Family Visit

The next day, after I had Natalie, we had our family come visit her in the hospital! She was so good for everyone, just slept and got passed around. She's still like that (even 2 weeks later haha), so good for our company!

I got the idea for this layout from Challenge 10 in the Stashbusters Anonymous class I'm taking at Big Picture Classes with Aly Dosdall - I just stamped a bunch of Amy Tangerine stamps on the center banner piece and embossed with White Zing embossing powder.

The background paper is from the Valley High kit by Studio Calico, and the label and title letters are from the Front Row kit. I wrote out my journaling, then cut it into strips to adhere underneath.

I didn't have to embellish much, since the stamps and the patterned paper really filled the page. Another quick and easy layout - I completed 2 layouts yesterday, wow!

Sleepy Baby

My baby makes such funny faces - I love this one that she did right away on her first day of life, her little yawn face! And she has such a nice, full content face after she's eaten.

I got the idea for this layout from the Stashbusters Anonymous class I'm taking at Big Picture Classes with Aly Dosdall. I punched out pinked circles from patterned paper and built a background, then added my pictures on top, along with the sticker that was stuck to Natalie's bassinet.

I used paper from the Valley High kit by Studio Calico, but the wood veneer letters from Marks & Co. kit. I added the ribbon by adding adhesive to the back of the length of the ribbon, then creating the ruffles and adhering each ruffle separately with a glue dot.

This layout was fun to put together and didn't take long at all, so for me a very satisfying layout!

Rooming In

I've gotten a great start to Natalie's baby album so far - and I think part of it is that 1. she sleeps a TON and 2. we can't really bring her anywhere yet, so I'm spending a lot of time at home. I didn't think I would get much time to scrap, so this is great!

For this layout, I kept it really simple and just built a grid and filled in the spaces with patterned paper and that wood veneer from Studio Calico. I used some papers from the Amy Tangerine Yes, Please collection, except the background paper was in the Planetarium kit and from Kesi'Art.

I just added a few embellishments and called it finished, even though I probably could've filled in some space at the top more. Oh well, I have a baby to go take care of!

Introducing my daughter Natalie!!

Wow, what a whirlwind the last 12 days have been, 12 days ago I started going into labor and 11 days ago my daughter arrived - all 7lbs 15oz of her, Natalie Jordan! By day 2 till about day 7, I thought, I will NEVER EVER have time to scrapbook again! (Chris also thought this about taking bike rides.) But day 9 came and just to feel normal again, I ventured into my space while Natalie napped and Chris biked, and I scrapped my first page of my daughter - something I've always wanted to do, even before we decided to have any children! It felt great, and then yesterday I scrapped another layout - and today here I am posting them... just have to be better with your time!

Onto this first layout, I had some memorabilia from the hospital - her little footprints as well as our hospital bands. I put this together really quickly, because I was so scared she was going to wake up and I'd not get another chance to scrap for awhile! I used the Marks & Co. kit from Studio Calico and stamped and embossed in silver.

The only part that didn't come in the kit were the Journal letter thickers from Amy Tan's sketchbook line. The long white letters filled that space perfectly!

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For this next layout, I wanted to complete the other side with a couple more from the same group of pictures - my little one getting weighed and measured and cleaned off. She was so good for them, and didn't fuss or cry after that initial cry out the gate. That seems to be her personality so far too, she's not fussy and only cries if she's hungry. She's so amazing!

OK so anyway, I got the layout idea from Challenge 7 of the Stashbusters Anonymous class I signed up for at Big Picture Classes with Aly Dosdall. I cut the letter background at the top with my Silhouette - purchased from the Silhouette store.

I used paper from the Marks & Co. kit again but added in paper and embellishments from Amy Tan's Yes, Please line.

Some simple and quick layouts but I am excited to get a good start on Natalie's baby album!

Fireworks!

