Planner bliss

I truly am extremely happy with my decision. Honestly I can't believe how much I love this purple/lavender planner. It is so cute. So I have been really busy getting things set-up. And there are so many things I want to do but there are just as many things I am still trying to figure out what I want or don't.

So here it is....

I love the feel of the planner. In all the time that I have carried a planner or made one of my own; I've never had one that was purple. And the color made me a little worried before I got my order but that isn't a concern at all. I now find myself trying to not match all the dividers and pages to the color of the planner. So doing the forth of July themed weekly pages helped me to not focus on the purple. Well the calendar pages that I had made for the year are still being used. They were part of a Heidi Swap planner that was sold at Michael's last year around Christmas. But I have been eagerly waiting for her to make those pages available for purchase separately...I still am waiting.

The lined notebook paper that I used to stamp my journaling pages for the week are from the Dollar Tree. It's a 6x9 inch note pad. And although everything bleeds through the paper I love and use it because it is perfect for my classic franklin covey planners. I did purchase wide ruled FC lined journaling paper but I don't like it as much. I love having lines without any borders.  I have done this for years and its because I use my planner also to journal my day. I used to have only one sheet placed in between my weekly calendar pages but I now use 2. I also use these for grocery lists or writing letters.

I have also noticed that my FC hole punch is starting to punch weird. I think I damaged it some how bringing it to and from work. I hate that but I'm going to continue to be on the look out for one at the thrift store. I have seen many since I purchased mine, but I will get a new one whenever I make it back to the store. And they usually are between $4 and $6. A huge savings on what they cost new.

Well until my next post...smiles, Tracy

Checking in to show you the calendar pages that I have completed during this relaxing (after all the cooking) Thanksgiving weekend. I love long weekends and this one is really refreshing. 


I was able to get March 2015 completed. The colors look different and match 100% better than on the photo.

And here is May 2015. May is a huge around here because it's two of the four kiddos birthdays and also its when we go on family vacation as well as the beginning of summer. It will also be the first May that we have a son graduating from High school. But here is the beginning of that calendar layout. And since this is my personal calendar I went with fun feminine colors. The papers are actually from the Simple Stories hey mom collection. I saw this collection on YT and was off to find it at the scrapbook store the following day. I love it because it has purple in it. (What I was looking for). Super cute for Mother's Day themed calendar pages.

Here are journaling pages for my two birthdays that are in May. I realized after the fact that I didn't leave a lot of room for journaling but I will journal the main points on here so that I can create scrapbooking pages later. And although this color doesn't match the other colors for the month, it still works perfectly in my planner.

April's page isn't done. I have tried to stick with one color for April but I keep looking through my stash and getting more stuff out. I really wanted to stick with the AC papers but I couldn't. Once I started looking through all these wonderful scrapbooking papers that I still had, I just had to open up the color range.  Well until next time...Smiles, Tracy

A new calendar is full of potential...

Honestly there just is something really exciting about a new calendar. The pages are empty and ready to be written on. There is so much that you can schedule but my planner means that there is so many more fun things that I get to think about. Like when will we get to go on vacation this year, when will school be out for the summer, what will we be doing for our 15th anniversary? So many fun things to think about. Of course there is also the things that you have to think about like when bills are due, when are doctors appointments and so on and so on.

But if you have gotta use a calendar make it a fun one. I really like this calendar so far. There is so much fun in making calendars every year, but this one has been a lot more fun because I haven't crafted like this in forever.

I have finished January 2014 ....

I really love how it has turned out. I actually am not done with the monthly page but it is real close. I just need to add all upcoming appts and other schedule info and a photo of me on my birthday.

And then I worked on February....this is the most completed month. I LOVVEEE it. What do you think? I love being able to see my hubby and I together on this month. And I can't believe that we will be celebrating 15 yrs of marriage in February. I'm excited about it too. I can't wait to be able to go somewhere special with him that weekend.

I still have several months to go but the months have been printed on their corresponding patterned papers. I love this paper pack just for this reason. It is the Amy Tangerine pack from M's that I talked about in my previous post. I am using other paper lines in the calendar to add to the design. For instance the older WRMK Valentine's line will be used for the weekly and daily pages.

