, and because of that, have told myself I have to use them on the "perfect" layout.  What a better way to use my first word than to share the story of the "Love you" game Annaliese and I often play.

The background paper in this layout is from 2009. Apparently it was just waiting for the perfect layout to come along, because the minute I saw it, I knew it would be the one I used.  The big blue heart was in one of the other kits from Ali, and it was also perfect for this theme so aqua became a color I tried to tie in with the pinks/reds and black.  The journaling reads: 

"Mommy, let's play the I love you game."

"OK, Annaliese, I love you." 

"I love you more."
"I love you to the moon and back, Annaliese."
"I love YOU to the moon and back, Mommy."

"I love you to infinity and beyond, Annaliese."

"I love YOU to infinity and beyond, Mommy."
"Well, babe, that may be true, but I loved you first. Before anyone knew about you, I did, and I loved you instantly."

"I loved you second, Mommy."
"OK, sweetie, time for bed."

Plastic title and heart, chipboard phrases and hearts: Ali Edwards

Patterned paper: Fancy Pants, My Mind's Eye

Alpha Letters: American Crafts

Wood Veneer: Elle's Studio, Lawn Fawn

Journal Card: Elle's Studio

Doilies: Recollections

Layout | Sibling Snuggles

I currently subscribe to Ali Edwards's Story Kits. January's kit was called firsts and I knew instantly I would use the pieces from it to tell the story of the first time I discovered the kids were sneaking in to each others rooms to snuggle at night. The only reason I discovered it was because on this night, Annaliese didn't return to her room but fell asleep in Ian's bed.  Of course, I didn't know she was there when I went up to her room to check on her.  That lead to me freaking out about where she was until I found her there with Ian.  

Journaling reads: The story begins with a noise. I got up from the living room couch to investigate.  Headed up the steps and glance in to Ian's room. He was out cold.  Next up was Annaliese. She usually sleeps right on the edge of hers, so I went in ready to scootch her over. Instead, she wasn't there.  Pat her bed and under her quilt. Nope, definitely not there. Call down to Darrin- he suggest she's hiding.  Start searching her room. open doors to her closet. Look behind her door. Run to the bathroom. Not behind the door. Not in the tub. nerves, nerves, nerves kicking in.  Yell to Darrin again. Try to rationalize the fact we were at the bottom of the stairs means she's somewhere and not kidnapped. Doesn't work. still freaked out.  Turn on the hall light and head in to Ian's room, hoping not to wake him, to see the best sight ever. Both sound asleep. inhale and exhale a sigh of relief then grab the camera. snap a few then carry Annaliese back to bed. Found out in the morning they've been snuggling every night for awhile.  1.14.15

Layout | Wonder

Darrin snapped this picture of Annaliese during our Advent activity of sleeping by the Christmas tree, and I knew instantly it would be a photo I would treasure forever. It also became the photo I scrapped first in the new year.

I was inspired by this layout, printed the picture 5x7, and had some fun with white paint and glitter. And looking through all my patterned paper for shades that were similar enough to each other to use.

Layout | You Love Your Blank-Blanks

A new challenge is up at Child's Play Challenges, and this time it uses tie dye as inspiration. I have great memories of dyeing things as a kid, but I don't have access to the pictures right now. So I used the dyeing technique on coffee filters to make my own flowers on this layout.

Annaliese has always loved her blank-blanks (blankets).  When she was in a crib, she'd ALWAYS sleep with them over her head, and the rest of her body sticky out. When she moved into a big bed, it all flipped, and the only thing she has sticking out is her head. 

Supplies:
Patterned paper, brads, tags: My Minds Eye
Wood veneer: Basic Grey
Alphas: American Crafts

Layout | Go on an Adventure

Another challenge is up at Child's Play, and this one uses an Etch-A-Sketch as inspiration. I despised that toy when I was little. I could never create what I saw in my head, so it was just a bunch randomness.  That sometimes happens when I scrap, too. I see something in my head but have trouble getting it to come to fruition.  That's why so often I use a sketch as a starting point, and that's what I did for this layout.  I used the word sketch in my title as inspiration to base my layout on a sketch (heck, that's what I do for most of them, it just seemed like it was meant to be for this one).  I tried to keep it a very linear layout as well, since the Etch-A-Sketch could only do straight lines.

This layout is about one of our many picnics we've taken to Chalco Hills.  Like every other time we've gone, we picnicked first, went on a trail walk, and ended it by playing on the playground.  On the walk this time we saw deer and a turtle taking a stroll through the grass. We actually heard rustling in the grass and went to investigate, and that's when we discovered the turtle. Thank goodness it was that and not a snake! 


