Fun & Ice Layout

I don't know what is going on with the pictures in this post so just bare with me please! I am continuing on with my quest to make the most of Studio Calico kit since my next one will be shipping out next week!I wanted to use this cute but not great photo of my girls and I ice skating when we went with their girl scout troop this spring. The girls had never been and I haven't tried to ice skate in many years. But I didn't want another parent to have help my girls get from one side of the rink to the other so I laced up a pair and did my best. The girls and I had a great time and by the end Madison was getting really good and comfortable out there. Most of the girls in the troop were just going around clutching the wall for dear life, it was very cute. 

I was very excited to use this beautiful cloud paper and couldn't bear to cut it up so I decided to use it as a background and even then I didn't want to cover up very much of it. I created a little collage at the bottom and the top to create a nice diagonal form of embellishment. I loved the doilies in the kit too! I have always wanted to play with some but just never picked any up. I did sprinkle some mister huey's on the page. 

 Up top I used several pieces from heyday, take note, memoir, and wood veneer, and I just have to say how much I adore the little pearl dots too! The Thickers are mistable ones that I used Boss Lady mister huey's  to color... that is after my dog ate three letters and I had to re do them! The ampersand is an old piece from making memories that was glittery. I painted it with some mister hueys and a paintbrush. The corrugated butterfly is from jillibean soup and something that I have needed to use up for  awhile now.

Oh, and check out the cute little envelope and tag that I used for some hidden journaling. I really should put the date there though huh?! Silly me! 

Girls First Day of School

Last Monday was the first day of school for the girls. Kaley is in the 3rd Grade, and Madison is in 4th. They are both so excited to start the year and of course to see all of their friends. Our mornings are so hectic that even on the first day of school I don't get to do a well thought out photo shoot unfortunately, but here are just a couple of the pictures that I took that morning before we all loaded up in the car and took the girls to school.

 Madison was very excited about the purple panda shirt that we found her at Target to go with the extra special panda necklace that Nanny bought her. It's nice to see her in a pair of jeans that are long enough... give a couple of weeks and they will be high waters! I put their hair in what we call twists or knots and then they slept on them to get that pretty wave that is oh so girly!

Kaley found this super cute Minnie and Mickey shirt and paired it with these plaid shorts that she already had, this child has a style all her own. And of course, the purple tennis shoes. Both of girls love wearing sunglasses right now pretty much any time that they go outside.

Overall, it should be a good year for both of them. We have already had Back to School night for both girls and we already knew that Kaley's teacher would be amazing! :)

July 2012 Layout

Yesterday I showed you how I created the collage of my photo a day instagrams, from there I simply saved it as a single photo and then I printed the whole thing out on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of photo paper, trimmed down the sides just a little and put the whole sheet on a layout. This is probably the easiest layout that I have ever done!

I added the days of the week stamps from Studio Calico that I used for the first time and I have to say that I love them so much! I can't wait to use them next year for Project Life. I added a strip of paper and  some washi tape from Bella Blvd. Plus some letter and number stickers and a flair button and then topped it off with a wood veneer word. I wanted to include what each picture was supposed to be of so I wrote them around the edges of the photos. Very simple and a great way to document a whole month on a single layout!

Photo a Day July 2012

I have seen so many people doing the photo a day challenges every month and I decided to jump in and give it a try in July. I have been curious to see if I could keep up with taking a photo every day using my iPhone and then maybe it would be worth it to do Project life next year. Although if I had decided to do this is in January of this year then I could have created a whole years worth of pictures in only 12 layouts. Here is the photo a day challenge that I did:

Each day I looked at my subject and it really helped me to see my daily life in a different way. Of course there were times that I got behind a day or so. But then I just went around my house and looked for ways to complete my task. Here is my collage that I created by uploading to my Flickr account and then using a website called Big Huge Labs and their collage maker. It was so much easier than the war that I was having with Photoshop (still haven't figured out CS6... like at all!) 

I am doing pretty well with my August pictures although I do have one or two days to make up. I took the picture on the girls' first day of school but haven't uploaded them from my canon onto my iMac to then create the instagram off of my photo stream. I know, sounds crazy huh?

Good news is that my photography business seems to slowly be taking off and I think I'm going to be pretty busy this fall! Now I need to talk my husband into letting me get the Martha Stewart day planner at Staples so that I can keep track of all our schedules (school, church, girl scouts, photography, family, etc.) Because I don't know that I can spend much more time everyday in front of my computer inputting all of that info into iCal. And to do it all on my phone is ridiculous, can you say microscopic?!

