Two Page layout - "Big House"

I'm not a huge fan of watching sports on TV, but I occasionally will watch college football. Even better when we get the opportunity to actually go to a game. Last year, we were lucky enough to get tickets to see University of Michigan in the "Big House". It's a whole different atmosphere when you are right there in the middle of all of the hype!

 It was a treat to have our boys there with us. The weather was great and the Wolverines actually won this game!! They've had a rough couple of seasons.

 The ruler canvas tape is from Little Yellow Bicycle and the title font is Cricut's Birthday Bash. The football was cut with Sport's Mania. The lovely ticket banner is from Recollections.

Goooo Blue!!! Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Double Scrapbook Layout - "Family Matters"

Wow...Summer is about gone and I don't feel ready for fall yet. Don't get me wrong, fall is my absolute favorite time of year, but the summer just got here!

I'm still thinking about sunshine, sunburns, and sand between my toes. Here's another layout from our St. Augustine family vacation to share. Maybe this will help summer time live on awhile longer.

 These are a few more shots of our family pictures on the beach. Some of Mark and I and the rest of this whole crazy, beautiful family that we started together so many years ago. Look how we've grown! My favorite part of this page, aside from the pictures, of course, are the little flowers punched from an old map.

 Just punch away at an old map with a scalloped circle punch, spritz them, wad then up, then unfold them and let them dry. A Stampin Up brad popped in the middle finishes them off.

I added some more of the "outtakes" with some flip flaps over the picture in the upper right hand corner. I attached the extra photo flaps to the outside of the protector, after I photographed the layout so, unfortunately, they aren't shown here.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! More sunshiny layouts from St. Augustine are yet to come.

Two Page Cruise Layout - "Sail Away"

Cruises are wonderful. This layout is from our 25th anniversary trip which was 3 years ago now. I'm ready for another! We had a wonderful relaxing time aboard the Royal Caribbean Jewel of the Seas.

I wanted to remember the exact cabin we were in so I took a picture of the number on the door and used my scalloped punch to make an embellishment out of it. I found the cute little star stick pins in my stash. The banners are both made from washi tape.

 The picture of the luggage lined up in the hallway always makes me a little sad since it represents the last evening on board.

Grid layouts like this work so well when you have a lot of random pictures. These pics are "true digital" size. They're a tiny bit under 6" (4 x 5.3 to be exact) which allows you to fit even more of them on a page.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. =)

Two Page Scrapbook Layout - "Fun and Games"

When my husband's family gets together for any extended length of time, we end up seated around the table playing games. We're a bit competitive, but mostly it's just about having fun together. Our favorite game to play with a big group is Mexican Trains. Every once in awhile we have to break out the rules to make sure nobody is bending them in their direction. =)

We played together during our Christmas celebration a few weeks ago, but last year, I actually took some pictures with a scrapbook layout in mind. Do you ever do that?

The domino paper is from Pickle Press. Our family is a colorful bunch...a little light blue and red cardstock run through the crimper and some black and white ribbon was just enough to bring out the color in the photos. The file tab was cut with the Art Philosophy cartridge. I used matching teal brads to attach it to the page.

 The title was cut with Cricut's "Nifty Fifties" cartridge. My hole punch came in handy for lots of pretty colored domino dots to scatter diagonally across the page.

I took a bunch of random shots during the game, then made everybody stop and pose while I took pictures of their hands, and the funky domino design. I even took a few of the additional items that we used for the extra trains. (There is never enough trains for each person when we all play.) If you look closely, you'll see my favorite...an eyeball from an old stuffed toy that my grandpuppy chewed up.

 The pop top and bitty stamp is from StampinUp. I ran it through the Cuttlebug to flatten and fold down the edges. I layered it onto a scalloped circle, and added a ticket stamped with the date (Close to My Heart stamp set, cut with Art Philosophy cartridge), and finished it off with a little bakers twine. I loved the journaling tag from Smash. I have no idea what my son is doing in this picture above...LOL! I sure do love my family!! We have the best time together.

