Woah

Blue has never been what you would call a small guy. And he only looked like a baby for, oh, 2 weeks. So this picture, the one where he looks like he could just take off and walk, had to be scrapped. Because you know, he's only four months old in it. :)

Project Life Week 3

This week has been problems. For some reason, the pictures coming out of PSE are printing way too dark. But the ones from my cell phone are coming out fine. Even after brightening them up, something just isn't working.
And it's been raining since yesterday, so there has been no opportunity for a decent picture. So the photos are dark, and the picture of the spread is dark. And it's a little fuzzy.
And Blue got his 6 month shots yesterday, so he's a grouch.
And did I mention that it's raining? That's made me pretty blah too.

Anyhow. Here's my spread. This was my first time adding in something and I threw in the Valentine's card I had whipped up for family. I had a $20 gift card to Shutterfly that was about to expire so I made the poor kids sit in the back yard for a quick photo shoot. Turned out pretty well for a last minute thing.

Two for One

Since I am now doing two kid albums, there are a lot of pictures that overlap. My solution has been to use the same photo, in the same size, with the same basic layout for each kid. Even my patterned papers come from the same collection. It's just the colors and embellishments that change. Super simple.

Here are my two takes on the Sweet Feet layouts I did for both kids.

Both layouts are made from my stack of Crate Paper papers and embellishments. I threw in some flowers for Anna and some pink, of course, and walla! A girly layout.

And here is what I did with their Christmas pictures.

The same layout. The same collection of papers. The same splattered ink. I replaced the flowers with stars for Blue's layout and had to change the title because I didn't have enough letters. Once again, super simple and super fast. Of course, in real life, Blue's layout is all crooked. I don't know how I managed to make it look so wompejawed in the picture. :)

Sweet Feet

Blue was born with ginormous feet. Feet so big that the nurse had to turn them in an angle to fit the footprints on the birth certificate. So when I had the two kids sitting together and noticed that there isn't that much difference in the size of their feet, I had to take a picture. Sure her's are bigger. But there is 3.5 yrs difference in their ages. Seriously, his are huge.

I created this layout for Practical Scrapper's clean and simple showcase. I loved it so much that I created one that is basically the same for Anna's album. It's set to post tomorrow, so be sure to check it out.

Clusters

Yesterday's topic at Practical Scrappers was clustering on layouts. Because I'm a white space kind of gal, if I want embellishments on a layout, I cluster them around my photos or up in a corner.
My clusters usually consist of scraps of paper I have lying around, a few stickers, and maybe a chipboard element or two. This time around I punched some circles from scraps and glued those down too. The dots blend with my silver mist splatter pretty well.

Project Life Week 2

I know it's not much, but I'm super excited that I've completed two weeks. I have horrible commitment issues. :)
I'm still trying to figure out the best way to take pictures of the spreads. My camera has such a hard time getting a sharp image when things are in the protectors. If you have any tips or tricks, let me know, please.

 The plan is to take a family picture on the 12th of each month. We forgot about it until the very last minute this month. Anna had just gotten out of the bath, which is why she's all wet and soggy. She also decided that it is her job to pose us. We'll see how that turns out throughout the months.
I also included a small version of the missing poster we put up for our dog. We've had a couple of sitings, but no one has been able to catch her - even the dog catcher.

I added in some smaller pictures this week. I like the looks of it.

Today

We are hoping that someone at the animal shelter will be nice and pick up the phone, even though it's a holiday. We got a tip about Midge on Sunday and tracked her whereabouts down to a place we never even thought about looking. And people in that store say they saw animal control trying to pick her up. So hopefully they did and hopefully she's there. But I'm still questioning why her picture hasn't been put up on their website.

I'm working on Project Life so I can post Week 2 on Wednesday.

I'm brightening up a few pictures from the park. Blue is the only one who got to go because Anna was in a mood. I'm still working on getting my focus just perfect with my new lens. Swinging babies are hard to shoot!

