LOAD 26 & 27

Here is day 26...Girl Crush.  Ugh...did not like this one!  I decided to go with the stuff I can remember liking as a kid/teen.

Day 27 was "Animal Magnetism"...the prompt suggested a layout dedicated to a pet.  I thought Mia (our new pup) deserved her own page!

 Now, little sister has gotten most of the attention during scrapbooking month, so I thought I should do a Drake page, since he hasn't had many layouts this month.  His recent (as in 2 days ago) music competition seemed a good place to start.  So I give you....LOAD Day 27, layout 2:

I'm seriously going to be sad when this ends!  I think a LOEOD (layout every other day) would be perfect for me!  Right now I'm 30 layouts for 27 days.  Totally, completely happy with that!  I have learned a lot about my digital scrapbooking software and I'm eager to learn more.  The music paper you see in the layout above was found by googling "digital scrapbook paper music" and then importing the paper into SBC 3.0.  Oh, did I mention....it was FREE!  Even better!

LOAD 23, 24, and 25

Here are my layouts for days 23, 24, and 25.  Sorry for those of you craving more crafty posts...maybe once LOAD is done I will have a bit more time to share with crafting!

23 - Road Trip
I decided to go with her "Dream Vacation" part of the prompt!

 24 - By The Numbers
I saw someone do stats on their birth, so I thought that was a good one for the book about me.

25 -  "I feel like...."
Well, that one could've gone a lot of ways, right?  So, I took this route...

If anyone is thinking about getting into digital scrapbooking, I am using Creative Memories Story Book Creator 3.0 for all of these layouts.  I'm learning a lot!  Let me know if you have any questions.

Imagine Card

First things first...this is NOT my original idea!  I found this, and thanks to Pinterest, not only was I able to find it again, but now that I've created my own take on it, I can give credit where credit is due!  You can see the blog post where I got inspired HERE.

My version isn't much different, really.  I needed some "Thank You" cards, so I adapted the design for that.

 I needed to make a lot, so I started with 12 of these.  A friend recently gave me a bunch of envelopes that her store was going to throw away, so I measured the envelope and made this larger card to utilize the free envelopes!  The base is Kraft card stock.  You can't really tell from the photos, but everything is adhered with ATG, except for the balloons, and they have one big fat foam dot.  It really looks cool, especially with the banner flattening out the strings from the balloons.

 The next layer is the cloud paper from Imagine Best Friends, as is the balloon image.  The white piece is one of the "stock" images that is on the Imagine.  The banner is from Enjoy The Seasons.  I basically just played around with sizes until I got the card to look the way I wanted it to.  I took some decorative scissors to the card above, while choosing to corner round opposite corners on the one below.

The sentiment is from Emma at My Creative Time's "Many Greetings" stamp set.  I thought "Thanks a Bunch" works well with the bunch of balloons!  Once I had the sizes figured out it was really easy to keep the Imagine printing and cutting the different elements while I embossed and stamped.  Love how simple the Imagine can make a project, especially when you need to create multiples of something.

Here are the sizes that I cut:

• A-6 card (6 3/8" x 4 5/8" folded)
• Cloud - 7.8
• White section - 3.0
• Banner - 3.0 (winter section of Enjoy The Seasons)
• Balloons - ???  I forgot to write it down!  Oops!

As a side note, I did learn something.  I was experimenting with the banners to see which one worked best for the card.  Each season has a slightly different banner.  I had one sheet of cardstock, and after I would print and cut a banner, I would reload the paper and check the "Load Last" box.  The new image now jumps on the screen over to accommodate the item that was previously cut.  This doesn't really make sense when I read it, so give it a try and I hope you'll see what I'm talking about!

LOAD Day 22

Here is my Day 22 layout, for the prompt "Holidays"

I do pages in a Christmas album every year.  The first pages for each year are the photos that we received in cards.  Then I close that year's page(s) with photos of our family at Christmas.  I actually already scrapped the card photos one day when I was on hold for Cricut tech support!  So, once I get this page printed and maybe do a page with our holiday card, the Christmas album will be current.

ONE week left...I am shocked!  The time (and the layouts) has flown by.  I've really enjoyed the experience.  If you're needing a kick in the pants for scrapbooking, check out Lain's "Layout A Day" method.

