Keeping it Simple

I am going to admit that I have been in a scrapping funk for about the last 6 months.  In fact, I don't remember the last actual layout I did.  I LOVE making the Punky Sprout's mini albums and I think that is because I can start and finish a project in a day or two.  Sometimes I feel I'll never get "caught up" with my layouts!

When Becky Higgins introduced her Project Life way of scrapping, I didn't want to even look at it...here was one of my favorite inspirations telling me how to make scrapping easier.  But I knew if I started PL, I'd probably never scrap layouts again! :)

This last fall I finally took the plunge.  I decided to use my own stash for this instead of buying the kit.  I knew I would never keep up with a photo a day type of project and so to get my feet wet in this type of scrapping, I decided to do a National Parks album.  Since we've been married (14 years) we have visited close to 20 National Parks...starting with Yellowstone on our Honeymoon.

I have absolutely loved doing this album and in fact in just a weekend getaway I was able to scrap almost all of the parks!

Here is the first double page spread of our trip to the Redwoods.  You can see that I do mostly pictures with  a title and some journaling mixed in.

For my title block, I used some Lil' Blossoms along with a Denim Lil' Stem to give some texture.  The numbers are Cocoa Daisy stamps and have a textured pattern as well.

On my journaling spot I used a Cocoa Daisy border stamp to decorate the grid paper and added a bit of Lil' Twiney to add some dimension.

Cocoa Daisy Crop

Last weekend, one of my favorite online sites, Cocoa Daisy, had their spring crop.  With tons (well, 18) of challenges, fun games, great classes, and some great RAKS it was hard to keep up! :)  I had some great aspirations of getting a lot of layouts done, especially since they give the week after to get them done.  But, life keeps happening even when I want to scrap! :)  Pretty happy that I got 3 done though.

Patterns and Colors Challenge:  For this one there was a picture of some fabric that we were to use for inspiration.  They were very bright and had lots of different patterns and I immediately thought of this MME paper.  We also had to use circles or squares, mist and a border punch.  I just love how this one turned out!

 

Standing in a Line Challenge:  Pretty obvious from the name...this one we had to use lines of some sort.  I had my pictures in a line, used strips of paper in a line and doodled a line for the border.  There were so many pictures for this, I kept it super simple...even for me! :)

Night Market Challenge:  This challenge was to use black as the background and use pictures of something at night.  These were the only night pictures I had and they aren't good but I still wanted to scrap them and this seemed the perfect time!  Not my best layout but glad to have the story down!

Home for the Summer!

After being gone for about 25 days over the course of 2 months...we are finally home for good!  Not that we didn't have a ton of fun in the Redwoods, at the beach, camping, in Sunriver, and at Camp Sherman, but it feels good to be home!
I was able to get out and do some scrapping with some friends last night and it just may have been my most productive scrap day ever!  I got 4 layouts completed and loved all of them!  Here are two...the other two have to wait a little bit! :)

This one is for the sketch challenge over at My Mind's Eye.  I love when I get a chance to do these!  The hardest thing each month, is picking which MME papers to use! :)  This time I literally had 3 different lines of paper in front of me before deciding on this one!  This is Katie and Erin at Camp Sherman last week after Lexa braided their hair!  I've been wanting to do a layout of Katie and Erin since Erin talks about how much she loves Katie all the time!  These were the perfect pictures!  And I tried a new way to make flowers and know I will be making lots more!  These are made from little doilies that I glimmer misted!  They are adorable!

This is for the sketch challenge at CocoaDaisy this month.  Loved this sketch and since it was Ronda's sketch, I knew I wanted to use GlimmerMist as she is the one who first got me hooked! :)  These pictures are from our recent camping trip to Ft. Stevens.

Scraplifting!

Every once in awhile I actually get the chance to scrap...just because and not for an assignment! :)  This is one of those layouts!  I used the July sketch for the scraplift contest at CocoaDaisy!  And I am loving how it turned out!  Have been meaning to try the AC flock on these corrugated Jillibean letters for months and finally did it!  And I pulled out some pretty old papers too!  And seems like no layout is complete lately without a little glimmer...glimmer mist that is! :)

Cocoa Daisy Sketch

I hadn't done one of these before...not sure why since I love using sketches and I love Cocoa Daisy...but I found the time this month!  It is one of my favorite layouts I have done in a long time!  I love how the Basic Grey papers worked and the flowers I learned how to make at CKC just make the layout for me!
Here's Christine's sketch:

And my layout:

Something New #3.....1/15-1/21

I am so going to have to cheat a bit on this one! What actually WAS new around here was I had strep throat for the first time ever! Yuck! It knocked me OUT! I have never slept so much...not even when I was pregnant! Anyway...that is so not a fun something new! So let's try this one...

