Cathy's 1st Layout!

Over the next few months, I'll be doing some albums for my sweet friend Cathy. She's married to Mark's brother Adam, who is a marine. He's deployed right now for a year and she's asked me to help her get some albums together for them before he comes home. I'm so honored and excited that she trusts me to do this for them, and I've been (im)patiently waiting for her pictures to arrive, lol...

I finally got them all yesterday and as soon as I saw this one, I knew it would be the first one I scrapped. I absolutely love it!! It has both of them, as well as their 4 adorable children in it and they all just look so loved and happy! It really has a wonderful feeling to it, you know?? :)

So, I took the picture and tried it against a few different colors and patterns of paper but in the end decided to stay really close to the nature colors that are in the background. That way, the family would stand out a little more. I think it worked great!! Here's how it looks...

When it came time to think of a title...the first one I thought of was Time. Since Adam's gone alot for his work, the time they have with him at home is really special, so I think it fits perfectly. ;)

Thanks so much for looking! Wait until you see some more pictures of this family...they're just gorgeous...

Hold Me

Another one for today...also Madison. This picture is from a trip we took to Carowind's in Charlotte, NC. We were all so tired, Madison especially. We were in line for one more ride and she just couldn't take it! I picked her up and she was asleep in about 5 minutes. We waited while Mark and Emily rode, lol...

I had alot of fun with this one! I used Basic Grey's Sugared Collection this time...

To start, I cut a mat for the picture from some pink cardstock and inked the edges brown. I decided I wanted something behind it to make it pop a little more so I used some golden yellow cardstock and made a scalloped circle out of it, which I also inked the edges of. I just traced a page of a chipboard album I got at Michael's onto the back of the cardstock and cut it out. Once it was behind the mat, I thought it made a perfect place for the journaling. :)

Next, I added the cute giraffe and hearts, which are chipboard stickers that I thought would add a little something extra to the page. I think it worked well!

To finish it off, I put the title on, which started as raw chipboard (Basic Grey Hip). I inked it brown to make it stand out, and the color matches the giraffe's spots perfectly!

I love how it all looks together. :) Thanks for looking!

My Sunshine

I had to do a layout today that wasn't Project 365!! I guess I did so many in a row that it was driving me a little crazy, lol. ;) I decided to scrap a favorite picture of mine that I took of Madison last September. I just love the look on her face here...

I used my Basic Grey Urban Prairie papers again for this one. I really love how the greens match the picture so well!

To start, I cut a circle out of the patterned paper with a dinner plate and then inked the edges. Next, I cut a photo mat for the picture out of a white piece of cardstock and inked the surface to make it sort of blend with the color of the ground in the picture. I placed them both on the green cardstock and then added some matching flowers and a rub-on. I also cut a scalloped circle out of the patterned paper and placed it in the middle of the 2 flowers, which I think is a nice touch. :) I'm very happy with the results!

Another 2-pager...

This one is pretty much the same as yesterday, but with Emily instead of Madison this time. ;) I wanted to share both though so here it is!

*Inspired by a Becky Higgins sketch in the August 2008 issue of Creating Keepsakes

Thanks for looking...

A 2-pager...

I did a 2 page layout today, which is rare for me, so I thought I'd share it. These are my favorite pictures of Madison from each month in 2008. I'm planning on doing more layouts like this for each of the girls from birth to age 18. I think they'll be great albums! This is the first one I've done so far and I'm really happy with how it turned out...

*Inspired by a Becky Higgins sketch in the August 2008 issue of Creating Keepsakes

The papers are all from Basic Grey's Urban Prairie line, which I really like. Thanks for looking... ;)

More layouts...

I was able to sneak in some scrapping time today and got 2 layouts done...yay me! Here are my pages...

The first one is Madison having some fun with the leaves outside. She would pile them up, scoop a bunch together and then throw them in the air and yellllll! It was really cute to watch. ;)



The second one was inspired by a challenge my scrapping group is having to do a monochromatic layout. I think I did pretty good with it (I even had matching ink, lol!). The pictures are from when the girls and I went to the Biltmore Estate with Mark's mom last December. I've been before but this was the first time I took both girls and it was really nice...



Both were pretty simple to do (I just did my usual trimming/distressing/inking), and I really love how they turned out. ;)

My Coffee Cup

I was able to get another layout done today. In a scrapping group I'm in, we were challenged to scrap something we love...something we could actually hold in our hands. I instantly thought of my favorite coffee cup! Here's how the page looks...

My sweet friend Cathy sent this cup to me last year for my birthday and I really do love it. It's the perfect size, beautiful in color, has a wonderful Scripture on it, and it makes me think of our amazing friendship every time I use it. What's not to love, right? ;)

For the layout, I kept it simple. I used K&Company papers for this one...their Wild Saffron paper pad. I cut a half circle to do the journaling on and a mat for the photo, and then inked them both. For the picture, I lightly sanded the edges and inked them. I laid everything out and then after I wrote in the journaling, I decided to add a small picture of Cathy that I had. I think it fits perfectly and I love the finished look...

I Love You Baby

I did a layout today that I'd like to share with you...and it actually has me on it! ;) I scrap so many pages of the girls that sometimes I forget about Mark and myself, lol...

My wonderful friend Peggy recently joined the design team for Song Bird Scraps and they just posted their first challenge, so I decided to do a layout for it. Here's what I came up with...



The colors I used are somewhat brighter than what I normally choose to work with but I'm really loving how this looks!! All of the papers are from the Basic Grey Urban Prairie collection and they just match each other perfectly, don't they? ;)

Putting this one together was very simple. I did some cutting, sanding, inking and painting, and then put everything in place where I wanted it. I'm very happy with my results!

Be Still

I did a layout of Emily late last night that I really love. I took this picture of her on 5/20/07 when we were over at Mark's Nanny's house for Mother's Day. She was outside playing and just walked over and kneeled down to smell the flowers. It was a beautiful moment and one I definitely needed to scrap!

I thought that "Be Still" would be a perfect title for this one because the more I looked at the picture, the more I thought of one of my favorite Bible verses, which is "Be still and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10). I love the feeling it gives...