getting into the groove

Chatterbox paper, with the flowers fussy cut from one of the sheets. Busted out one of my SU! butterfly stamps and coordinating punch. I notice that since discovering Allison Davis, I do a lot more "AD style" paper strips and grouping photos around the middle.

For being line coordinates, these stickers sure don't look like they go with this paper.

Mama's Day 2010 at Rainforest Cafe. Thought the Karen Foster paper and Jolees elephants went well together.

Found these 2 "ABC's of You" Die Cuts and decided to just star playing with paper. The frame is 2 MME frames layered together.
I really love this line from Crate Paper. I think I might have to do a printers tray or something so I can see it all the time.

100 projects total: 19

100 projects, round 2

I figured maybe I should do my layouts for 4th of July last year before I get this years's printed. One of the bad things about scrapping 8.5x11 is that you have to cut down the cool edged paper.

Rick the BBQ king. I probably should have waited and retook the picture, since it was after pressure washing the house, but before painting, so if you actually look at the pic, you can see all the chips in the brick, which is kind of distracting.

Tore the sun and the "grass" from paper scraps. Love being able to use them up like that.

An older pic of Brandon, from when he was about 7 or 8, decked out as a super hero.

The green frame isn't as disctracting in real life.

A quick, simple one. Mounted the pics on cardstock and then slipped them into library pockets. Used the new AE stamps, which I love and have begun collecting :)

Some old pics from when the boys were 4 and 5. We used to stop at the Target snack counter before doing our shopping. Just tells the story of our little tradition.

Wasn't sure I was going to like the letter stamps on here, but had to stamp and cut them all out to check. Even if I wouldn't have liked them, I probably would have considered leaving them. :) This layout reminded me how much I hate overly glittered paper. Can't tell you how much adhesive I had to use to get everything to stick.

Layout total: 11

Jacob's birthday cake

Originally, I had planned to do a carousel cake for Jacob, but Michaels was out of primary color fondant and I'm not enough of a fan of fondant to buy white and die it a bunch of different colors. When I saw the Candyland cake in a magazine last month, I thought it would make a cute cake and put it in my "do this" file. So, instead of the carousel cake, I had the Target bakery put together a couple small sections of white and chocolate cake and frosting a plain white base for me. At home, it was a matter of keeping Jacob away from the cake long enough to put it together (which, judging from the finger mark down on the bottom, I failed at). The squares are Starburst (there are supposed to be blue squares, too, but I was only willing to track down two differerent kinds), the trees are dum dum suckers, the chocolate trees are mini Reese's peanut butter cups with chocolate frosting piped on, and the candy castle is cut down ice cream cones with regular frosting piped on, sprinkles and red Dots. I was disappointed about not finding candy canes and a few other things, until I got home, looked at the directions, and realized that the cake in the picture was a full sheet cake that served 30-40. My puny 1/4 sheet cake didn't have nearly enough room to put everything on there anyway. Jacob enjoyed it, so I'm counting it as a win.

a few more

A re-do of an older layout.
Brandon's birthday from last year. I think it's a little busy, but that kind of fit with a chaotic birthday party at LazerZone. Based on a Becky Higgins sketch
My super cuties. BG Oliver paper.
I fell in love with this scalloped paper as soon as I saw it at Archivers, but struggled with how to cut it down. Originally, I cut it down for the left hand side, and was going to use a patterned paper for the right hand side, but figured out a way to piece the leftover edges to make it span two pages.
BoBunny paper, MME title, and MM felt ants.
Got to use a little of my Doodlebug farm paper and stickers. :)
So easy and quick, but one of my favorites. The pics were so colorful that I didn't want to detract from them, so just used some Doodlebug border stickers and letter stickers for the title.
BG papers and stickers. After I got the photos down, realized I forgot the piece of orange paper over on the right hand side, hence the orange sticker to help balance things out.
Sassafrass paper. Not sure it really works, but I like it.
For as much as I love BG, I sure do struggle with using some of their patterns.

More of the Cosmo Cricket Cogsmo paper. Jacob with his ever present towel cape.

I love the DCWV winter pad I found at Michaels, and hemmed and hawed about getting it, because really, we live in Texas. Not much use for snowy, sweater-y type paper. Obviously, I didn't resist too hard.
LYB frame overlay and an old, old Pressed Petals tin title.

Spring layouts

Quick and simple, but one of my favorites. I've since added the journaling.
I like the layout of the photos, but the title is kind of boring.
Ah, Basic Grey Granola. Finally figuring out what to do with it.
The pic that ended up going in our Christmas card.
alphas and photo mat from the Target $ spot. Becky Higgins sketch.
Paper Studio pirate page kit. Quick and simple.
Really loved this Jillibean paper, and thought the MS owl went with it perfectly.
Old Karen Foster paper
Not real fond of this one.Slowly going through the Cosmo Cricket Cogsmo line. I tend to use it more for the distressed solids than the patterns, though.

First real attempt at a large circle accent. Not sure if I rocked it or failed. I like the layout, though.