Christmas Memories - Two Page Christmas Scrapbook Layout

 
Hello friends. I have another Christmas layout to share with you today!

Do you love plaid paper as much as me?? I also love the black matting behind the pictures. Especially for Christmas layouts! Here's a few pictures of our tree, and some of our Christmas decor from a few years back. 

This photo of my grandkids is my absolute favorite!! I love their smiles and relaxed, but excited, expressions. Aren't the adorable? 

Thanks for stopping by again!! Merry Christmas Eve!

Masculine Birthday Cards

 Brrrr.....Baby it's cold outside. I wish I could sit home all day, and make stuff. No, really. I'm ready to retire, but my age bracket doesn't quite hit than benchmark yet...Nor does my IRA. Looks like I need to keep my day job. Do you look forward to retirement? The older I get, the more I can't wait!! 

Today, I thought I'd share a few masculine birthday cards with you. I honestly, struggle with cards in general as compared to scrapbooking. Typically I browse my Pinterest boards and find something for a jumping off point. 

I love this city scene. I think it is super cool. This one was created for one of my nephews. I liked the simple black and white color scheme. The stamp of the city is cut out and popped up with foam squares, but it would also work as super quick one layer card.

I can't get enough of tree stamps. Fall is my favorite, so trees, leaves, pumpkins and the like run rampant in my collection. This was a quick card, but it looks classy. You could add additional layers of colored solid cardstock under the patterned paper, or not...you choose.

This is probably my favorite on this post. Striped washi tape, grungy background stamps, a bit of ribbon, a popped up bright red star, and a graphic birthday stamped pennant. The colors give it a masculine look, but it would be fun experimenting for a similar grungy girly look.

This one is my second favorite and so stinkin' simple. If you are like me, you have a ton of patterned scraps. Grab some with coordinating masculine colors/patterns and cut a mustache either by hand, or on your Cricut. Add some grungy dots and you're done. The men in my life all love their facial hair, so it was perfect.

LOVE (Michigan) - Two Page Scrapbook Layout

 Here's a bright and fun layout to share from a recent trip to Lake Michigan...one of our all time favorite places for a quick getaway.

This one started with some pictures of blue sky water, and a couple of goofie selfies. The white cardstock sets off the bright patterns and colors. I didn't matt the photos which is unusual for me, but I liked the way they popped off the paper without the matting. The teal geometric was from my stash of scraps and the bright zig zag lines of washi adds to the fun.

I added some black silhouettes of sailboats and had fun with the title. I used some brightly colored scrap cardstock to match the Washi and cardstock, then cut a silhouette of Michigan to replace the "O". Cute? I love the way it turned out, especially the title.

My Cricut is such a great tool for titles, embellishments and even journaling. I hardly ever buy stickers anymore unless they are part of a pack of designer paper. I also used a StampinUp border around the journalling and then matted in a bright pink. My kids would vouch for the fact that Cricut journalling in just about any font is so much easier to read then my own writing. I still add my own handwriting at times, because some day they'll miss my chicken scratching. 😁

Hope this bright layout inspires you in some way! Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Holiday Traditions - Two Page Scrapbook Layout

 Tis the season for all of our wonderful family Christmas traditions. First, is our family Christmas tree hunt. Even though the kids are out of the house, we have continued our real tree tradition each year. One of our sons has gone with artificial in their home and the other chooses a real tree. This year, we almost pulled the trigger on an artificial tree for our family, but we just couldn't do it. One of the reasons we almost went artificial is because our tried and true Christmas tree farm (shown below) was asking everybody to make appointments, wear masks (even outside), etc. due to Covid. We have found a new tree farm to use this year. We're going TODAY, so we'll see how it goes at the new tree farm. As you can see by the date last year, we are over a week behind!!

This layout features pics from our 2018 tree hunting adventure. As you can see, it was a beautiful sunny day, but chilly. Almost everybody was able to join in the fun. Our daughter-in-love had to work. It's wonderful to have two big, burly, lumberjack sons to help us get the tree in the car!!

I used woodgrain paper with a Christmas star pattern banner across the bottom. The grid layout helps me fit a lot of pictures on the page. I matted the digitial size pics in a taupe color which sets them off on the white star paper. The embellishments are few with three plaid mini pennants (SU punch) on the left under the title and another larger one under the date on the upper right. The title was cut with my Cricut from design space and brings out the red and green accents in the photos. That's it! Super simple.

I know this year is playing out very differently than past years in so MANY ways, but we're all trying to make the best of it!! Hoping you and yours can carry on with your family traditions as much as possible.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Adventure - Two Page Maui Scrapbook Layout

 Time to share a sunny and fun layout! These pictures are from our first full day on Maui. We ventured out in the rental jeep to take in all of the sites as we drove up the west coast. We found extraordinary beauty at every bend in the road!!

The color of the water and the sky, the sun and the greenery...it's all amazing! You really need to go! I want to go back already. 

I love this tropical paper. I only had one sheet, so I cut off the floral border on the top and the bottom and used them both on each side at the top of my layout. I added a coordinating woodgrain with hints of light blue on the bottom. The title and leaves were cut with my Cricut and the mini flowers were punched with StampinUp punch and topped with a tiny pearl in the center.

