Breakfast - Two Page Scrapbook Layout

 Do you scrapbook your food? Food photos are a big thing for some, but not really for me. Unless it is a fun and memorable experience that I want to document!

On our way home from "Up North" we stopped at this wonderful restaurant for breakfast. I loved the yummy traditional breakfast food (including crispy bacon), yummy lattes, and the fun vintage decor.

To fit with the vintage vibe, I used some Ombre geometric paper for the background. So fun! I can't think of a better use for this last bit of paper from Glitz "Finley".  The button is cut like a prism and I'm sure it's going to stick out in my album, but worth it! The little mini alpha stamps are an easy way to add the name of the restaurant as a subtitle - Anna's House, Holland, MI

I love all the little knick knacks on the shelves. No, I wouldn't want them in my own house, but the decor made this place special and memorable. It was a wonderful blend of new and old. Look at "Flo" on the ladies room door. She's perfect!

The Scotch washi tape seems to tie it all together well. I especially like the title and coffee cup cut with images from Design Space. I used my Cricut to journal since I had a rather small space and wanted it to be legible. 😀

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. Hope your week is off to a good start!

Pirate Golf - Two Page Scrapbook Layout

 It's been awhile since I've posted. I was struggling with a health issue and then away on a work trip in Colorado...more future scrapbook material!! Back at the blogging today! 

This is a fun layout of our sibling getaway weekend from a few years back. We are so blessed that our family gets along, and actually enjoys each other's company! I know it's not like that for everybody. On this day, we were playing some competitive miniature golf. Well, I'm not very competitive at this game, but everybody else is way better at it than I am. 

I love the "realistic" looking and grungy cloud paper as a backdrop to our outdoor fun. The outside paper strips came from the same paper stack, so of course, match perfectly. I cut the title and hat with my Cricut. The hat was a fairly close match to our statue friend's hat. I slightly overlapped the title with the hat to give it a layered and whimsical look.

I think my favorite part, aside from the pictures of our beloved family, is how the red and black pennants set off the colors of the page and ground the layout.

I also used a patterned paper to add a narrow matt around each picture. Wallet size photos help me tell the story with even more pictures, because there is never enough room. The journal tag adds to the graphic look with the black and white stripes.

Hope you enjoy your Independence Day!! May God continue to bless America, the land of the free because of the brave!

Bubba Gump - Two Page Scrapbook Layout

 I'm winding down to the last three Maui layouts from our 2019 trip. It's been so fun reliving this fantastic getaway!! Food is a small, but yummy, part of our memories. Do you ever scrapbook your dining experiences? 

Bubba Gump is one of our favorites. I don't really like much seafood, but we do love their food and the atmosphere. Add that to the edge of the ocean and it just doesn't get much better! 

A scrappy friend of mind downloaded their logo and printed it for me and I used several layers, popping up the little shrimp. I cut a few circles of some scrap paper to make him pop more off the white page.

It was a windy day and the sea was a little rough, but so fun to watch all the action from our dinner table. I used some additional scrap cut into pennants for below the logo and layered up the same patterns around the center, overlapping both pages. The red cardstock matting really set it off on the woodgrain paper.

The upper right picture (above) shows the restaurant from just down the shoreline. Isn't it cute??? The bottom right picture (above) tells another sideline story to our experience. While we were all sitting there eating dinner, a HUGE wave came and slammed up against the side of the restaurant, and a bunch of water came right in through the window onto the couple who had been sitting there. Their food and drinks were full of sea water! I felt bad for them, but they'll always remember their dinner at Bubba Gumps. I'm glad we weren't any closer to the window at that point. We definitely got some of the splash, though.

Hope you are feeling inspired today!! Have a great rest of the week. 

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!

Father, Husband, Protector, Hero - Two Page Scrapbook Page

Happy Father's Day to my favorite fathers. My Dad has been gone for a few years, but I still miss him every year. He will forever be my loving protector and provider! So thankful that I can honor my loving Husband and Son on this special day!! Where would the world be without Fathers to lovingly guide and direct us? 

