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!!

Two Page Scrapbook Layout - "Family"

Here's a layout of one of our many visits with my Mom before she passed. My son, daughter-in-love and grandkids were able to make the trip as well.

 My grand daughter picked a dandelion for me, so I put it behind my ear and we posed for a picture together. I always look better when she's in the pic. She's just the best and my heart overflows just thinking of the blessings of being called Grandma.

 My brother and I are posing with my mom in the top picture. This was a few years back, so she didn't look terrible here, but she'd definitely started her decline. She suffered from Parkinson's until last October. I still cry when I see pictures or when I think of the wonderful Mom she was to us!

It was a special time with my Mom, and I'm so thankful for every visit that we had with her! 

Two Page Scrapbook Layout - Family

I'm on a roll posting layouts this week! Here's an older layout with pictures from a family wedding back in April, 2015.

 My brother and I (and our spouses) took my Mom to my cousin's daughter's wedding. The destination is about an hour and a half north. My Mom was in mid to late stage Parkinsons and the thought of taking her that far was daunting to all of us. But we did it, without too much trouble. I think she enjoyed herself, although she had trouble smiling and expressing her emotions.

 This is probably one of our last "big" outings with her. She passed away last October. I miss her so much! Looking back at these pictures brings back mostly good memories of a day well spent with her and extended family.

I know it seems odd that I don't have a pic of the bride and groom, probably because I don't really know the actual bride that well. But, it was so great to see our cousins on this side of the family!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! We'll see how long my posting streak continues.

Two Page Scrapbook Layout - "Imagine"

I'm squeezing in a few more fall layouts before we're fully into the Christmas season.

 These beautiful photographs are from a fall photo shoot in 2014. It's taken me a while to get these posted!! What a gorgeous little family! They mean the world to me! This is my son, daughter-in-love, and our two beautiful grandchildren.

 I love these beautiful paper and journaling tag from My Minds Eye "Indie Chic". What beautiful way to show off my sweet family. The title is cut from Circut's "Graphically Speaking". I used the SU washi and 5 petal flower punch topped with a brad above the journaling tag.

 As families, things are never perfect, but we never give up and we love each other unconditionally. We are truly blessed beyond measure.

Thanks for stopping by my little blog today!

Two Page Scrapbook Layout - "Priceless"

Fun with the grandbabies! I used to do this with my sons, so it was fun to pull a chair up to the sink and let the grandkids enjoy splashing around.

 Any one-on-one time with these two cuties is a precious time of making memories. I wish I had more memories of times like this with my own grandparents back in the day.

 I'm not sure what the discussion was with PawPaw here, but I know it must have been precious. What a joy to watch my dear husband first become a wonderful Daddy, and now a precious PawPaw to these two!

I didn't make any notes on this layout about the materials I used, but I remember crumpling up the red side banners before attaching them just to give it a little more texture. I used my SU punch for the mini flowers and then layered them up with mini brads. The journaling tag was cut with Art Philosophy and the title (Priceless) is from Graphically Speaking.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Two Page Scrapbook Layout - "My Sunshine"

Here's a girlie layout of my favorite little Sunshine. She brings so much joy to our family.

 Those eyes...that smile! Could she be anymore adorable?

The paper is from StampinUp and Simple Stories. The pretty pink ball fringe ribbon is American Crafts. The chipboard pieces are from Studio G. The banner, branches, and journaling tags were cut with Cricut's Art Philosophy. The double 5 point flower and the little bitty flowers were created with StampinUp punches.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. Have a lovely and productive week!

Two Page Scrapbook Layout - "Priceless"

I'm taking a little break from the California Dreamin layouts to show off our adorable grandbabies. :) These two are too much fun! They keep us young! We love them so much.

 We are so grateful to be near both of our kids and our grandkids! What a blessing to be part of their every day lives. These photos were taken during one of the many times where we watched them for awhile to give their Mom and Dad a well deserved date night. Not sure how we got started with playing in the kitchen sink water, but that was great fun! I remember my youngest loving to do this too.

Sawyer was getting into the action too, splashing around like his sister.

 What great memories from that day. We tried out the tricycle and took a walk around the block with the wagon. It was only March, so it was still a little chilly.

I didn't write down the supplies, but I know the red chevron is washi tape and the cute little flowers are punched with SU triple flower punch. The red banner strip was folded by hand in a random fashion to give it some extra texture. The journaling tag is Art Philosophy and the title die cut is Graphically Speaking (priceless).

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. The next post will be our first stop on the Pacific Coat Hwy (Big Sur) at Carmel by the Sea. See you soon!

Two Page Layout - "Downtown"

Holland, MI is one of our new faves on the coast of Lake Michigan! It has a little something for everybody. My husband joined me while I was there a few years back for educational credits.

 We especially love the beautiful downtown area with the great restaurants, coffee, and local color.

The pretty patterned paper is Creative Memories. The flowers are punched with the StampinUp! five petal flower punch and topped with a brad. The leaves were also cut with the same punch, and then cut apart. Haha...sometimes I'm just lazy like that. The title is Cricut's Art Philosophy.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!! See you again soon.

Two Page Scrapbook Layout - "So Fancy"

Happy Saturday!

Who doesn't love a great wedding. Here's a layout of a family member's wedding. It's such a great photo op when we're all dressed up and in the same place at the same time! :)

 Look at the beautiful humans that I love!

 The polka dot is actually gold foil. I used vellum and gold layers for the flower (SU 5 petal flower punch).

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!!

Two Page Layout - Count Your Blessings and

Hello! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! How is it even December, anyway? The last few months have completely slipped away from me.