Supplies:
Sketch: Scrapbook Generation
Patterned Paper: Simple Stories, Fancy Pants
Stickers, tiny alphas: Simple Stories
Title alphas: American Crafts
Flair: Lily Bee
Wood Veneer:  Studio Calico
Enamel Dots: Doodlebug

Layout | 12 Months

The latest challenge at Child's Play Challenges uses the game "Simon" for inspiration.  I never had this game as a kid, but my friends did, and I loved playing it, trying to see how many rounds I could go before I'd finally make a mistake and hit the wrong button. 

For my layout, I took my inspiration from the actual design of the Simon game, placing pictures of Annaliese, one from each month from the first year of her life, where the buttons are on the game.  Then I put the title in the center where the title is on the game.  I love how this layout came together.  Most of my scrap stuff is currently packed up and in storage, and while there were a few things I wish I had, it was fun to make it work with what I had on hand.  I used my cameo to cut on the negative title, and the pens that come with it to write the script on the title. 

Supplies:
Patterned Paper: Simple Stories
Cardstock: Bazzill
Die Cuts: Silhouette Cameo
Number Stickers: American Crafts Thickers
Sticker: MME
 Metal "Love", stars, wood veneers: Freckled Fawn

Layout | Little Boy Blue

The challenge for the second half of the month this month at Child's Play Challenges is Mother Goose. Looking through my pictures, I found these of Ian in his Osh Gosh bibs and "Little Boy Blue" popped into my head. 

This layout went together really quickly and I love how it turned out. 

Come join us at Child's Play- there are so many options with Mother Goose!

Layout | Toy Story Birthday

The new challenge up at Child's Play Challenges uses a slinky for inspiration.  I never had one as a kid, at least that I remember, and my kids have a cheap, plastic one that doesn't work very well. The one slinky I can recall, though, is the slinky-dog in the movie Toy Story.  And I just so happen to have pictures from a Toy Story birthday party a few years ago that I hadn't scrapped yet.

I had a lot of pictures I wanted to include on this layout, and Scrapbook Generation came to my rescue. I love their sketches, and this one was inspired by one in their Sketch Magic book.  This has to be the easiest layout to assemble I've ever done.  The layout is a combination of of photos and Simple Stories 4x6 and 6x12 cards.  After they were all down on the paper, it was just a bit of embellishing and some journaling, and it was all done.


Supplies:
Sketch: Scrapbook Generation
Paper, letter stickers, : Simple Stories
Washi: Queen & Co.
Brads: Paper Studio
Wood Veneer:  Basic Grey (quote bracket), Studio Calico (sunburst, 4)
Banner: American Crafts

Layout | This Is DEFINITELY the Sweet Spot

It's been awhile since I've created a layout other than for Child's Play Challenges, but all it took was the words "6-word memoir" in the testimony section for Case File 106 at CSI (color, stories, inspiration) and a look at the color scheme to know I'd be playing along this week. 

A bit of a back story. This summer I took Ali Edwards' class "Hello Story" through Big Picture Classes.  One of our story types was the 6-word memoir, which is essentially capturing a thought in six words.  At the same time, I read this blog post about being in the sweet spot as a family.  The author of the post put perfectly into words what I was thinking and feeling, so I made myself a note to do a layout on it and moved on with life.  That was in July, 2013.

Fast-forward to January, 2013, and the challenge at CSI.  It was a sign and I knew I would be solving this case.  

Picking the picture for this layout was really easy. I loved the play on the word "sweet" this picture allowed for with the kids' faces covered in ice cream (well, technically frozen yogurt). 

I spent most of my time hand stitching the 5 circles on the background, which you can barely see.  I was inspired by this layout, but it was just a jumping off point for what I created. 

My silhouette cameo got a workout for this layout.  I cut the word "definitely" out five times and glued the layers together to make it thicker and stand off the page more.   I cracked into the stamp kit my friend Adele gave me and cut my first stamp out on the cameo, the arrows. For the journaling, I used the sketch pens to write it all out, then had it cut around them for me. Super easy! 

Evidence for the case file includes:
- ombre. The background paper goes from light to dark.
- circles. All the stitched ones, even if you can't really see them.
- arrows. My homemade stamped arrows. 
- gold.  The stamped arrows are heat embossed with gold powder and I splattered a bit of gold paint on the background, but it doesn't show very well in the light.

