Half Moon Bay

Here's just a simple page for today. I am working my way to finishing 2009 (even though I've done bits of 2010 already since I decided that chronological just wasn't working for me anymore) right now. This was our trip to Half Moon Bay for the first time. It's only 30 minutes away from our house so that means so is the coast, but it took us until November of that year to finally go. We've since been there another time for a yummy seafood dinner when my mom came to visit.

Here's the sketch:

I followed a PageMaps sketch that I found in my great search of some challenges to do. This one wasn't attached to a challenge but I thought the photos fit too well not to try it out. Plus, it's just a fun little sketch! I have decided that I'm not one for big embellishments, but I did incorporate a little raffia ribbon along the bottom. And because I don't have the notebook paper border punch, I just used some paper that was around (ah, yes, being a student has helped in scrapbooking!). I distressed it with some Antique Linen distress ink as well.

Well, that's all for now. Thanks for stopping by!

Las Vegas Girls' Weekend

Here's a fun two-page layout that I just finished. The subject of this particular layout is my Girls' Weekend with my besties last August. These girls were my bridesmaids in my wedding and this August weekend was our next time all together.

For this layout I just let things flow after deciding to loosely base it off a PageMaps sketch by Becky Fleck I had from the sketch book I got for Christmas. (Thanks Deb!) It is a loose interpretation of the sketch but basically has elements like the strip of photos along the bottom, the vertical element cutting into the strip and a bigger image cutting over the two pages. The sketch had a line of like 4 bigger photos along the bottom and just one bigger photo. Since there were just too many photos I liked from our trip, I changed it into more like a filmstrip. :)

I also used my new Grand Calibur for the cutting with my new nestabilities. (Guess this page just likes to incorporate new Christmas presents! These were from my mom.) And finally the fun swirly paper was from Alicia herself. I got the fun paper for my last birthday...lol! My good, old Silhouette was used the title. It needed some love.

Now to figure out where our next Girls' Weekend should be.... I guess it can be about anywhere, except Springfield, Illinois. We've already done that one! HAHA!

Hannah's First Bath

As promised (although I do admit, a little later than I had hoped), here's another post! And I'm also showing off one of my new layouts I finished this week. This one is about Hannah's first bath adventures. I've had the Walgreens collage print of these photos for quite some time so it was due that I finally get them scrapped. I like to get many Walgreens collage prints when they are on sale. It makes the prints all the more worthwhile to just let them do the printing than making them at home. Although I should make some sort of template sometime...I do have the 8x10 paper already.

But anyway, here's my layout. I even did not go off a sketch for this one. This one is just my own doing. I pulled out my sewing machine for around all the main rectangle and on the strip of solid. And while I wasn't trying to necessarily match to any particular embellishments in my stash, the page just needed the Splishin' and a Splashin' sticker for the final touch. :)

Hannah wasn't too bad a sport about this whole bath thing the first half of the procedure. It was more the drying off that she didn't like because she doesn't like hair dryers or towels and she was cold. The final picture on the bottom is of her huddled on the Apple TV for warmth. We occasionally found her on it even when she wasn't wet because she liked how it was a warm spot in the house. We've since upgraded to the new, smaller Apple TV and I think she misses her warm spot. Luckily for her, the old one is now in use again as my music streaming device for the new speakers DH got me for Christmas. And of course, Ms. Hannah found it the other day. I have a feeling we'll be finding her curled up on it when I'm in my room scrapping in the near future.

And just for a bit more fun to finish off this Hannah-themed post, here's the spoiled princess playing her iPad game. Yes, there's a Game for Cats game on the App Store! She loves it!

Later!

Catching up...

Yay! An update on this poor, neglected craft blog of mine! If you are finding this page, thank you for sticking with me even though my updates have been few and far between. Life got in the way mostly, as it usually does. Juggling master's classes and an internship during the semester took its toll on our house (we just finally got that cleaned up this weekend) and my time for craft projects.