Last year, our immediate family celebrated Thanksgiving at our house. We all have so much to be thankful for. Some years are definitely tougher than others. I lost my Dad last year and it was my first Thanksgiving without him, but I try to remind myself that there are so many who would be ecstatic to have anything close to what I would call a tough year. We have a beautiful, loving family and not only do we get along, but we have fun together! I love them all so much!

Here's my layout from Thanksgiving 2014.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! Stay warm!

Two Page Layout - "Best of 2013"

My thoughtful daughter-in-law gave me an envelope with some great pictures of various events that had happened throughout the year. Many of these pictures I hadn't scrapbooked yet. So, I did a Best of 2013, kind of a year in review page.

I'm somewhat ashamed that this is now 2 years old! However, to my credit, I keep plugging away and posting things as I have time. I'd like to post more often, but since I work full time, my blogging time is limited. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

 The bottom right picture is extra special to me now as my Dad is pictured in the bottom right photo (above). It would have been taken spring of 2013. He had Alzhiemers and was starting to look pretty frail and having issues with falling at that time. The disease took his life in August, 2014. I sure do miss him!!

My sweet Mom is pretty lonely without him. She has Parkinson's and her mobility gets harder every day. It's so hard to watch, especially living 3 hours away. God is definitely in control, and I know I will see my Dad again some day. Hopefully we have many more smiles, laughter, and memories with my Mom. She is such a special lady. She adores her great granddaughter!!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! Have a great day!

Two Page Scrapbook Layout - "The Many Faces..."

This little doll face is my grandbaby! She (and her new little brother) is the sunshine in my life! Check out these faces...

 I just love all of her expressions. The scalloped circle tags above each picture describe what I think her expression is saying. She is a year older now and has a lot more hair and even more personality.

My Minds Eye "Sweetest Thing" is so appropriate for our little darling, in addition to Basic Grey "Lemonade". The green flower is made from washi tape. It sticks up a little bit higher than I'd like, so this may have been a one-time experiment. I also used a little heart stick pin and fringed up half of a journaling tag. The title is cut with Cricut's Lyrical Letters. The SU 5 point flower punch is my go to embellishment for little girl pages. I used 2 layers and the bitty scalloped circle punch for the center of each flower.

Thanks for stopping by today. Enjoy your week!

Double Scrapbook Layout - " Life's Moments"

Happy New Year!! Here's hoping that your 2014 will be filled with more joy than sadness, and more blessings than your heart can hold. We're expecting our second grandbaby in April, and can hardly wait to meet this bouncing baby boy. It's so exciting that we will have another generation to carry on our family name. We're also thrilled for our son and daughter-in-law to be blessed with both a girl and a boy in their family. We had great fun raising two boys, and I always wondered what it would have been like to have a girl. Having a granddaughter to fuss over and spoil has been such a treat for us!

Have you started working on any of your Christmas photos yet? I'm hoping to start working on mine this weekend. Maybe this layout from Christmas 2012 will inspire you in some way. I am honestly not a huge fan of scrapbooking Christmas photos. They tend to look similar year after year. But, last year I actually completed several festive layouts, and was happy with each of them. I find that it's more appealing now that our family is growing and changing again each year with grandbabies and grandnephews. =)

 These pictures were taken with my hubby's side of the family in Michigan. Mark's nephew and niece-in-law have a toddler, and our granddaughter was about 8 months old at that time. Oh what fun!!! I adore the picture of my granddaughter (bottom right) as she spots her face in the mirror on the toy! She couldn't stop squealing and smiling at herself! The patterned papers are Basic Grey's Aspen Frost. The "moments" part of the title is cut with Cricut's Graphically Speaking cartridge. This is my "go to" cartridge when I can't think of a creative title. The word "LIFE'S" was cut with Nate's ABC's cartridge.

The Stampin Up five petal flower punch makes a cute, quick Christmas flower, especially with two layers of red cardstock. The red ribbon is from Michael's. The snowflake border sticker (Aspen Frost) was sliced in half lengthwise for twice the yardage. The decorative label punch comes in handy for journaling.

 What do you think of my tree? This was cut with Art Philosophy. The swirls are cut into the top layer, so the bottom layer shows through. The swirls were to cute to waste so I cut it into pieces and layered them under the punched flowers. I distressed the top layer with ink and used multi-colored pearls from Me & My Big Ideas, then topped it with a snowflake sticker.

I am a huge fan of using wallet prints on my pages! They help to add some variety to a collage. You can even cut them into squares. There are 11 pictures on this layout!!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. I'm super excited to be scrapping Friday and Saturday! It's been a few months since the last time. Hopefully it won't take me too long to get back in the groove!!

Have a productive and fun weekend!!

Fall cards: Trees, Flower, & Owl

Time sure has flown since my last post. Life is so good, and very busy! Unfortunately, not much time for craftiness lately.

Purchased the above tree trunk stamp at my BSBFF's garage sale. WIN! Love the way this turned out. Could be used in so many different ways for all of the different seasons. Simple recipe: Stamp 3 different fall colors with a grungy splotch stamp; stamp tree trunks in foreground; dab on clear crackle distressing medium (Tim Holtz) for texture; dry with heat gun.

I made this one awhile back, but never posted. Used one of my favorite new dry embossing folders for the background texture. The stamp, punches, and decorative brad are all SU products. I like all of the layers, and the partial bracket punch in matching cardstock for the sentiment.

This one is actually a baby card, but would also be great for fall. Whooooo doesn't love owls?? The owl and branch are from Hoot n Holler cartridge.

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a fantastic fall weekend. I'm heading to BSU to enjoy a possibly rainy football game with my family.