My Husband is faithful, loyal, true and loving to me and our entire family. He leads by example and will lovingly correct us when we're on the wrong track. He is my supporter, my encourager, and truly the wind beneath my wings. He makes the world a better place and I couldn't be more blessed to call him MINE!😍

 My oldest son is not only an amazing son, but he is also a wonderful Husband to his wife, and Father to our grands. If that is not enough, he is on the brink of graduating (with Honors) from the Police Academy. My son will be a hero/protector to the entire community!! We are chest-popping proud of him! It's a tough time to be a cop! He is faithful to his calling and stepping into harms way to make a difference in all of the violence and unrest.🙌

I adore these colors together, especially for this masculine layout. I cut the title with my Cricut and then used the negative as a stencil to place the letters on my page. The leaf outlines add just a little bit of texture. The hounds tooth navy decorative tape is one of my faves and perfect for this page. I just added a few banners in the corner for balance, and let my Cricut do the journaling for me.

Happy Father's Day to all of the hero/protectors in your life! Let's honor them today for impacting our life. If your Father has already passed on like mine, lets honor their memories today. Even if you didn't have a Dad around, or if he hurt you in some way, take heart! Our Heavenly Father is watching over us and ready to help you.

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you". Matthew 7:7 

"For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you." Isaiah 41:13

Sawyer turns 5! - Two Page Birthday Layout

Hooray! Today is our Grandson's 6th birthday! We are so excited to celebrate with him tonight, even though the celebration may not look like it has in the past. We will make sure he knows how amazing he is and how much we love him!! 😍😍😍

Here's another layout of his fifth birthday last year. I love the pennant paper and the perfect boy colors in this layout. 

 He's a very lucky little man to have so much family around to love on him! We had such a great time celebrating 5 years and all of the energy that comes with that. Our grands help us feel more young at heart and see things through their eyes. What a gift!

The paper is Photo Play's "Birthday Boy". I was so torn between which side of the paper to use? Do you ever feel like that? The other side had an aqua background with presents and cupcakes. I decided to go with this side because of the white background which allowed me to use the teal cloud paper.😍 I also used BoBuny's "Lemonade Stand" and "Mango/Luau Lime". I used my Cricut to cut the green scallops, scalloped circle and the title. I cut out their cute puppy (Archie) and propped him in the corner of the pictures, just because he's so handsome!

Thanks for stopping by today! I have lots more layouts lined up to share in April...a few more birthdays and Easter. And...I hope you are all super impressed that I'm less than a year behind on my scrap-booking. If I was completely current, I wouldn't have anything to work on, and I don't even want to know what that would be like. 😟

Stop back soon! In the meantime, stay at home and be safe. We'll get through this together.

Craft - One Page Scrapbook Layout

This little granddaughter of mine is something special!! She will be eight years old next month! Not sure how that happened so fast! She's very excited to spend time with me in my craft room. She's learning to use my Cricut and my iPad to find the images she is interested in. I love spending time with her, especially one on one!!

I don't love this picture of myself, but I LOVE that my hubby captured us crafting together and making memories. I hope she will always love to craft with me and spend time with her Grandma. 😍 She and her brother bring such joy, fun, and sometimes a little chaos to our little family! Being a Grandma is the best!!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!! Stay crafty and healthy!

P.S. I haven't forgotten about the last few layouts form my son's wedding. They're coming soon.

Let us Eat Cake - Two Page Wedding Layout

My son and daughter-in-love's wedding reception was unique in many ways. They served breakfast food, and even the desserts were breakfast foods.  It was all really good! After they fed each other, the wedding party served the desserts to all of their guests. They did this instead of a reception line.

 This floral paper was one of my faves to use in their album. It brought in the colors of their wedding so nicely. I just used little pieces of it as embellishments here and there to add a bit of color.

 I saved this lace-topped paper especially for this layout.😍 I added a plain Kraft banner across the top and few more pennants to mark the date. I'm sure we won't forget the date, but I try to add it anyway for future generations.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Hope these layouts inspire you in some way.