Happy planning scrapers. Smiles, Tracy

Planning Ahead...

I love finding a great product that inspires me to be creativity. And while exploring instagram I found a photo of a new planner line coming in the scrapbooking world. And immediately I was intrigued. Seriously the line is almost perfect for my style of planner I wanted for this year. But there are things about it that don't fit my style of what I want too, so I sat down at my computer and came up with the monthly calendar that I wanted to use. It wasn't a great design not anything close to what I've designed before using Adobe but it was plain and right now plain is perfect so I can scrapbook it up. And since I'm looking more for a scrapbook that is a planner, the colors where printed in basic black too. I just love it.

I have always made my planners fit my style of planning and added photos and washi here and I've done something similar to this before but this is much more about the scrapbooking and writing it down then the supplies for me this time around.  And I can't wait for that line of scrapbooking planner to hit the shelves but I know that the monthly calendars and the weekly pages aren't going to work for me. I don't like being stuck with certain colors or products.  But even though I haven't seen it in person, I do know which products I want already. And yes I've added those to my wishlist already. LOL  I want January to be all about purple (it is after all my favorite color and also my birthday month) so I got to it....what do you think? It looks pink but there is a shade of purple and pink in there so I can rock purple on the weekly calendar pages for me and purple for the last week in the month for my daughter. Perfect comprise to the purple pink contrast without having it be girlie. I love it.

And yes those are paint sample cards...I'm using them to create the tabs for my months. I know clever huh. LOL I say that knowing that most know that it something that I've done many times before. And the photo sample card I usually use on the actual week of my birthday and put a photo of me on the other side or journaling card. Either way it's a cute element that is just my style. 

This page has changed so much already just from me sitting down to type this up I've decided that I'm going to stamp each day in the colors that match the doodlebug washi tape and I have pulled out some other washi tapes that match these colors to add to the daily pages...so the above pages were printed on plain computer paper but aren't these cute too....

This was printed on American Crafts Amy Tangerine papers that came in a stack from M's that was 8.5 x 11 and plain on the back side. Perfect match for both printing on as well running it through my printer.  These hearts are going to be for the month of August 2015. I have a ton of these colored embellishments and such that I can use with so many of our summer photos from 2014. That's why this is the perfect color for August. I'm serious about my planner life ladies and gentlemen.  So this is the beginning of a beautiful thing don't you think?

As for the scrapbook planner line, there are just a few items that I want  but the colors seem to be along the line of deep primary colors. And honestly I'm a bright in the spring and summer and bold or darker in the fall and winter kinda girl. As I type that I thought about explaining that to my boss and co-workers the other day. They seem to be thrown off when I rock all black or browns. It's the season for those colors. And I do love them just as much as bright pink and purples. And although they are awesome colors, I need to have flexibility I want bright fresh and airy feeling for my planner too. So although I'm designing the monthly calendar pages, weekly calendar pages, and maybe notes too; I do know that I want to get the daily pages. And I'm hoping that they will eventually expand on this product brand and lines. It would be nice to have different choices. But  I'm glad that I picked up the  Chevron binder this week from M's using the 50% off coupon and a gift card that I hadn't used. I don't know if M's gift cards expire but I figured I should use it before this year's Christmas came around.  I have had so much fun raiding my stash. I showed a photo of my scrapbook desk (not the entire space) to a co-worker and she said it was a nice little space. I wanted to laugh. Photos never show the actual size of something. My desk is the space of more than half of a 8ft by 13 ft room. And my cabinets are 36 inches and 24 inch kitchen cabinets from IKEA. When most people see it in real life they say your desk is bigger than your kitchen island. Which by the way it is. LOL...
See you soon. Smiles, Tracy

A Birthday Page

I completed a layout that has been sitting on my desk since last weekend. And although I had the idea in my mind, I couldn't figure out how to exactly make it work together. I kept trying to make a certain patterned paper work with the theme and the colors work, but I also wanted to do something that I hadn't done in awhile. I didn't know what that was but then I read one of the challenges for the May31 challenge and it was so to opposite of what you are used to doing. And although it was about handwriting verses computer typed journaling. The thing that came to mind for me was cardstock verses patterned paper. I always use patterned paper, and I haven't done an all cardstock layout in forever. So it was the perfect time to do that. And so I did. Which then made me thing of ways to make that cardstock stand out.