Glimmer Mists
Using some of the money I earned on etsy, I bought myself 5 new bottles of Glimmer Mist. I love that stuff! I already showed this layout....the one for the warm-colors layout challenge but here is a close-up! I used Candy Apple Red, Peach Delight, and Yellow Daisy glimmer mists on it. I simply sprayed red, then orange, then yellow on white cardstock! I love the look! And love that you can make your own background paper! And LOVE how easy it was!And here is another "new" thing for me...this layout was the gallery pick in the CocoaDaisy newsletter! COCOADAISY!!!! I was over the moon! :)

Cocoa Daisy World Card Making Day Blog Hop!

Welcome! I hope you are having fun so far on your tour! I have made 3 cards for today. When signing up for the blog hop I asked if there was anything special we needed on our cards. Sue (missusem) said no, but she liked my pun cards. Well, that was all I could think of when making these cards today! So, here you go Sue...3 more "punny" cards!




Be sure to leave a comment and I will enter your name in a drawing for a little blog candy. I'm not sure what will be in it...I just decided to do it! But I promise it will be good!

Where do you go next? Right here to visit Laura over in the UK! And I just took a sneak peek at her card...GORGEOUS!

Enjoy the rest of the cards! And here's the links for everybody in case you lose your way! Sam, Me, Laura, Vee, Gina, Olivia, Caryl, Elina, Sue, Audrey, Christine, Aida, Janis, Ronda and Jacqui. Go get inspired!

{scrap} Lift Me Up!

Ronda started a great challenge over at Cocoa Daisy. We signed up in groups of 7. The first person was sent a layout to lift and then that layout was sent to the next person and so on. So only the first person on the list saw the original layout! I was first on the list this time. It was a lot of pressure! :) Here is my layout and here is the reveal of the original and all the rest!

Cocoa Daisy Daily Prompt

We are back from vacation and almost recovered from it after a week of being home! ;) It was a great week of camping! I have lots of pictures and woould love to share but my computer has been acting up and I am scared to download them! I think a new computer is in the very near future!

These pictures are for a CocoaDaisy Daily Prompt. We were to take pictures of what we did that day with our cell phones and not edit the pictures at all. Since I don't have a camera on my cell phone...I used my little digital camera that I keep in my purse. I had a girls' night out with some friends and we had some fun in a little boutique and had a wonderful dessert!

Summer Soiree!

I am so excited that CocoaDaisy is having another online event! I hope I get a chance to play! Here's all the info in case you want to play along too! The design team is the best over there so at least check it out!Where: www.cocoadaisy.com

When: Sunday June 14, 12noon-4pm EDT

What: Join us for an afternoon of challenges, creation, chat and of course, giveaways!!

See you there?

My NSD Goal

There was no scrapbooking going on here on National Scrapbooking Day. I had done a lot the weekend before at the CocoaDaisy online crop and had neglected everything else. My goal for the weekend was to get my scrapbook desk and area cleaned and organized. Pictures were to go here! But it is not done! I probably need another 2 or 3 naptimes to get it to where I want it! But...I have some layouts to do for the memory book at Isaac's preschool! They are due on Friday so I guess the pictures of my desk will wait! (as will the actual cleaning!) Here are a few cards I did in the meantime! Both of these were for Daily Prompts at CocoaDaisy...have I mentioned how much I love those prompts?

Online Croppin'!

That's what I have been doing all weekend! I have never really participated in an online crop before but when CocoaDaisy was doing one and it was being organized by my fellow taG team girl, Sue, I knew I had to make the time! I have had a blast! The only bad thing is that there is so much going on, on the message boards that I can't seem to tear myself away to get any scrapping actually done! I have managed to get a few things done along with playing some fun games!

This is for one of their Daily Prompts...this was use pp and rub-ons on a card.

Then this is from a sketch by Sue.
And finally I participated in a 1 hour layout challenge...and actually finished it! Wasn't sure if I would be able to but I pulled it off! For this we had to use the CocoaDaisy colors...pink, red, orange, brown and a little green and have "Heart" in the title. And of course finish in an hour!
Now I've got to run...There is a chat with Ali Edwards on the mb in 5 minutes! And at 6:00 tonight my Blazers play the Rockets! Go Blazers!

WOOHOO! I won!

CocoaDaisy is having a daily drawing for gift certificates and I won a $20 one! Very cool since I wanted one of the add-ons that costs $19.75! Perfect! Since it is not on sale yet (have to wait until April 1), I guess I'll just be drooling over it on the computer!