I hope this inspires you to gather your family and play some games!! Oh, and don't forget to have your camera handy. Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

 

Double Layout - "All About Me"

Baby it's cold outside!!! I just checked and the local weather stations registers -14 degrees (actual) and -51degrees (wind chill)!!! These are record low temps for our area. I'm so thankful for my warm and cozy home. I hope you are all staying warm!! Turkey soup is cooking on the stove, and it's starting to smell really yummy in here.

Here's a girlie layout for you. Yes, it's another layout of our granddaughter! :) The pictures were taken last year at this time when we celebrating with our family in Michigan.

 She is such a blessing!!! Love that crooked smile. Precious! The paper is from Creative Imaginations, Echo Park "This & That", and Bazzill. The fabric adhesive strips across the page are Color Bok "Flea Market".

The title pieces came from a Jen Allison collection "The Sweetest Things". I love it when I find stuff in my stash that all goes together. That's the beauty of little girl collections.

Check out the smaller bottom left picture. My Mom knitted the sweetest little scarf for Scarlet. My Mom has Parkinson's, so this was definitely a labor of love for her one-and-only great-grandchild. I love how Scarlet is modeling it with her arms out! TaDaaaa! :)

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! Hope you are all staying warm and cozy.

Two double Layouts from Niagara Falls - "Breakfast with a View" and "Spoiled"

Two years ago my husband and I stopped at Niagara Falls on our way out to New York for a work trip. We hadn't been in years! I completed these layouts awhile ago, but they caught my eye today as I was going through my layouts trying to decide what to post.

If you've never been to Niagara Falls, I would highly recommend it. Our buffet breakfast was included with our room package. The breakfast was fabulous, but the view was truly amazing.

Thepaper is from Cloud 9 Design. Don't you love the shot of the waitress flipping out the fresh table cloth? We definitely caught her in the act. My hubby probably took the photo, because he's better at catching the action.

 The flower accents were a combination of stickers and some cut by hand from one of the paper designs in the stack. Some of the layers are popped out with dimensionals. The font is Cricut's "Lyrical Letters".

Here are some pictures of our spacious hotel room. I've never stayed in a room like this before. Quite impressive for the deal we got! Some people truly love camping, but I much prefer a beautiful hotel room. =) The burlap ribbon under the title adds a lot of texture to the page. The flowers are Prima with some brads from my stash. I cut the black swirls with my Cricut. The addition of black seemed to help pull it all together for me.

The patterned paper is Pink Paislee "Indigo Bleu" and the stripe from Cloud 9 Design. The wall of folding windows in the bathroom opened up to the bedroom area. We really wished we had more time to enjoy the room, but it was just our first stop on a long agenda.

 The journaling block was cut with Cricut's Art Philosophy cartridge and then stamped with the matching Close to My Heart frame.

 Here's a close-up shot of the burlap, flowers, and title work.

 

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a lovely week!

Two Cruise layouts - "Putt Putt" and "Bon Voyage"

We celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary almost three years ago now. Such amazing memories!! Every time I look at my scrapbook, I just want to escape with my hubby again.

I am officially finished scrapping all of the cruise pictures, but I still haven't shared them all...so here we go.

"Putt Putt": Have you ever played miniature golf on the top deck of a cruise ship? It was super windy that day, but gorgeous. It was a little tricky since we didn't have our "sea legs" yet.

 The colors really draw me in and they remind me of the beautiful view of sky and ocean we had from every hole on this course. This sketch is one I found online by Amy Alvis. The paper is Bazzill, Coredinations, and Heidi Swapp "No Limits". The cute green circle border at the top was made with a border punch from EK.

 All of the ribbon is from Making Memories.

I love this picture of my husband posing with the statue of the really giant woman! Too cute.

"Bon Voyage": You really can't scrapbook a cruise without using this title at least once. These pictures were taken our first evening on the ship. We knew we were off on a great adventure together. This was our first cruise, so everything was new and exciting from the curly paper on the straw to the live music on deck.

 The paper is Jen Wilson's "Breaking Free" and Moxie "Maiden Voyage". The title was cut with Cricut's Life is a Beach cartridge. I hope I get to use this again some day...soon!

 It's a little bit difficult to see the metal embellishments (Momenta), but they were a nice addition to the page. The journaling tag is from We R Memory Keepers "Great Escape".

 Here's a close up of the journaling.