Testimony: 6-word memoir- "This is Definitely the Sweet Spot"

Journaling: "While we love getting sweets from TCBY, the sweet spot I'm referring to is the time right now in our lives, when you are six and three years old. A time when you're not little any more, but not big, either. Daddy and I no longer take care of your every need. You can do so many things on your own now (laundry, get dressed, make some food, go to the bathroom) but you still love to snuggle in our laps, give us hugs and kisses, and hold our hands while we walk. You are both eager to help when we ask for something, and will easily ask for help from us when you need it. You are old enough for us to share some of our interests with (football, scrapbooking,superheroes, chapter books) but not so old that you're embarrassed by us. Watching you both play, either together or by yourself, is one of my favorite things to do. You have amazing imaginations. You are both happy, healthy, and full of life. I don't know how long this sweet spot in our life will last, but I'm enjoying every precious minute of it, and look forward with anticipation, and a bit of dread, to the next chapter in our family story."

Layout | And they called it Puppy Love

Welcome to the new year, and with it, a new challenge is up at Child's Play Challenges.  We're switching things up a bit over there with only two challenges a month.  To start the month off, the inspiration is a game you probably either loved or hated as a kid: Monopoly.  I loved to buy the properties and have people pay up, but when it came to the putting houses on, that meant the game had gone on too long and I was probably bored.

For the challenge, I took inspiration from the pewter playing pieces, specifically the dog.  Ian's grandma has a puppy named Lacy, and Ian has been in love with her since he was old enough to recognize her.  He loves to cuddle with her, get kisses, play fetch, and just hang out.  Since I'm not a big dog fan (actually, any pet), this will probably be as close as he'll get to a real pet for awhile, and I wanted to capture their relationship.

The word "love" in the title is all numbers except for the letter v. Loved using up Thickers that don't usually get used.


Oh, and the winner of the "My Favorite Things" blog hop prize was #2- Moongirl!

Cardstock: Bazzill
Patterned Paper, stickers, brads, wood veneer banners: My Mind's EyeWood Veneer hearts: Elle's Studio, Studio Calico,  Arrow: Studio Calico
Twine: Teresa Collins
Title letters: American CraftsEnamel Dots: Doodlebug
Bling: Hero ArtsSketch: Scrapbook Generation Other: Thread

My Favorite Thing Blog Hop

Welcome to the "My Favorite Thing" blog hop at Child's Play Challenges.  You should have arrived here from Jane's blog.  If this is your first stop, you might want to hop on over to Child's Play to start from the beginning.

It's the time of year when kids will be opening presents that might just become their new favorite toy.  When my son was 2, he's favorite toy was a puppy his aunt and uncle had gotten while working at the vet clinic.  He was promptly named Karma after their dog she resembles... sort of.

Karma went everywhere with him and did everything with him.  Now, four years later, she looks drastically different; you can tell she's been loved.  Along the lines of differences, I scrapped most of this layout at least three years ago.  I did it at a crop and put it in an album to bring home, where it stayed until a few weeks ago when I pulled it out to finally put a title on it.  I added a few more embellishments, too. If I would have scrapped the whole thing recently, though, I'm not sure the clear stickers below and above the grid would have made it on the layout.

As a thanks for stopping by my blog today, I've got a few of my favorite scrappy things put together as a prize. To be eligible, leave a comment below about a favorite stuffed animal/baby doll of your own.  Mine would have been a toss-up between my two Cabbage Patch dolls, Cora and Megan, or my Care Bear Cousin Bright Heart Raccoon (which, funny enough, my son now sleeps with every night- yes, the exact same one).

And now, on to Stephanie's blog to continue the hop.

Layout | My Little Food Fanatic

This week at Child's Play Challenges it's a game inspiration- Sorry!  We didn't own this game when I was a kid, nor do we now, but I remember loving to play it when I went to a friend's house, and I hope we eventually add it to our family collection. 

I used the gameboard as inspiration for a layout about Ian's love of food. The pictures were snapped July-September 2009. My favorite picture is the one of him standing in front of the pantry- he had asked for a snack, I said no, and for the first time, he opened the pantry himself and grabbed a box of cereal.  It was so adorable and shocking I couldn't be mad :) 

I used a light green background that reminded me of background on the game board.  The yellow squares are reminiscent of those that lead to the home space.  And the arrows are all around the game board, showing which direction to go. 

Head on over to CPC and check out the other layouts, and share your own layout inspired by Sorry!

Layout | You, Me, and my Toys

This week, the inspiration at Child's Play Challenges is the classic xylophone. That toy is near and dear to my heart. For all I know, the fact I played the xylophone through high school and into college could be directly linked to the colorful, metal one I received for Christmas when I turned one.

Even more neat, I think, is the fact my children get to play with the same exact xylophone I did as a  kid (only 30 years later for Annaliese).  While looking for those pictures, I also found some with the kids playing with the little people house and barn I did as a kid. The layout then became telling the story of how awesome it is my kids play with the same toys I did, and how I hope to keep some of their toys for their kids to play with.