Project Life Week 1

I've completed week 1 of Project Life and I'm happy. Already there are things I plan to change - more journaling - but I'm guessing that I'll constantly find things that I want to do differently for quite a while. One big thing is figuring out how to best photograph these pages. The glare on a page protector is hideous! And it's making my picture fuzzy. Any hints?


My title page. I wanted something pretty plain, with just a touch of color. The empty spots are being reserved for favorite pictures throughout the year. Can you tell I really love Paislee Press's printable journaling cards?

Week 1. I'm just getting into the swing of things, so I'm giving myself a break about not doing much journaling. But I captured the biggest stories of the week, and that's all that matters.

My plan is to post the weekly layout each Wednesday. And barring anymore disasters at home, there will be more in depth pictures and explanations. Keep checking back for more!

Midge

Project Life Week 1 was supposed to go up on the blog today, but I've had a bit of a distraction. Monday morning a big storm rolled in and for the first time in 8 years, our dog became scared of the thunder. She usually sleeps in the garage with the side door open so she can come and go as she pleases, but for some reason, instead of going back to her bed in the garage, she dug under the fence and took off running. We haven't seen her since. So yesterday was spent calling vets, posting things on the web, and putting up signs all over the neighborhood. Anna is convinced that Midge is coming back. I hope she's right.

Looking UP

I own probably 10 colors of mist. I don't ever actually mist with them. I do however, create lots of cute paint splatters. :)

And yes, that is a "Z" turned sideways to make an "N." Pretty ingenious solution, if I do say so myself.

Layout Contest!

Practical Scrappers is having a layout contest! Here's all the details!

 

Last fall we hosted a massively successful card contest and now it is time to do the same but with a layout contest!  To get entered you don't even have to create something new!  All the details on that are below but first let's talk about prizes. We have over $100 worth of prizes lined up - look at this lineup of sponsors!  

Momenta

Creative Charms

The Paper Bakery

The Robin's Nest

The Sampler

Scrappin' Sports 

Boys Rule Kit Club

We will have all the details of the prizes finalized next week when we kick off the first round...but for now you know that you are getting a shot at some amazing Scrapping Prizes!

Here's the details: 

1) Each week we will narrow down the field thru audience voting, voting from the Practical Scrappers design team, or voting from the Administrative team.

2) The contest will have 6 rounds:  Those we have chosen for Round 1 will be announced on Saturday, January 14th and each continuing round will be announced on the following Saturday.

3) International entries are welcome, but we reserve the right to modify the prizes according to our sponsors needs should an international participant win.

4) To enter the contest mail us a picture of your favorite layout that you have created in the last two months to practicalscrapperslayouts@gmail.com - you must also include your name, blog address (if applicable), and state or country of residence.  We must receive an email with all three of these by midnight CST on Friday, January 13th!

Ready - Set - Go!

Shiny

I was really pleased with how our Christmas card photos turned out. Nothing like a sheet and a string of Christmas lights to set the mood. :)

I made two layouts that are almost exactly alike for each of the kids' albums. Blue got stars instead of flowers, just to man it up a little.

I'm trucking along with Project Life and super excited to get my first week completed this weekend!

Happiness Hop

Welcome back to the Happiness Hop. You should have gotten here from MahsliceofLife, but if not, no worries. I've posted the full list of participants at the end.

This month's theme is a boot camp of sorts. It's where we implement all of our happiness goals into one month. It seems pretty fitting considering that this is the beginning of a new year. A new time to choose to be happy. It's a time to reflect on the things of the past year that made us truly happy and to stick with those. And it's a time to weed out the things that aren't helping us live up to our full potential of happiness. So good luck to everyone in finding your happiness for the new year!

I don't have a layout to share, or even a pearl of wisdom.

But I do have a picture that you can't help but smile at. :)

Next up in the hop is KimberlyKalil!


Full list of participants:
http://kissandtellscrapbooking.typepad.com/

http://blog.mshanhun.com/

http://scrapsandsass.blogspot.com

http://www.scrapworthylives.com

http://mahsliceoflife.blogspot.com

www.MichelleRoycroft.blogspot.com

http://www.kimberlykalil.com/

http://www.yourmemoryconnection.com/