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a fantastic weekend. I'm scrapping again! Anybody else??

Two Page Layout - "Squeaky Clean" and lively lantern redo

Summer is back for a few days. Hope you are enjoying your air conditioning like I am.

I spent the last few days photographing layouts, uploading, and editing. Wow! I have many layouts to share with you. It's been awhile since I posted a grandbaby layout. Here's a bath layout of our sweet Scarlet Rose. I'm probably not sharing her layouts in chronological order, but this one grabbed me today.

 All of the patterned paper is from a stack of Martha Stewart baby girl paper that I picked up for a song at Meijer. I keep reminding myself I need to use the baby paper as much as possible, because she's growing up so quickly.

 I cut big chunky letters and layered together little yellow ducks and dry embossed them both in the Cuddlebug for additional texture.

 This was probably the last time we bathed her in the kitchen sink. She is big enough to splash and play in the bathtub now. We are so blessed to have her. Little girls are so much fun!

Since we're having such a great summer day, I'll share a recent spray paint project. I had three matching neutral metal lanterns on my porch that were pretty boring.

 After cleaning out the old wax, I cleaned them up and sanded them a little bit on all of the painted surfaces, and wiped them down with a damp cloth....Spray painting is so much fun! These lanterns got a major rebirth in three eye-popping colors.

 The blue is actually more of a teal color. Not sure why it looks blue here. I love the little battery operated flickering candles...No more dirty old wax to scrape out.

 It all started with this clearance rug from Walmart. The porch looks so much livelier and we've been spending more time out there since we gave it an inexpensive facelift with accessories.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!!

Two Page layout - Comfy

It's been so long since I've scrapped! Okay, so maybe it's only been a month, but that seems way too long. Thankfully, I have a weekend retreat on my calendar for early March, and I can hardly wait!

Most of my recent scrapbooking attention is directed to our sweet grandbaby girl, Scarlet Rose!!! We have so many adorable pictures. It's so hard to pick and choose which pictures to scrap, because I love looking at them all.

She is almost 9 months old now, but this layout is older, when she was about 3-4 weeks old. So tiny and brand new! The picture credit goes to my youngest son who has a great eye for photography. I love the angles.

Our son's family lives about 15 minutes away and we are blessed to have them so close. We get together at least once a week for a family dinner at our house, but usually we are together more often than that. It's so amazing to watch this beautiful baby girl grow.

Of course, I used the Stampin Up 5 petal punch for the flowers. The tag was cut with my Cricut as well as the title from Graphically Speaking cartridge. The little birds and tree are adorable, aren't they? I cut those with my Cricut too, but I'm not sure which cartridge I used.

Thanks for stopping by my blog! Have a wonderful week!

My favorites of 2012

It's good to be blogging again after a few weeks away from posting. We had a wonderful Christmas with our sweet family. This was our first Christmas with Scarlet Rose and she added so much joy to our family gatherings. Now it's 2013....a brand new year to make the most of opportunites that come our way.

In keeping with last year, I will take a few minutes and review my favorite layouts and cards scrapped and posted in 2012. I'm hoping this will inspire others and me to keep up with scrapping and preserving all of the sweet memories and moments of our lives.

Top 10 of 2012 in order by date of post....Here we go!

1. Happy Birthday - Owl birthday card - I love the grunge and the owl with attitude.


2. "Riley" - I love the chipboard banner and his beautiful loving puppy dog eyes.


3. "Around Town" - I love all of the layered circles and circle banner with fake stitching.


4. Lake Michigan mini vacation - I love the beachy vibe, stamped sun rays, and the great pictures of my son.


5. Sunny Outlook - I love the colors, and the faces. =)


6. South Haven - Again, I love the colors along with the nautical banners and stamped journaling tags.


7. Happy Birthday flower card - I love all of the texture on this card.


8. Mrs. scarecrow easel card - I had so much fun making her!


9. All Our Love - I love the great family shots of our precious grandbaby and the twine-wrapped frame.


10. Owl birthday card with woodgrain - I love the wood-grain texture folder.


Hope you enjoyed this year in review as much as I have. One goal I have for 2013 is to post more often. May God bless you all richly in this new year. I appreciate each of you who follow my blog!! Thank you!! I am honored.