So I pulled out some cardstock that matched ribbon that I got earlier this month at Joanns. And then began to pull colors from it to match my daughter's 4th birthday page. I love the end result. Although it almost matches another birthday page that I made a couple of years back but I love how I updated the look of the layout. So here is the page...

I used a lot of supplies although it may not look like it.
All cardstocks are Coordinations Cardstock,

Embellishments
Ribbon -American Crafts
Expoxy Dots- MME


Die Cuts
Spellbinders- Large Pinking Circle, Large Standard Circle,
Notebook border punch
Ballon diecut, Aligator Unicase Alphabet dies- Quickutz
Triangle, star punches- EK Success
All banners are handcut
Embossing folders from QK, Paper Studio, and Cuttlebug

Stamps
Circle Journaling lines-unknown
Cake stamp- Imaginisce?
Banner stamp- WRMK (Easter stamp set)
Dot Alphabet Stamps-KI Memories
Tiny Alphabet stamps-Studio G stamps
Spiral line stamp bent on block to create a string for the hanging banner

Stamps pads/inks are all Colorbox  Chalk inks; Aquamarine, Dark Brown, Butterscotch, Berrylicious

These are all the supplies that I could remember...now I'm off to spend some time with the family and try to get some birthday cards done for my kids that have birthdays next week. Smiles, Tracy

Sunshine and Happiness

This layout was a little hard to create. I really wanted the page to be bright and there really wasn't any papers in my stash that I wanted to use on the layout that seemed as bright as I wanted.

But then I saw the Echo Park a perfect summer collection and knew that I had to have it in order to get the page that I wanted. So I headed to my local scrapbooking store which is a little under an hour away and picked up the few papers that I wanted for the page plus some clearance papers for 49 cents. And those papers that I got on clearance were from a line that I wanted over a year ago that I just couldn't purchase at that time from MME. I love MME if you haven't learned from seeing so many pages that I create using their papers.

So here is the layout that I created.

I absolutely love the finished page. It is another layout that I completely had sketched out what I wanted to do and although I printed the photos to fit the sketch exactly, I ended up changing the smaller pics from being vertical under the big photo to being horizontal. And I like this a lot better.

The journaling reads: For our family of 6; living in 1000 sq ft was truly hard. The apartment was always dark and we had very noise neighbors all time of the day or night. But the one thing we all found happiness in was the pool. We'd spend hours at the pool in the sunshine swimming, splashing and playing together. It was truly the only reason we ever went back to the apartment besides sleeping. And its the only thing we miss about living there.

The supplies used were:
papers- Pink Paislee-cozy sweater 2011, Echo Park-endless summer big dots and chevron lines, recollections-yellow honeycomb paper
diecuts- circles handcut after tracing using large acrylic shapes from an acrylic sheet (I believe Fancy Pants), banners cut by hand, & sign cut from Blossom grand alphas, happiness cut from lawn fawn stamps/diecut set
embellishments- label-Jillibean soup, Enamel dots- MME, flair button- American Crafts (set I got from big lots), shinny bling- Micheals store brand, Doodlebug black rub-ons
Stamps- Lawn Fawn Quincy alpha, Catslife Press place stamp, Imaginisce sunshine stamp (snag em line).

2 Big Girls @ the Park

So there is a new challenge on twopeasinabucket.com that I want to do. So today the first challenge was posted and I just had to scrapbook the photos of my girls playing at the park. The layout was inspired by the challenge to use banners and also to use flat stickers.

At first the flat sticker idea was challenging because all the cute playground stickers and kiddie playing stickers that I could have used are no longer in my stash. So I decided to look through the stash for quotes or wording that is saying what I want to be expressed on the page. Yeah the pictures are of the girls on the playground but really they are about both of my girls actually growning. Ani not being a big sister so much but instead a friend/playmate and Nya not needing help so much but instead gaining her own independence. It was really a hard park day at first it was a lot of no let me do it, and even more Ani it's ok for her to try. But after all that it turned out to be perfect. And that is what sparked the title to the page. 2 Big Girls @ the Park.

