A Toddler Lives Here

I saw the idea for this page in a recent Creating Keepsakes magazine. That layout was really neat but I wanted to try this new London's Eye template from Pixels2Pages so I went for it. I wasn't sure where to place the journaling and played with a few different options but finally settled for this.

But, the more I looked at it, the less I liked it. I didn't want the journaling to take over the pictures so I played around by flipping the page the other way, making my own matching elements by cutting pieces of the paper out and used the design of the paper to place the journaling. I'm a lot happier with how take 2 turned out. See how cool digiscrappin' is!!

It's coming together...

My new craft space, that is! Dh put my cabinets together and hung my shelf for me. I'm so excited! We are revamping this entire room and this is my space in it. I had the desk already and all of my supplies crammed in an old tv armoire (you can see a little of it in the pic). It worked but we needed to get the armoire out of there to make room for a guest bed. So, dh found these cabinets at Big Lots that happened to match my desk, yay! I thought I was going to have to paint everything. The cabinets hold everything scrapbook related, the desk has some scrapbooking tools on one side and my sewing machine and supplies on the other side. And the Sterilite drawers under the desk hold all of my stamping supplies. The white shelf holds a variety of embellishments for various crafts. On the desk is everything I need for my current project, my tool turn-about and my wonderful Ott light. And my trimmer and Wishblade are top of one cabinet while the other cabinet displays a few things I've done. The desk has an extention leaf that allows me another 12" of work space and I'm going to make something to cover the Sterilite containers. I still need to organize it a bit more and decorate a little but I'm very happy with the progress so far.

Funny Story

I made this card for a good friend of mine. I can post about it now b/c she should have received it. I've been wanting to send her a card to say hello for a couple of weeks now and knew I wanted to use this paper, it just took me a little while to figure out what to do with it. You see, I recycled this paper from a bunco host gift she gave me a year or so ago. She gave me a can filled with some goodies and when I was done with it, I couldn't stand the thought of this cheerful paper being tossed. So, I did what any good crafter would do, I took it off of the can. However, that was a difficult process b/c she used the good tape (the red stuff) to adhere it. I told her about this and she thought it was funny so I thought it appropriate to use it to make her a card. I don't really believe in original ideas but this idea just hit me one day, to have the cute circles peeking out from circles on the card. I made the card square and used my CM circle cutters to cut the circles in the cardfront. I wish I had thought to add a few smaller holes with a hole punch but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. And of course, I had to use stickles!! I think it helped to make the "i" even more i-ish, hehe. And I like the circle peeking out inside as well. Wonder if she recognized the paper?

Scrapping Simply vs. Costco

I printed 1 digital scrapbook page at Costco and 8 through Scrapping Simply and I have decided to go with Scrapping Simply from now on. They both use the same paper but the service of SS can't be beat and the price is cheaper if you print enough. I don't have a membership to Costco but my best friend does and in a pinch I could get her to pick up a print for me or meet her there. But, I like how easy it is to upload to Scrapping Simply, the customer service is outstanding, if you're not happy with anything you get a full refund and the price is better. If you print/ship 5 prints, each print is the same price as Costco and if you print/ship over 5 prints, the price is cheaper. I placed my order on Sun. and received it today (Thurs.). I was worried about them bending in shipping but they were packaged very well, no bends at all. I sent 2 emails, 1 before placing my order and 1 after I placed it b/c I was concerned about something and received a response in less than 24 hours and of course my prints turned out perfect. So, I definitely recommend SS!!

Sweet Compliment

The other day I was talking with a friend of mine about the photo globe page I made and she gave me the sweetest compliment. She told me how much she loves my scrapbooks, she said that they are beautiful and I'm an inspiration to her, that I inspired her to make her son an ABC book. I wasn't quite sure what to say, no one has ever said anything like that to me. It made me feel wonderful. I get so much inspiration from my scrapbooking friends and online that I never thought of myself as an inspiration to others. This friend did make her son an ABC album and all I could think about was how he will probably cherish that album one day and how it was made by his very own mommy. That's why I scrapbook. I may be slow and I really don't care if I have a page that's "in style". I enjoy the process of it, both traditional and digital and I want my son to know about his family and our life and maybe one day when I'm gone he'll cherish the stories I've written for him and there will be no doubt in his mind how much he is loved.

Photo Globe

Sheri-I catered this globe to Noah's pics of the day, let me know if you prefer this for your scrapbook.

I am having a blast with SBC+!! I found this awesome group on Facebook called "Go Digital" and they were trying this Photo Globe technique. I found wonderfully written directions here and gave it a try. It was so much fun....I mean SO MUCH FUN!!! I could do every page like this for a year and be happy I think, LOL.

Storybook Creator Plus Layouts

I made these layouts yesterday/today. I love SBC+, have I said that before? B/c I really, really love this software!! :)

In this one, I used CM Construction Zone paper, "fun" sticker and brackets from the CM Discover set and the labels are CM digifreebies. The "3" is from a free alpha set from ComputerScrapbook.com and "mud" is typed in a free font (I googled "mud font" and was kind of shocked that one actually existed). Anyway, I love the power of color sampling, as you can see on this LO! And I had tons of fun with the "fun" sticker with texture and the glow effect. On the brackets, I used 2 textures - the bricks then concrete. This was a quick and easy page using CM's Cozy Winter set, including the digifreebie snowflake.

This is where I love SBC+ even more, Walgreen's offered a free 8x10 this week but I didn't need anything that size, I needed 5x7's of this pic. So, I created an 8x10 page and fit 2 of these 5x7 pages I created, saved as a jpg and uploaded to Walgreen's. Cool stuff! This is a pic of my son and his 2 BFF's. Me and the other 2 moms love this pic, first of all they were still enough to get all of them in a pic together and secondly they are doing what they love best, watching a life-size toy! I could have just printed this pic and given it to them but I wanted to make it a little extra special. The paper is from CM's Primary set, photo mat was color sampled from the shorts and the font is called "Rubber Stamp" and was color sampled from the bench.

Another Cross

A "Jesus Loves Me" cross for a baby girl.

You are my SONshine!

Walgreen's had a special on 11x14 posters this week and I had an empty 11x14 frame, yay! I made this to go in my bathroom, pics from various baths throughout my sons' first couple of years. Since the opening in the frame isn't quite 11x14, I'll trim the border you see around the photo so it will fit. Can't wait to receive it! I used a paper and sticker (I changed the color) from CM's Discover kit and the duck and bubbles were CM digifreebies, gotta love 'em! I can't remember which CM kit the ribbon is from. The pic looks grainy because I saved it as a low-res to load quicker on the blog.