We had such a blast exploring. It never got old! We went out wandering almost every day. 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. I hope that you are inspired in some way. Have a great week!... I should really be working on Christmas cards. 😊

Brithday - One Page Scrapbook Layout

 I'm working on doing a better job of showing up in some of the photos that I scrapbook. The bright side is I can just scrap the ones that I like. But if I never hand anybody else the camera, there won't be any documentation of my milestones in life. I'm grateful that my husband and family think about this. 

I recently celebrated yet another birthday, but this layout is from September, 2018. I'm thankful for every birthday the good Lord sends my way. I'm grateful for strength and overall health, and for a beautiful, loving family to celebrate with. 

Not sure why I didn't put a title on here, but it would definitely be "Older and Wiser". None of us are even close to perfect, but we are all on our way, and God hasn't given up on us, in spite of our daily missing the mark. 

I don't remember the paper that I used, but the vintage look and numbers are very fitting considering I'm kind of a vintage girl! I love owls, and like the way these two black owls set off my black shirt. I added a few mini flowers (SU punch), a tag with the date, washi tape, chevron arrow from my stash, and Cricut journaling.

 Hope this inspires you in some way!! Thanks for stopping by!

Honokowai Beach Park - Two Page Maui Layout

 This was our first night in Maui. We found this beach to watch the sunset! I'm sure there is not a bad place to watch a Maui sunset, but this was one of our favorites!!

It was a beautiful evening. We watched some local children playing in the surf and running along the beach. We just soaked up all the beauty and snapped some great pictures. 

I used plain card stock for the background (pretty unusual for me) and matted all the photos in white for definition. The pennants were scraps from my stash, as well as the journaling card. I cut it down quite a bit to make it fit and matted it on yet another scrap that matched the flowers punched with my SU 5 petal flower punch and layered with a smaller flower from another SU punch. I cut into the center of the smaller flowers and then topped with a small wood button.

It was such a memorable evening and so relaxing!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! Lots more Hawaii layouts to share!!

Sail Away - Two Page Hawaii Scrapbook Layout

This is my last day of working from home full time!!!😩 I really don't want to go back to the office yet. I've been so productive! But I'm psyching myself up to return next Tuesday. Right now I'm distracting myself from thinking about that with all things crafty.

Today, I have another Hawaii layout to share. These pictures were taken during our sunset dinner sail for our award winning agents.  The views from the water were amazing!! Unfortunately, the sea was a little rough!

The Wanderlust tag at the top was drawn with my Cricut with an image from Design Studio. I love how it turned out. Layering it with a few seafoamy green pennants really made it pop against the blue. I love the color combo. This chevron paper was in my stash and it was a fun way to highlight the picture of my husband and I. The StampinUp! Bitty Banner punch with a mini brad adds a little extra detail.

 Laying the pics in a grid with a white border helped me fit more pics on the page. I stretched the title across the top, and layered with a white sail boat and waves.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! Hope you have a fabulous Memorial Day weekend honoring all of those who gave their life in service to our great country!

Owl birthday cards

I've been making a lot of birthday cards lately, so I thought I would share a few! I'm not a huge fan of coloring in stamps, nor am I very good at it. However, I'm not too proud to share them anyway. Where are my owl fans?? Anybody?

 I made the purple card for a friend whose daughter was having a Quarantine birthday and was asking for cards to make it a special day. The pink one below is for my sweet 8 year old granddaughter! She asked me some questions and wanted to know how I made it. She's a crafty little one, and I can't wait until we can spend some quality time creating together.

As mentioned above, I'm really kind of bad (inexperienced) at coloring stamps. I used Stazon for the stamp outline and a blending pen with SU ink to color the owls. For some reason, the pink owl turned out a little splotchy in the middle, but it's okay. She loved it and that is the main thing. I did the purple one second and that one turned out a little better. I used some patterned paper scraps down the center of the card, cut out the owls and popped them up with adhesive foam, and added the sentiment banners below.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! Hope you enjoy your weekend!

Hippity Hop - Two Page Easter Scrapbook Layout

Happy Easter to all of you! What a glorious day of celebration! I missed our church family, but celebrated "in spirit" participating in the live stream service.

I have another Easter layout to share with you today! These pictures feature our grand babies with their Easter baskets in 2018.

 I was so giddy when I found the image of the chocolate bunny with a bite taken out of his ear! I had to use it on this page. Isn't it cute??

 These two are just the cutest! I can't believe how much they've grown and changed over the past two years. They are the sweetest! I think the paper choices, while bold, are a little more toned down than the previous post! The pink strip of paper across the middle helps to calm it down, along with the muted vintage floral paper along the bottom. I added real lace trim as an accent under the pictures. The StampinUp! mini flower punch and mini pink brads for the WIN. I scattered these across the page to highlight the pictures.

I may post a few more Easter pages this week, because I still have several I haven't shared.

I pray that your resurrection day is blessed beyond measure! Thanks for stopping by today.