It is also the one layout that I did that reflects on the fact that although I was ok with having 4 children, that I no longer have a baby. And it almost inspires another page that I am thinking of doing in the future. I love the end results of the layout. It is so my style. When I sat down to do the page it came together really easy. Really and that isn't always the case for me and scrapbooking. Or it hadn't been that way for awhile. But I think that it was easy because there was a place for everything and my desk wasn't really cluttered and so my thoughts weren't cluttered. It was just so nice to get it done but the way that I wanted and it wasn't something that I just through together. It was perfect. I think that my best work has been with challenges involved. Even when I was the one hosting the challenge or teaching the class, the work just comes together better when there are deadlines, and some guidelines. I think it's because of how I think. I really do. Well I am off to finish thinking about today's challenge I hope that everyone is doing great. I have also decided that I am going to wait until the morning and take photos in the natural light because I just really like those photos better. It might mean that I miss the deadline for the challenge but I'm ok with that because I am scrapbooking and that's all that matters to me.

A Beautiul Foundation...Building our new home.

I love completed layouts. I am so excited because I have now completed 3 pages. I really feel like I have accomplished something when I look at my current scrapbook. I really can't believe how empty my 2009-2012 scrapbook album is. Well it's not empty, it does have the pictures, a sketch and journaling all inside sheet protectors but there aren't very many completed pages in there. Here is the last one that I have completed. I love that it really focuses on the pictures and I really do love my style.

So I am not current at all in my albums and really it doesn't matter because the journaling is already done and I just need to really have time to sit down and actually get something done. And I plan on working on getting more pages done this week. I have drawn out two new sketches that I really want to use soon so hopefully I will be able to finish up the remaining 2009 layouts that I need to get done. But knowing me I will most likely work on whatever I look at and it inspires me to do a layout. I do have to say that while looking through my album there were some pictures of the girls playing at the park that I completely forgot I had photographed but then I read the journaling that I had done that day and I really do feel like I should do those photos next. Well I gotta get myself in the bed. Good night and smiles, Tracy.☺

Today I wanted to stop in to check in because I have been so busy with trying to get things done that I keep forgetting to post things to my blog. I have made several drafts the last few weeks and I get all excited about getting the draft done so that I can just add photos and then I completely forget to post the photos. Well I decided that I am going to try not to do anymore drafts unless I have the photos edited and ready to be added to the layout at that same time. I hope that this plan is what I need to do to keep myself on task and posting to the blog on a more consistant basis.

Well I have been scrapbooking I haven't completed a page that I can share (because the other pages were to my kids scrapbooks of the school year and such. And it has lots of photos of other perople on there so I don't really want to share those pages.

But here is a photo of a layout that I have started this week. It is a two page layout and I really like how it is coming together although I haven't finished it at this point.

There is actually going to be another page to this layout. I am trying to decide if it is going to be before or after these layouts. But most of the journaling about building our new home will be on there. That experience is something that was amazing to us. We actually loved everything about it and wouldn't pass up the chance to build a new home again.

I also wanted to say that I love scrapbooking in my new space! I love it because I have done lots of things at my area but I love being able to walk away and see that it doesn't look an absolute mess. It is so nice to open a drawer pull out what I am using and then put it back. I didn't have huge piles of things sitting ontop of things and it just worked better. Now I do plan on working on cards soon and I do think that I might make a little more mess but I still think that it is still an awesome space, take a look...And yes I still don't have the top drawer handles on those drawers because I can't decide which style I like the best since I know I don't want them to match all the other handles.

Christmas tags, gift card holders

I have been making labels and tags for our family's Christmas gifts for years. But this year when I went to grab some to put on our presents and we didn't have any? Really? I think that the girls actually got into them and used them as stickers. But its not a big deal, and it gave me a chance to play a little with some new ideas. I couldn't play that much because I needed to whip up 32 tags the night before Christmas to put on the gifts that needed to be under the tree. So I made some fun ones and wrote down some ideas of others that I wanted to try a little later.

And of course I didn't take a photo of the ones that I made. In my defense, it was Christmas eve, I had some people coming over for dinner the next day and we were planning to be out walking the loop of lights in our neighborhood so I really needed to be getting the food prepared and the house cleaned.