Now, are you ready for even MORE exciting news?  If you're a regular follower of my blog you probably have noticed that I'm a huge fan of My Creative Time's line of products.  I adore them!  The stamps give you a beautiful, crisp image every time, and her new line of dies are incredible!  Well, I made comments on her design team's blogs during her new release blog hop.  One commenter from each blog was chosen and then Emma took those names and chose a winner for a $100 gift certificate to her online store.

I WON!!!!!!!


I can't even explain how excited I was when I got the e-mail!  Holy moly...I WON!  I am so excited.  I hope I can post some fun things on here soon, made with, of course, some of Miss Emma's awesome products.  If you're a stamper, check her items out.  I think you'll love them!

Final V-day Projects

I know it's over, but I wanted to share a few more pics of my Valentine's Day craftiness.  I made the cards for the gift bags, but this photo is of my kiddos with their gift bags.  Hubs had one too, but he's not in the photo!

Gotta love the morning bed head!

 Everyone got personalized insulated cups for V-Day.  I had a friend pick these up for me at Sam's Club. It was a box of 6 for $20-something.  Very cool cups...add a little vinyl cut with the Cricut and you've got yourself a personalized cup.

 Then, cake pops for Miss Avery's class.  I have the Babycakes Cake Pop maker (looks like a little waffle iron) and let me tell you...that baby WORKS!  I love it!  I usually make at least 5 dozen when I make them up and then freeze them.  When you need cake pops, take some out of the freezer, decorate, and voila...CAKE POPS!  These were dipped in red coating and then pink coating was splattered on top of that.  Add a cute cello bag and it's a wrap!

Her class (Kindergarten) was fascinated with them!  They're fun to make and I think easy enough for the kids to decorate.  I will confess that the kids did not help decorate this batch.  We were expecting a snowstorm on the 13th, so school on the 14th was looking doubtful.  I decided to NOT make the pops on the 13th only to have school and the party cancelled.  Murphy's Law...since I didn't make the cake pops, it didn't snow, and the kids had school.  I am SO GLAD I had the pops frozen.  I decorated them in about an hour and then had time to get ready and take them up for her party.  Phew!

Hope you enjoyed the last of my V-Day project photos.  Look for more cake pops in the future!

LOAD Days 20 and 21

Here is Day 20:

 As I browsed through the pages of childhood photos, one thing that stood out to me was the crazy fashions!  Imagine my shock when our prompt for Day 20 was "Fashion Plate"...how perfect!  I love the short, <2 minute videos that Lain does with each day's prompt.  She gives you several ways to go with the prompt, so even if at first you see them prompt and have NOTHING...by the time you listen to the video, you're inspired!

Day 21:  This is My Hometown

This page was fun to to.  I got my "map background" inspiration from someone on the LOAD group...not my original idea.  Then hubs showed me how to capture the image, save it, crop it, covert it to a .jpg, and then I was able to use it as "background paper".  I wanted it to be a bit "faded" so I adjusted the opacity to make it fade out a bit.  Awesome-ness!  The only picture on the layout that is actually mine is the one of my childhood home in the top right corner.  The rest of them were found on Google!  How cool is THAT?

So, I'm still on track...23 layouts done in 21 days right now.  I'm determined to finish it out.  I can't believe there are only 8 days left!  Soon it will be less than a week.  WOW!

LOAD ~ Day 16, 17, 18, and 19

Here is the Day 16 layout.  The prompt for this layout was "People In My Neighborhood".  Since we have such a great neighborhood I thought it would be fun to do a layout from one of the neighborhood activities.  Since I've been salivating over My Creative Time's new stamp release (all about Easter) these photos immediately came to mind!

And, for anyone that's curious about those My Creative Time stamps and dies...click HERE and it will take you right to Miss Emma's store and you can see all of the awesome items she has to offer.  I love her products.  She's a small business woman and takes sincere pride in what she is doing.  If you have an issue, SHE will call you herself (and I speak from experience...I was too blonde to get a gift certificate to work, but Miss Emma helped me out!!!).  I get no payment or product for this endorsement!  I just really love her products and think you will too!


I ordered some additional digital content today for Story Book Creator, and once the LOAD Challenge is finished I think I will probably upgrade to SBC 4.0.  If anyone out there is interested in the Creative Memories software (or other items) and needs a CM Consultant, let me know!  My good friend Laura is a consultant and she'd be happy to help you out.

Here is Day 17.  The prompt was "When I Grow Up".  I finally found the book that contains many childhood photos, so it's time to scan them and scrap them.  Did I mention that I'm really starting to adore digital scrap booking?  Yeah, well....I am.