The semester turned out well though, even with all of what was going on. But I'm enjoying my off days from my internship, that is still going, to be able to just have some "me" time. That will hopefully include some craft projects and catching up with what I've missed in the paper crafting world.

But if you're here, you probably want to see something crafty, so here's some late, but at least now shared craft projects I was up to in the meantime.

First was a birthday and anniversary calendar I made for my grandfather. I compiled pictures of everyone in my family and used the Michael's $1 spot cardboard mini-album sheets as my base. Distressed a little around the edges and used some fun Thickers on the different pages. It was a present that I got to present in front of my extended family at our usual Christmas Eve get-together. I think he enjoyed it and I hope he's getting some good use out of it. My plan next is to make one for DH and I with family and friends in it.

And I did get handmade Christmas cards out to everyone! Go me! They were quick and simple but I was happy to have found a way to still make homemade cards and get them out (almost) in time for Christmas. I think some were more on time than others. Of course, being quick and simple meant that they weren't using a lot of my supplies that I had gathered specifically for the occasion, but I guess there's always next year! Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of my cards though. Once they were made they instantly went into the mail. :)

And just cause....here are some Christmas pictures. (Guess this is my belated Christmas post)

I'll be back hopefully soon with a new project that I plan on working on today.

Thanks for stopping by!

Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #21

So this card came to thought at 3am this morning. I was thinking this was what I wanted to do for the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #21, but it wasn't until 3am that I really figured out how to do it. I was tempted to just get up right then and tackle the project, but I knew sleep was slightly more important then.

This is a card for a family member who recently had a birthday (yes, it's slightly late). But, hopefully its coolness factor will counter the lateness. Here's the sketch I followed:

And here's my take. I used Half Pint Heroes for this card, putting a little head that kinda looks like the recipient into the rocket ship. Then to make good use of that pocket I decided to have it take off! :) The sentiments are also from the same stamp set, although I had to get a little creative and use bits and pieces to make my "blast off!" one. Claire..."blast off" is missing! LOL!

And by the way, that grass is handmade...I might need to invest in some Martha Stewart fringe scissors! And my husband is already making a request for a card like this too...hee hee!

I hope you enjoyed your visit. And now to get this card in the mail!

Other challenges:

Cards for Men - Anything Goes

Tag! You're It! Post 2

So while the first tag had four Waltzingmouse Stamps sets used in its creation, this one only has one. And it's fairly simple too. This one doesn't even include paper. While I was finishing up the first I saw one of these glittery snowflakes I picked up at Target last year. I don't remember what I was going to do with these, but I have them, so there you go. I thought that maybe just attaching a sentiment on transparency might be a quick and easy way for some tags...since I did have fun with this challenge, I might try doing some more of my own tag making!

I went with a different sentiment from Compliments of the Season and stamped it on a transparency. I then embossed in silver ever so carefully. I then cut it out and attached with vellum adhesive. Using some of that darn ribbon I needed to get for tag one I attached this one to a bag all prettily. Cute huh?

Here's a close up too...

Be sure to check out the challenge over on Claire's Blog. There's still some time to enter!

Thanks for stopping by!

Tag! You're It! Post 1

Hello there! I was able to finish up a tag for Claire's Tag! You're It! contest going on right now. Claire and the Waltzingmouse Stamps design team want to see beautiful Christmas tags for the chance at winning an awesome prize. I thought it would be fun to participate and try something new. (I've never made my own tags before)

So here's my first tag (I have another up my sleeve to post too). This one uses 4, yes 4!, Waltzingmouse Stamp sets. I'm quite impressed with that feat. I wanted to try out my new Label 14, Compliments of the Season, and Text It stamps, but then I thought it was missing something so added in a tag shoulder from Labels 1. I went with a kraft, Broken China distress ink, and silver color scheme.

I got the tag part done fairly easily on the weekend, but it took finding just the right ribbon on a side trip to Michaels to finish it up. I then tried out some ribbon combinations on both ends of the tag, but eventually went with these fun snowflake brads. Aren't they fun?

Be sure to check out the challenge over on Claire's blog. There's plenty of time yet to play! Good luck!