I've always made little labels (pretty much the same size as an Avery address label) but I decided that I didn't want to do that anymore.  I also decided that I am going to need something to store them in as well. I still haven't figured that but they need to be able to stay neat until the next Christmas.

Here is one of the three that I did today. I really like them. I wish I had maybe printed the To/From on the computer but I do love that they look nice and neat.

 I do plan on using diecuts on some that I will stamp a polar bear on and some diecuts of snowflakes.  I also am planning on making some giftcard holders. I don't currently have a die or anything for them (which I know that I could convert 2 dies that I have into something simular) but I decided to make a tag that I made 2 yrs ago into a giftcard holder instead of tossing it. It actually turned out pretty cute I would say.

 

I really didn't like putting giftcards into premade little boxes from Walmart or Target (not sure which one I got them from) but now that I think of it, I know that I have access to one or two designs with a LD set of svgs that I bought a year or two ago. Oh well. But I am going to save this one for next year, most likely for someone at church or work.

I also ran them through my Xyron 250(??) so that they would already be sticky and then I just stapled them all together.  The other labels are too big to use that Xyron. But I am glad to say that I plan on getting my other two way before Christmas next year so I will be able to use those for the bigger labels. But until next time. Smiles, Tracy

Hello everyone. I am so excited to be able to share the start of a layout that I am working on. For the last couple of days I have been working in my space and really getting an idea of the feel of it. And since doing so, I have switched two things around. My stamp tower no longer is sitting directly on the floor but instead I have it sitting on a crate on the floor behind my desk. I changed that because it allows me to actually see my stamps and it also means that I am not bending over to see the stamps. That was a much needed change. And whenever I change the coffee table looking thing out and get some other type of storage, I will make sure that the stamps can still work in that same spot. And the other change is that I got rid of the 3 drawer plastic organizer from under my desk. I don't miss it at all. I think that was one of the things that bothered me the most about my space for now. None of the the storage solutions (well except the cabinets) are my permanent solutions right now. I am using what I have until I can find the perfect solution for my needs.

But here is a photo of my space now. Oh, I do have a new little section for the girls to have their own little student style desks along the wall. And they love them. And of course every time I have been in the room, they have been in there too. But I knew that would happen. But I actually like having them in there with me and seeing the baby (who is 2yrs old) happy that she has her own crayons, and scrapbooking stuff that she doesn't have to share with her sister is just so cute. I am just wondering how I can make sure to hide my nail files because she keeps chewing one them. And I just know that they must be toxic but she keeps getting into them and everything else she can reach.

But I just realized that I completely forgot to take a photo of the space and share it. But I plan on doing that soon. Well back to said layout...

I know its not even close to being done, and nothing is glued down. And besides that the photos aren't printed. Well they were and that is when I found out that there was no printer ink. My son#1 didn't bother to let me know he had been printing tons of stuff and now I can't print pictures. LOL isn't that the way things go sometimes. When you are ready to do something, it just doesn't really work out. But I have a busy week and since my hubby is out of town most of the week there won't be any runs to get printer ink until the weekend. I have to remember to get ink for the Epson printer too. I realized from this print mishap that I really do love my Epson printer printing my pictures instead.

Dust it off challenge for March

Just wanted to stop in and post my layout that I did for my design team project for scrap our stash. All the details can be found here http://scrapourstash.blogspot.com/2011/03/march-dust-it-off-challenge-by-tracy.html

This one was a happy layout for me because it captured us all together and it brought back funny memories. For instance this was first time that we had been to the park after the birth of our last child and I had just gotten out if the hospital the week before. And like a nut I had decided that I would go down the slide with my daughter, not even thinking about how sore I would be because of the c-section that I had. Well its funny now but it sure wasn't at the time. And even though the photo of my hubby looks like he's mad, the sun was in his eyes and I still love the photo. Well I am off to go and enjoy the sun today. I have to take the girls to the playground and maybe I can get some brainstorming done for next months design team challenge. Or at least that is what I am hoping. Smiles, Tracy

Good morning everyone. I wish that I could say that it looks like a beautiful one but is is all gloomy looking outside right now. It is 76 however and it is supposed to rain. Which is ok since it has been in the 80s since the middle of February.