Here's a few things I love about this page.  First of all, the papers and such came from the new content that I downloaded, so that's kinda fun to be using that.  Second, I figured out how to scan directly into Memory Manger, using my multi-function scanner/copier/fax/printer.  I figured I'd have to scan, save, import to MM...NOPE!  You can use the "Get Photos From" and pick scanner.  Awesomely cool!

Day 18:  This is a page that I will use for a book about me for my kids to have.  I scanned these photos from the book that I got the Day 17 photos from.

Day 19:  This prompt was about friends...new ones and old ones.  I always thought it would be fun for my childhood friends to meet my friends here.  I think we'd all have a great time.  This layout only has a few of my awesome girl friends.  I need to start taking more photos!  I guess since I had gotten out of the scrap booking habit I also slacked off on taking photos.

Hope you enjoy the posts this week.  I can't believe the LOAD Challenge is almost over!  In today's video, Lain said "Only 10 more days" and I could not believe it!  Only 10 more????!!!  I hope that I can do at least 4-6 layouts per month after this.  I have really enjoyed learning a lot about SBC and digital scrap booking.  I will definitely do the next LOAD Challenge when it's offered.  If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I'll try to help  you!  If you're interested in Lain's LOAD Challenge, click HERE to find out about all of the classes Lain offers.

Here's the schedule for my blog this week...Wednesday and Friday will be crafty posts, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday will be layouts.  Once I'm done with LOAD you will probably see less scrapbooking posts and more crafty ones.  If you're not into scrapping, bear with me!

Happy Crafting!

LOAD ~ Days 14 & 15

Here are my layouts for days 14 and 15.

 Day 14's prompt was "love lasts" which was hugely appropriate, considering it was Valentine's Day!  I used more photos of my parents.  I hope that when my Dad sees all of these layouts that he smiles about the good times, even though I'm sure tears will fall.  They were such an awesome couple and such a great example.  They disagreed, but they always worked it out.

Day 15's prompt was "Songs of Days Gone By" and frankly, when I saw that I groaned a bit.  But, once I watched Lain's video to explain the prompt I knew exactly what I wanted to scrapbook.  For both of our kids we sang this song, so it works.  I used photos from varying times and this is what I came up with.  This time I figured out how to round certain corners, instead of all 4.  I have to admit, I REALLY like the looks of opposite rounded corners.  I don't know why, but I totally love that look!

I think I'll do a "You are my sunshine...." page for our son too...don't want him to feel left out!  One thing that I noticed today...I have NO photos from 2012 of my kids yet!  Time to get snapping!  Now that I'm scrapbooking again, I need photos!

Hope you have a great weekend...see you back here Monday with some new layouts and some new crafty posts!

Imagine Sympathy Card

 I used the Imagine to create a few quick sympathy cards.  I used Imagine More Cards to create this.  I split the image into layers and left off the text "hello".  I wanted to be able to stamp a sympathy message instead.  Plus, layering the image with some foam adhesive is a look that I generally like.

You can see both the inside and outside of the card from this photo.  I always like to do 2 cards at a time when I'm creating them.  The liner paper inside sets off the scallops.

This is a bit closer shot of the card front.  For some reason my Imagine did not cut ONE of the scallops along the top edge.  I did the card base a few times to see if it was a fluke or what.  I will have to call Provo Craft and let them know.  I don't know if that means I have a faulty cartridge or what, but I though it was really funny that it wouldn't cut ONE scallop!  Thank goodness I had an exacto knife handy!

LOAD ~ Day 13

Sorry I'm a bit late in posting this.  I completed the layout on time, but wanted to post Valentine's Day projects on the 14th, so this post will be going live on the 15th.

Day 13's prompt was about past hobbies.  I just couldn't think of anything to do, but thankfully a friend gave me the digital pics from my 40th Birthday Bash on the 11th, so I did 2 pages from that!

It was a super fun night and I am happy that I now have a small bit of it scrapbooked!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I have a few projects to share with you today.  One is the finished product of the heart crayon project that you saw earlier in February.  Here's the end result:

All bagged up and ready to go!

The tag...sorry this pic is so awful!

A while ago I decided that I was going to join the Peachy Keen Stamp of the Month Club. I love the projects I see online with their stuff, so I thought this was a good way to start out.  The first set did not disappoint!  SO CUTE!  But, I soon realized that I needed markers to color these adorable stamps in with.  I had read a lot online about Copics, so when I saw a set of 6 at Hobby Lobby I decided to bite the bullet.  I thankfully had my phone, and so I used the 40% off coupon.  Needless to say, the next 2 times I went to Hobby Lobby I picked up another 6 pack and used the coupon.  Now I have all of the ones that HL offers...guess I'll have to find somewhere online to get more colors!  This is my first attempt at coloring.  I hate to toot my own horn, but I LOVE these cards!  