Two Page Scrapbook Layout - "Made in USA"

Did you all enjoy your Independence Day? There's always reason to celebrate living in a free country. We are blessed to be Americans!!

 I have no idea why the colors look so different on each of these pics. The center one that has more blue and white (less tan) is actually what it looks like. Sorry for the crazy vintage look of the other two pics. Not sure what I did.

 This layout is from our celebration in 2016!! Time sure flies, but how cute is my family?!?! I love them all so dearly! We're short a daughter-in-law in this picture. They were definitely dating then, but maybe she was out of town with her family or for some reason, just not pictured.

Does your family play cornhole?? It's one of our favorite outside games to do together. We now have a new, bigger yard to play in! Can't wait to take full advantage of that. :)

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!! Enjoy your week!!

Two Page Scrapbook Layout - "Easter Blessings"

I'm not sure how I've had this Easter layout for 4 whole years and not shared it until now! I try to post my layouts during the appropriate season of the year and apparently I forget to post at Easter time.

 Some of my most favorite people are in these photos, but for some reason I'm not a big fan of how the layout turned out. Of course, I had to share it anyway because of my cute little grand bunnies on the page!

 They're all spiffed up for church! Don't they look precious? The long piece along the bottom is folded randomly to give it some texture and depth. The banners in the top corners are from leftover scraps. I try to hang on to scraps that are at least 4 x 4 so that I can use them for things like this. It's amazing to find so many random pieces that work well together on a page.

We are blessed to have our two boys living so close to us. Both are within 15 minutes of our home! We all typically have dinner together every Sunday evening. Sometimes it's a little crazy and chaotic, but that's what family is sometimes and we love EVERY minute we have. You just never know when life can change drastically. We will all be together tomorrow (including my youngest and his wife) for Easter dinner. I just finished making our traditional Italian Crème Cake. I pretty much destroyed it, but it's amazing what a lot of yummy cream cheese frosting will do to patch a messy cake back together. :) I'm sure it will taste amazing and nobody will even know what a nightmare it was trying to get it out of the pan. Ugh!

If you celebrate Easter, I pray yours will be full of blessings, family, and sweet memories! I thank God for being my LIVING Savior. He is so good!

Two Page Scrapbook Layout - #toocool4school

Time to share another layout. These pictures are from a family visit to Ball State in February 2015.

 The paper is Close to My Heart and it was perfect for a school layout like this one.

 The wood circle stamps are some that I've had for awhile and they're the perfect size to cut with my 2" circle punch. I hadn't used my corner rounder in years, but I like the way it made my grid of pictures look, allowing a little extra white around the photos.

My son is now graduated, but we actually miss some of the fun things we were able to see him do on campus. Hahaha...we don't miss those tuition payments, though. :) We are so very proud of him.

What a gorgeous day. Why am I sitting here at the computer? Stop back soon!

Two page layout - "Mini Golf"

Who likes to paly mini golf or "putt putt" golf as we used to refer to it. I totally stink at this game, but it's always a good time with friends and family if I can set aside my competitive nature.

Last summer when we were in Traverse City, we stopped at our favorite course and had a little bit of fun. I should have saved the score card. Ha...I probably would have thought to save it, had I won? =)

 Our son was with us too, which always makes our time extra special! The paper is StampinUp. Have you ever tried using your "real dial size" feature on your Cricut so that your letters are exactly the same size? I used it here and it gives the title a more unique look. It also helps you fit all of your letters neatly into a certain space on your page.

 I'm just now noticing my cute shoes! My silly dog decided to use one as a chew toy shortly after this trip. =( I miss having these shoes to wear. I look at these pictures of myself and cringe a little bit. I've lost 45 pounds since then (actually, since June 2013).

I had fun with the banner going horizontally across the page. Add a length of ribbon and a few buttons and there you have it!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!! Our weather is beautiful. I think it's time to walk the dog. =)