A Cookie Birthday

I am slowly but surely working my way down the list of layouts that need to get done. These especially need to get accomplished before my busy picture taking season begins. Between all four of my kids birthdays being in the next three months plus back to school, halloween, pumpkin patch, thanksgiving, and christmas, it seems to pile up and then it takes me until august to get caught up again! It's a never ending cycle for me but at least I am still working within this year I guess. 

Well I decided to use Studio Calico's sketch challenge from last week to get my husband's birthday photos done. Here is what I came up with...

It is really tricky to get paper strips at an angle and yet cover the whole page so I came up with the circle to hold the journaling. I really should type my journaling more often since I hate my writing but it just seems like so much more work! I would have used white card stock as my base but because these instagrams had a white border I wanted them to show up so I brought out the kraft card stock. Most of this is the Memoir collection but a few pieces are from the kit. That grid paper in the corner is actually the background packaging from the Studio Calico die cuts! I love using up great packaging!

My Fave Photos

I have to say that I was still a little scared about receiving a kit every month full of products that I didn't hand pick myself. I have become very good at picking a collection and only buying the papers and embellishments that as soon as I see them I instantly have a million ideas of how use them. My heart sings and my mind races and yes I even hear a choir of angels... ok, not really but pretty close. So to decide to start getting the Studio Calico kits for me was a huge decision. And I heard my husband's voice in my head and in reality say "But what if you don't like what they send you?" I spent months watching their releases and seeing the pages that people were making with the kits and I also came to realize that at this point 80% of my scrapping money goes to Studio Calico, and every day I fell in love with the things that were being created. But there was one thing that I didn't expect...

Not only do I love everything that I got in this first kit (I haven't brought myself to use the amazing white woodgrain card stock yet!) But the member gallery and the blog bring me so much inspiration! The challenges alone are enough to get me going on an afternoon that I can't decide whether to create a page or lay on the couch. So this is one of my first challenges that I am entering. It's the Member Scraplift challenge. I used mostly the kit, plus a couple of things that I had that were also Studio Calico, except for the yellow airmail washi tape which has become my favorite. I love yellow right now and am getting close to painting my pantry door yellow! heehee. 

These are a few of my favorite instagrams that I have taken lately. It's not that often that I get on this side of a camera so I wanted to do something special with them. A couple of papers are from the Abroad and Heyday collections but the rest is all from the Summer of '69 kit. I am in love and can't believe how quickly this page came together. It really helps to have most of it picked out for you already. 

At some point I will also share how I store my kit right in front of me, oh, and I guess I need to do some more posts on my room since I have changed a few things around! Ok, ok, back to work!

My Fave Instagrams from Seattle

Neil and I had the opportunity in June to take 11 of our High School students up to Seattle and Tacoma  on a missions trip to help out an organization called Network Tacoma. I took so many pictures that week, lots of them with my Canon and yet many I took with my iPhone. Which you know were just screaming to be made into Instagrams.

This one I think is my absolute favorite just because I have wanted to see the Pike Place market for so many years now and on that Saturday we got to tour the downtown area a little and that included the market.

 I love how Seattle created this sports complex, where their baseball and football stadiums are right next to each other. And this tower is pretty cool.

 I just loved how this clock tower was peeking out over the other downtown buildings.

 It wouldn't be a trip to Seattle without a special drink from the original Starbucks. Hands down the best experience I have ever had at Starbucks. I loved it, and my drink!

 We just barely got to see the needle as it was starting to rain, but one of the girls and I jumped out of the van and ran to get a few shots.

 I am so in love with my burlap Tom's and Neil found a great deal on these Tom's in downtown Tacoma. This was taken at the airport before we came home.

One last shot of the two of us while on the plane, and no, my husband hadn't shaved all week. And no, I didn't like it. But it was a mission trip so I can't complain.

 I love this picture of Mt. Ranier just after we left the Seattle airport. It is such a beautiful mountain.

 We flew into Oakland on the way there and back and on the way back I happened to get this great shot of the Golden Gate Bridge.

 I really don't like flying, so I spent most of the time listening to my playlist and ignoring the fact that at any moment I could plummet to my death, or the fact that I was trapped. Yes, I'm crazy!

 This is the Tacoma Bridge and I just loved it's shape and overall awesomeness.

 This little coffee shop in downtown Tacoma was so good. They had flavors that I had never seen before, like what I ordered... a Salted Caramel Frappuccino.

 This was a beautiful building in downtown Seattle. The colors just popped.