 I have a 6" x 6" red base that I inked the edges with black.  Next comes a black square, followed by a Kraft square, and topped with the white square.  I stamped the image on the white, colored it in, and then adhered it to the card layers, once I had rounded off opposite corners.  I really like the effect of the opposite corner rounding.

 To the inside, I added another white square (with the opposite rounded corners again!) and used the "Be Mine" stamp from My Creative Time.  I love this heart...it is so cute!  I believe the HVD sentiment is from the PKS Stamp of the Month.

 Variation 2 of the card...this one is for my nephews, so it's a bit less "girly"...I think!

 I love this card!  I'm not sure if I love it so much because it's my first time coloring a stamped image or if I love it because I just sat down and created it...I didn't follow anyone's project for inspiration.  Either way, I love it!

Now, I can't leave my own family out of the V-Day love!  So, each of them has a gift bag for tomorrow morning.  I thought I should make them a cute card for the gift bag.  I cut a 3.5" x 7" white cardstock and then cut 3" squares of Kraft.  The stamping and die cut heart are all from My Creative Time.  I love her stamps and dies.  LOVE LOVE LOVE them!

The heart is a die from MCT and then the stamp fits perfectly inside...how COOL is that?  This is the first time I've used these sets and I have to tell you...they are beautiful!  I love how they turned out.  The stamps just stamp such a beautiful crisp image.

The three bags, for my three loves!

I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day, surrounded by people that make you feel loved.  I am so thankful to have such wonderful family and friends.  This has truly been a great month for me and I'm feeling the love!  Have a LOVEly day!

LOAD Days 11 & 12

I'm combining 11 and 12 for you.  The 11th was my 40th birthday and I STILL did a layout!  I'm not sure if that's the impressive part or the fact that I did a layout the next day (after the party)!!!  Either way, I am still rolling along and have completed at least 1 layout every day so far in February!

Day 11 ~ School Days:

Day 12 ~ History Repeats Itself:

 The funny thing is, I never imagined I'd be working on any of the photos of my Mom when I started LOAD.  Now I actually am excited when a prompt fits some of the materials I have of her life.  I am excited to do a book on my Mom and her life.  I'm also trying to scrapbook more on my own life so that my kids will have that later on.

Wall Art

My lovely niece (I have to say that...she might read this blog) asked me if I could do some wall art for her baby's nursery.  She found this frame on Amazon and had it shipped to me to work my magic.  I used a link to his bedding set at Babies 'R Us and decided that the Imagine Blast Off cartridge would be perfect for this project.

The letters are from Blast Off (Imagine).  I printed them in layers and used a dimensional adhesive between the top and middle layers.  Under each letter is just plain white cardstock, which is taped to the inside of the frame.  I thought about using a light pattern paper, but it took away from the letters, so I went with white.

 After all of the letters were done I thought it still needed a little something.  The bedding set is sea creatures, so I checked Create A Critter and found the adorable fish, crab, and seashell.  I used the Imagine to print and cut those layers, choosing papers from Blast Off to fill the top layers.

 Once again I used dimensional adhesive (foam squares) to give the critters a little added design.

This photo is blurry, but I wanted to show you how adorable the little crab is.

I hope Amber likes it and I hope it's a great addition to Brenton's nursery.  Can't wait to see him again and snuggle his cute little self!

LOAD ~ Day 10

Yep, I'm still in it.  Is it funny to anyone that every day I'm shocked that I'm still keeping up?

Today...favorite memory.  Quick post to show you the layout...off for pre-40th-birthday mani and pedi!  The journaling explains the photo...or at least it SHOULD!

That's it...hope you enjoyed today's layout.  I'm learning more things every day with Story Book Creator and I am finding it ironic that I am enjoying this digital scrapbooking so very much.  I think I might be upgrading to SB4.0 soon since I'm using it so much.

Crayon Canvas

This one is not my original idea (are they EVER???), but something that I saw on Pinterest.  I picked up the canvas at Hobby Lobby.  My neighbor girl was wanting to do this project with my daughter (Madi is a freshman in high school) so we decided today was the day.  In addition to my daughter Avery, we also invited 2 other girls to come and join in the fun.  Madi had her hands full!