I am so excited because I have tons of things to share. Well the first is that I completed some pages two weekends ago and I submitted 2 to a challenge so I can't show those but here is the one that I completed for Nya's 5th month.

I used all my stash for this layout. The title was cut using my old reliable Big Shot. I used Cuttlebug alphabets and this one was inspired about using something old that I haven't used in a while...that would be those MM tags. I have a ton of them, and MM epoxy bubbles too. I want to use those on a couple of projects soon I just don't know what yet. I also pulled out my Quickutz photo corner tab die. I had that forever and I never use it although originally I thought that I would love to use it. But I do love how this page turned out. And of course I did journaling about her 4-5th month on page two of this layout. I just can't share that one cause it has a lot of personal information.

And my second bit of news...we are finally moving forward in getting the house built. We originally had another builder, who pulled out on the project because there were issues with zoning and all that craziness. I don't know all the details but it was a mess. So we went to a different builder and signed on the dotted line. We are getting a house that is the perfect size for our family nothing huge, nothing too fancy other than it is going to new. Mostly because we are getting an affordable upgraded house. I love that. The house only has the framing done so far, the tiles are sitting on the roof and are scheduled to be put in soon. This week they are supposed to be doing the whole outside of the house and starting to get the walls up in the inside...I can't wait.

But here is a photo of our little house. It is 4 bedrooms and 3 full baths. A total of 2800 square feet. And a covered back porch with ceiling fan and misters. We went with misters because really unless you are cold blooded you can sit outside in AZ in the summer without misters...cause you would pass out! LOL

But this is it for right now. I don't know when exactly I will get to making pages because I am so excited about decorating and picking colors of stuff that I am going to be super busy with the house for a little while. I made a little well kinda little decorations and new house book log. I have plans to take photos of it and share. Until then stay warm and for those in warmer climates stay cool...I sure am trying to.

Sneak Peak...

Well I just wanted to come and say that I have been busy with layouts for dd#2's scrapbook and I truly do plan on working on these things more the next couple of weeks. But I am so excited because I am also working on the other kiddos scrapbooks too.

But so far so good. I have gotten 3layouts done. 2-two page layouts and 1-one page layout. I can't share everything but I do plan on sharing a couple of them in the next couple of days. But here is also a sneak peak of my design team layout that will be posting on scrapourstash.blogspot.com later this month...

Tomorrow is a really exciting day for me. I am heading off to school tomorrow to find out about a class that I want to take. I am excited because I can't wait to find out the information about the class.

Hi all...I am super busy trying to get a few things finished up around here for some design team submissions and also some of things that I need to check off my stash challenge to-do list. I am so glad that I shared my plans on my blog because I have gotten a couple of emails about the paint sample cards/chips...I have been thinking about it too. It wasn't something that I really thought out before I listed it on my challenge to use this month, but it was surely something that I had in my stash that has been sitting for awhile...so here is one way that I have used them since putting them on my list.... It was fun using my old Quickutz dies and cutting the letters, numbers and the rainbow dies. As you know from previously talking about this wall calendar (you can read the first post here were I turned a thrift store frame into a wall calendar http://scrapalongwithtracy.blogspot.com/2011/01/2011-framed-calendar.html ) All the letters and numbers were cut from paint sample chips/cards and they looked like letter stickers once they were cut out. I am not worried about acid-free because it is a wall hanging. I still have a couple other ways that I plan on using them.

I was also emailed and asked if I preferred cards or scrapbooking and I'd have to say that I love doing both. I like that I can sit down and make a couple of cards and put them in my stash and have one or two to send out too all in about 45minutes. But scrapbooking for me takes a little longer because I can have a layout all complete and then I think that it's missing something or needs something else. The only scrapbooking that I don't seem to redo once it's done is mini albums.

I was also asked what is my favorite mini album that I completed? And my favorite one would be my trip to AZ. It was so much fun but a close second would be one that I made for ebay and then the one that I designed to teach at my local scrapbooking store...

Here they are all listed below
1

2

3

I have done a lot of mini albums and some of them have never been posted on my blog, but these were my favorite because I was able to do whatever I wanted. Which allowed me to do the things that I like to do...which would be stamping, diecutting and a lot of journaling. And even pulling out paints and getting messy.