Last but certainly not least. We spent some time in a few downtown Seattle parks talking to the homeless that seemed to be everywhere in that area. As Neil and I walked around there was a man preaching there in the park and some were listening to him yell at them about how they need Jesus. He was very much on fire for the Lord, but he was also very in your face about it and condemning those that don't believe. As he stopped yelling his sermon and picked up his things, and his gathered his posse, this older man sitting in a lawn chair picked up his trumpet and started playing "How Great Thou Art". I stood there listening to the beautiful melody perfectly played and realized that this man was speaking the love of God so much louder than the man that had been yelling at the top of his lungs. It was a moment of peace and beauty and something that I will never forget.

Those are just some of the images that I captured that week. There is so much more that I could tell you and share, but then I might never leave my computer! Hope you enjoyed, I know that I can't wait to go back there.

My First Smash Book

About a year ago I bought my first SMASH book from K & company. I have slowly been filling it with random things I like, events and places that I go, and things from Pinterest that make me happy. Well I am thrilled to say that that first book is complete! Now of course I need to get to work on all of the others that I have... slowly but surely. Here is my cover with AC rose trim added on and rubons from Fancy Pants.

 My inside cover with self portrait and my first washi tape, oh that seems like so long ago! Many, many rolls of washi tape later!

 My first page I wanted to feature the person that I love the most in this world on, at that time, his new motorcycle.

 These are pictures that I took of things that I love and use on a daily basis, first off my coffee, and not last (just added last) is my adorable kids.

 Random things that I am thankful for. This was still very early in my Smashing style, later you will see that I evolved into a much more scrapbook/artistic style.

 A page about my starting a photography business, and our trip to see Breaking Dawn.

 Outfit inspiration from Pinterest, yes I printed out all of those pictures and cut them each out!

 Pictures of me and our trip with my parents to see Kellie Pickler in concert.

 My wish list on the left and on the right is a few of my favorite things which it took me a while to realize that it was all becoming food related.

 Places that my husband and I want to go someday. Oh, someday...

 My top 10 desserts from Pinterest that I want to make and try.

 I decided to fill in a few of the smash pad lists and put them here. Then I used Pinterest to find images to go along with some of those things.

 Bible Verses that make me happy, many are ones that I need to read often.

 Home Decor ideas that I got off of Pinterest. This was before I dedicated a whole book to Home Decor/Ikea hack ideas. I really should get started on that one, I have the dividers done but that's it so far. Whoops!

 Blogs I love to read are on the left page and on the right are some things in my house that make me happy.

 Scrapbook pages that I like and things about them that I want to try out on my own pages.

 DIY projects from Pinterest that I would love to do at some point. In all of that spare time you know!

 More DIY ideas and I used the YOU to write my journaling about doing these projects.

 Favorite books from my life on the left and recently read titles on the right. I need to read more often.

 Pictures of Neil and I and words from poems and stuff that I have found online and liked.

 Scrapbookers that Inspire me.

 Recipes that I want to try, I need to expand our family menu desperately!

 Shoes I love on the left and shows that I love on the right. I'm thinking now that I need to do a whole smash page dedicated to BBC Sherlock.

 iPhone apps that I love are randomly written on the left and different accessories and gadgets for the iphone on the right.

 This is the page that I wish wasn't there. I was trying to cover up the ugly horse face before I realized that you could just use paper to cover the whole page. But you try and you learn right? So this is about nail polish and the colors and how much I like them.

 My mom and I work the scrapbook expos here in SoCal and this was the Anaheim one. Lots of fun!

 I love Purses! These are just some of the ones that I have found on Pinterest and wanted.

 My Right Now page is on the left and on the right is where I started getting a little more artistic with my pages. I took that picture of my new shoes while we were in Maui and it makes me happy.

 A few more scrapbook layouts that I like.

 My mom and I drove all the way to San Diego for the day just to take an all day class with THE Amy Tan AND Kelly Purkey! It was a dream come true for me to get to meet them, learn from them, and get to know them a little.

 I love color lately and can't seem to get enough of it to add into my wardrobe.

 About our trip to Vegas with my parents last August. We had a lot of fun.

 A way to save and do something with all of the little drawings and "treasures" that my kids bring me.

 Scrapbook supplies that I love and seem to reach for over and over again.

 Tags from clothes that I have bought recently.

 The cosmetics and skincare that I use including a peek inside my makeup drawer and medicine cabinet.

 My obsession with the royal family.

 Some random pictures of my that I haven't been able to find another use for so they found a home here.

 I ended the book with my favorite drink, a Lava Flow, because anytime there is one of these in my hand, it's going to be a good time!

 My back cover using a Queen & Co. strip and one more rub on.