The first step, and quite possibly most time consuming, is to peel the paper from the crayons.  Now, I did read somewhere online that you could drop the crayons in boiling water and the paper would come right off, but with 3 little girls here we decided they could peel crayons!

Once you have the crayons peeled, it's time to line them up across your canvas.  Madi had the awesome idea of lining them up in a wave pattern.  I love it!  When I saw the original Pinterest pin I really liked it, but didn't like the leftover crayons all lined up across the top...the wave pattern solves that!  Looks VERY cool.

When you know what crayons go where, start hot gluing those babies down.  Madi did this for the little girls.  After that, it's time to take the heat gun to those crayons and let 'er drip....

...word of caution...put newspapers down!  I am SO glad I thought ahead and did this instead of my normal "oh, I'll be careful" attitude that would've landed me in a HUGE mess!

~Katrina's rainbow canvas~

I used an embossing gun.  You can splatter the drips, let them run down the canvas, or even let them pool up a bit...it's your world.  It's your art!  I had each of the 4 girls watch me as I did the heat gunning and they told me when they wanted more of a crayon or whatever.

~note the newspapers~

The 4 canvases turned out really cool.  I think this might've been the first of many craft projects these gals will get together for.  It was fun!

~Close up of Caroline's canvas~

~Madi's canvas~

Avery's canvas, which she cannot wait to hang on her wall, by her bed, so that she can "See it a lot". 

ETA:  After the canvas sat on the dining room table a few days, we noticed that some of the thicker "drips" were breaking off.  We decided to take the heat gun to the canvas again to "thin out" some of the thick drips.  There is now less white space on the canvas, but I do not worry about the "art" popping off.  Avery is still happy with it and now it's time to put it on the wall.

LOAD ~ Day 9

I think I've mentioned as much before, but I'm seriously shocked that I'm still in the game.  I'm enjoying this WAY more than I thought I would.  And I am learning some really cool things with the Story Book Creator, mostly by trial and error.

Today's prompt....Home Sweet Home.  Now, I must say Lain is smart, 'cause today's prompt is a bit less emotional for most folks, and I needed that!

I decided to do a bit of a comparison of our home from when we bought it to when we moved in.  I found the before photos in my digital photo software and then grabbed my camera to snap comparison photos of the same shot, only current.  (...does that make ANY sense....?)

There you have it...there you are.  Today's page.  Honestly, not my favorite, but I think that has more to do with the color/paper selections than anything else.  I don't have a whole lot of options, but can now see the benefit of buying some more digital "kits" or "collections" to have more options.

Hope you enjoyed it!

LOAD ~ Day 8 ~ twofer

Today's prompt was "I Miss...."

Damn if I don't have a lot of material for that prompt.  But having material and actually being mentally able to deal with that material are two different things.  At first, I thought "I miss being able to talk to my Mom on the phone" but I knew there was NO WAY I could do it.  I couldn't go through photos, I couldn't journal that story...I just couldn't.

So I kept thinking and then I thought about Schuyler.  And I thought about his smile.  And I knew, "I miss your smile" was do-able.  I guess I've spent so much time looking at photos of Sky that I felt like I could do it without turning into an emotional wreck.

I love how this page turned out...it makes me smile.

When I uploaded the layout I scanned through the other group member's submissions.  I found a layout that was of a phone with small photos of the scrapbooker's Mom underneath and the journaling was about missing being able to talk to her Mom on the phone...the lightbulb went off.  Inspiration had struck.  I found the envelope that my brother Jeff had sent me a few years ago with photos from the funeral memory boards.  Not only did it have the photos, but a disc where he had scanned them all in.  Bless him!  Here's what I ended up with...

I love how this one turned out also...I miss them both, but these pages make me smile, although through a few tears.

So, shocking as it is, not only have I done a layout every day, but now I've done two for today.  I'd have to go back and count to be sure, but I'm fairly certain that I have now completed more layouts in February than I did during all months combined of 2011.  I'm learning a lot about the digital scrapbooking software, but I'm also finding the process therapeutic.  I've scrapped a bit about myself, and now on some emotional topics.  At the end of the day, it's been a good experience for me.

If you're interested in the LOAD Challenge, click HERE to view Lain's website.  She does the LOAD Challenge a few times a year (3 or 4...can't remember which).  I've had a great experience thus far, and can't imagine her future "classes" will be any less helpful.

See you tomorrow...back with another layout!