I was asked a couple more questions and what I have decided after emailing the posters, is that I will add these answers in the next couple of weeks because it requires me to do some digging and pull out some of my old scrapbooks. Well I am off to get the kids in the bed. Good night bloggers.

Hello everyone. I am stopping in to update you all with my to-do list for scrap our stash. This month the challenge was to dust off something that you haven't used or done and use it. Well for me there isn't many supplies that I haven't used from my stash because I have been crafting a lot more. But there is something that has surely been neglected from my to be done list...Nya's baby book. I don't know why I haven't completed it. It's not like it is a huge task because #1 I have all the photos printed and put into sheet protectors in her album (most of them already printed into the layout format that I plan to use no editing needed), #2 I have all the journaling that I want to include on each layout on post it notes and in a small notebook, #3 I have sketches also in the sheet protectors that I plan on using for each 2 pg spread...but for some reason the book isn't done. And so that is my challenge...to work on her album and get current or at least past her birth page.

And so I can't work on one child's album without thinking about the other ones' albums needing to be updated past 2008. So I plan on working on those as well the good part is that most of the photos have been printed too but they aren't all sorted into sheet protectors with the dates but I do have those in my small notebook too. Honestly these projects alone are truly enough to last the next couple of months but I plan on working on them as I go. I am no longer going to keep adding more photos and pages are getting done. And although I feel behind, I truly am current in the other kids books for the most part. I mean 2008 isn't that far back right lol lol!

Also for this months challenge there are tons of things that I have on my to do list that I want to try out. Last month it was making my own wobble thingies. And it was so fun! I didn't make a project with them, but instead made a bunch for the girls to use and play with and they honestly loved them. I got the idea from a youtube video and I have said before that I am all for not spending scrapbooking dollars on something that I can make or do myself. Oh here is that video if you are interested in checking it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2iJRgcEeKI

But corrugated alphas and accents have been on my to do list forever and I plan on making some of these this month. I have had my crimper in my stash for well over a year or two and I haven't made one crimped item with them at all.

And paint card chips have been in my stash for a while too. I collected them years ago when there was all these cards and layouts using them on pages but honestly never really wanted to use them for that exactly. I honestly like the bold colors and how bright they are without the shimmer or glitter on them so I planned on using them as tabs on pages. Which would be awesome or to make little word stickers with. Because they have writing on them, I am kinda limited to size that I can make something out of them with but I plan on doing something with them.

So for a recap this month I plan on

#1 Getting Nya's album current (at least to Christmas 2010)

#2 Getting the kids albums worked on too

#3 Making crimped accents/embellishments/alphas

#4 Using paint color chips/examples to create embellishments/accents....

Sounds like a busy month and it's only the 3rd lol!

New 2011 Framed Calendar

The project is done! And I am finally able to edit and upload the photos this morning (early morning lol). I had completed the actual project on my birthday but having fun with the family all day and never got around to getting on the computer.

But this is the original frame. It's 16inches wide by 14 inches tall.

I switched it to a horizontal view and then everything began to fall in place. I ended up priming it over and then starting from scratch. I painted it black first and then once that coat was dry I put red paint over it (which I mixed black into it) and then rubbed some of the paint off with a damp cloth. And repeated that step two more times, letting it dry a little more before I wiped off the red. And after that I hung it and dated it and got it all ready for our family info center in our kitchen. I think that project turned out a lot better than I expected. But I am a little disappointed in my dry erase markers. I am thinking that I am going to have to most likely find those ones that write looking like chalk colors because these lighter colors don't show up at all on the glass. So if you find a really nice frame and just love the way that it looks...consider making it another color and use it for something you really can use.

Dies used are MFT snowflake metal dies and Cricut Cherry Limeade font, Lovely floral bracket. The patterned papers are Basic Grey (the stripe), Bo Bunny, Fancy Pants and MME (all solid colored cardstock from the backs of several patterned papers). Calendar grid is one from an old Target 12x12 scrapbook calendar in their hotspot section.

2nd post of the day (yeah me!)