Layout | It's a Bird... It's a Plane...

No... it's LEGOS!

The kids and I spent one morning of spring break earlier this year at our botanical gardens. They had 14 Lego sculptures on display.  It was amazing how they created such realistic looking figures out of squares and rectangles.  I was able to get a picture of every sculpture on this layout, plus the brochure that went into detail about each sculpture and how many Legos were used it the creation of each.  Because the pictures are so busy, I kept everything else pretty simple.

I was inspired to create this layout based on the challenge at Child's Play Challenges. This week it's Pete's Dragon. Pete is an cartoon dragon in a real world, which reminded me of these "cartoon" sculptures trying to appear real in the real world. 

Layout | Eggcellent Easter

There's a new challenge up at Child's Play and this week it was to use Shrinky-Dinks as inspiration. Prior to this challenge, I had no idea what they were. So even though the challenges are supposed to be things we remember about childhood, this one wasn't for me.  After figuring out what they were, I thought I better give them a try. Turns out, you can make some great embellishments with them. They're pretty fun! I used them to make the eggs on this page from Easter 2011. 

During that Easter, Annaliese was just old enough to walk. She found one egg, and then noticed her cozy coupe and didn't want to go after eggs any more, just play in the car. Ian loved the egg hunt, and was happy Grandpa was there to help him reach the ones in the tree and the gutter of the roof.  

Supply list:
Cardstock: Bazzill
Patterned Paper, letter stickers, ink pen: American Crafts
Floss: DMC
Border Punch: Martha Stewart

Layout | Children are made Readers...

on the laps of their parents.  Darrin and I spend lots of time reading to the kids, and they spend lots of time by themselves reading and looking at books. As a teacher, it's something I greatly value. We snapped these pictures when Annaliese was little. I remember thinking at the time how intent she was looking at the book for such a little girl. Ian has always loved reading (and I'm happy to say that over this past summer, we started reading chapter books aloud to him and he is loving the Boxcar Children. I'm so glad I can share pieces of my childhood with him). 

I printed these photos in black and white because the lighting between the two photos really bothered me. One was really white, and the other was really yellow, and no matter how I tweaked it in PSE, it wasn't working to my liking.  They were sitting in my to-scrap stack when the challenge at Child's Pay rolled around to UNO.  I have no pictures of us playing UNO and couldn't think of how to incorporate them. Devra, the coordinator there, suggested using the color scheme on a layout, and that lead to this:

In real life, it's a black background with red, yellow, green, and blue strips of paper. Looks a bit off here.  I cut the title (a quote from Emilie Buchwald) out on the Cameo Silhouette. I don't own one, but I knew Archiver's would do cuts, so I designed it at home and headed there.  It gave me the chance to observe how well the silhouette worked to see if I want to add one to my Christmas list. There are definitely perks to having one, but I spent A LOT of time doing the title and having it cut (took three tries), and I probably could have gotten results that looked just as good with Thickers and tiny alphas. 

Come play along with us at Child's Play Challenge. I took inspiration from UNO and it turned into this. Can't wait to see what you'll turn it into. 

Supply list:
Cardstock: Bazzill
Patterned paper, embellishments, date sticker: My Mind's Eye
Wood veneer stars: Studio Calico

Layout | Through Ian's Lens

Played along again over at CSI.  Here was the evidence file:

And here's the layout I created based on it:

During August of 2011, Ian loved to grab our dSLR camera and shoot pictures. I loved seeing what he would snap pictures of, as they weren't necessarily things I would snap pictures of. This layout worked perfectly for the challenge, as one of the pieces of evidence was grid design. I based this layout on a sketch from Scrapbook Generation.  My other evidence I used were circles.  To meet the testimony requirement, I stamped my journal block

Layout | First Worst

I'm now designing layouts for the scrapbooking challenge site called "Child's Play Challenges".  Essentially, there is a picture posted of something from our childhood to use as inspiration.  This week's challenge is a doctor's kit.  Just hearing the word 'doctor' immediately made me think of the pictures I've had printed forever of Annaliese getting tubes on her first birthday, so while at Camp Wanna, I finally got them down on a layout.

We even brought some doctor kit supplies along with us to the hospital for her to play with while we were waiting. She was a champ through the whole thing. I remember seeing her wheeled in when it was all over, looking so tiny in the hospital bed.  The staff at Children's was fantastic. As we walked out, one of the nurses brought a Happy Birthday balloon down for her from the gift shop.  She ended up sleeping most of her first birthday.