This is my second post of the day and it's only 5:19am here. But I just had to stop in and say I got my new Expression up and running! And now I can't wait to get started on pages. I can't really cut anything just yet because I promised Vele that I would wait until my birthday before I got the program just in case he wanted to get it for me. I am so glad that I have been keeping him in the loop about the machine because he told me yesterday that he was planning on getting me cartridges for my birthday. And of course I told him that he could, but what I would really want is some alone time with him and the MTC program. But my birthday is just 2 short weeks away (Jan 9th).

But I also wanted to come and show the page that I completed for LeiLani's birthday. I have been back and forth on this layout because I didn't like the photos (they turned out bad) but I really wanted her birthday photos not to be scrapbooked because they weren't perfect. So I did the layout anyway! I am really hoping to get all the kids 2010 birthday pages done and in both the family album and each one of their albums. So that is 6 layouts to complete in 2 days...I think I can get it done if I don't sleep at all! But seriously I am going to try to get some of the pages done. I can't have birthday pages from 2010 not finished when 2011 birthdays come around and LeiLani's birthday is also in January so here is her page...

Supplies

American Crafts- rub-on words and letter stickers

MME-plaid, star embossed, and dot embossed patterned papers (from the Costco pack from years ago),green dot

Fancy Pants- pink pp

Creative Cafe- pink lined paper

Maya Road-felt cupcake

MM-ruler paper, paperclip

Misc-Brads, bakers twine

Quickutz-label die, star embossing folder, name plate

Cuttlebug-embossing folders swiss dots, 3/4 in stars,1 1/4 in circle

Spellbinders-pinking circle

Tim Holtz distress inks-Spun Sugar

I just wanted to check in and share a page that I created for the scrap your stash blog. The challenge is to make a birthday creation and that was perfect for me to get some of the pages that I need to get done for the kids. So here is the completed page.

I used a ton of items from my stash. I haven't diecut a title in awhile and it was nice to do that. And even just a touch of stamping. Really only the date is stamped but it still was nice to pull out the supplies. I did do a lot of inking (as always) around most of the edges.

Here is the list of supplies that I used
dies/punches

Fiskars-triangle punch, decorative edge scissors

EK success-border punch

Cuttlebug-harmony letters

Quickutz-Chocolate unicase alphabet

Sizzix-doodlebug block letters

Spellbinders-star

Embellishments
Unknown-letter stickers

Maya Road-felt cupcake

Little yellow bicycle-journaling tag

Heidi Swap-fat cat pink letters

Making Memories/Joanns essentials-mini brads

Paper/cardstock

Echo Park-stripe-Life is good

MME-Bloom and Grow eye candy, Tres Jolie Bonjour, Abbey Road Lucky me sisters rings, Kaleidoscape baby girl light pink,

Elsie-Jack and Abby cupcakes

Ink/Markers

CTMH-ocean marker and ink pad

TH distress ink-shabby shutters, spun sugar

Zig-Chocolate marker

Stamps
Office supply date stamp

So absolutely excited!! I have some really great news...I made it! I applied for a design team spot on http://www.scrapourstash.blogspot.com/ and I made it! I am so excited to be part of a design team and it is the first that I have ever applied for. So I am patiently (not really ) awaiting my email to tell me where and what's next and I can't wait to get started (February 2011).

I also have a project to share that I completed that I have been waiting to get done for a little while. I love the 7gyspies printer tray displays but I haven't purchased one. But while garage sale shopping this past summer I came across a printer tray look alike. It actually was one of those very old wooden wall displays for knick knacks and such. I could tell it was handmade, because one side of it was made with a yard stick. So I got it. I originally was going to use it in the girls' room to make a mini open doll house kinda thing. And since it was only 10 cents I figured I could find something else to use it for if I didn't use it for the girls. But after spray painting it, red and then white, I realized that I wanted to use it for a mini wall display for our Christmas photos.

And here is the end result!

I love it!! It is so cute hanging on the wall. And the Christmas ball thing I picked up to originally go over the door to our apartment, but I decided to hang it above the shocking instead and then that's when I realized that above the balls was the perfect place for the tray. I purchased the ball thingie at a garage sale also! I got it and a mini snowman, a mini wirer Christmas tree with bells and something else? I forgot for $5. I still have to spray paint the mini wire tree a pewter color (to match my room decor) and then I will take a photo of that too. The plan was to have it on the table all Christmas season but that isn't the case. I can't find the right pewter spray paint yet.