So we took another road trip in June, this time a straight shot down to Pennsylvania to get some fireworks for Independence Day! We got up really early and left so we could get there by the time they opened, around 9am. We bought a ton of stuff (neighborhood-friendly) at Sky King, but the best part was on the way home Chris saw a sign for a Bob Evans, so we went there and ate brunch before heading home! We love Bob Evans, or as I used to call it "Bob Bevans" when I was little!

Onto the layout... I signed up for a class over at Big Picture Classes called Stash Busters Anonymous with Aly Dosdall! I used the first challenge to complete this layout, and used some very old paper from over 2 years ago! I used the American Made collection from My Mind's Eye. I also found the corresponding diecut sheet, so used that for a few of the pieces.

Mainly I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the stars from card stock. The cut file I used was from the Cut It Out class offered by Studio Calico, and was a full background pattern of stars, so I only cut part of the file out, then hand cut out the pieces I needed for this layout. The gold glitter thickers by American Crafts were from Studio Calico's March of 2012 kit, Story Hour (I think), the mini red stars were from...? And beyond that I kept it fairly simple since the paper already had such a bold pattern on it!

Pie Perfection

OK, this is the last of the Naples/Canandaigua trip, and the actual reason we decided to make this trip in the first place - Monica's Pies!! Chris had heard about this place, famous for her (concord) grape pies and even having been featured on the Food Network before! So we packed a cooler and took home a grape pie... except, it was so delicious, we ended up driving the hour and a half back the following weekend just to pick up 2 more pies, this time the frozen ones, to have for dessert with my out of town family after my baby shower! It was the perfect dessert to share with them!

This layout isn't my favorite... I guess I tend to really like layouts that look nice but come together quickly. It took me awhile to make the pie charts, and in the end I think it would've looked better on a different layout with more contrasting papers and brighter patterns, but oh well! I made the pie charts using this tutorial by Nicole Nowosad! Her method made it pretty simple to make them.

I knew I wanted different colored labels for the pie flavors so I made my own custom labels by typing them on my typewriter, cutting them out into rectangles, putting the corners to the edge of my circle punch, inking the outer edges with Hero Arts ink, and then using a pen to draw the inner line!

I used papers from the Marks & Co Studio Calico kit and embellishments from past kits. My due date is this Saturday, so let's see how many more layouts I get done before our daughter is born!!

Love This Place

Another layout from our road/day trip to Canandaigua and Naples, NY - this time we headed to Naples and found this awesome place, the Arbor Hill Grapery & Winery! We ended up hauling home a bunch of wine jellies (amazing!), sparkling grape juice (the best!), sauces, and even some concord grape gummy bears and licorice!

This layout came together quickly again! I got my inspiration this time from this great layout by Amy Tan! I had some random ephemera from Arbor Hill to include, so it was easy to see how that layout could work for what I had too.

The hardest part for me was cutting up that gray chevron type paper backing the stitched "Love" word... I cut into a whole new 12x12 piece of paper just to get that! OK, breathe...

I used the newest kit, Marks & Co. by Studio Calico, except the washi tape was from last month's kit. The main portion I am proud of is the little reddish-orange asterisk at the top! The pack of asterisks only came in blue, gray, and yellow... so I stripped the front off one of the asterisks, then first painted it with white watercolor paint (like a primer, as Chris so nicely pointed out)! Thinking in those terms I could've used some gesso, but the watercolor worked fine. Waited for it to dry, then added that reddish-orange watercolor on top, waited for it to dry. Then I wanted it to look shiny like the others, so I added some glossy accents and let dry! Now it looks like it came just like that!

Scenic Route

UPDATE: This layout made it onto the Studio Calico staff picks video for the month: Click Here to see :)

This was a fun layout to put together, and another fast one for me! This was the next layout on our little road trip to Canandaigua and Naples, NY. After we finished lunch and walking around Canandaigua, we headed to Naples to hit up the Grapery at Arbor Hill and Monica's Pies... a couple more layouts to come!

Yesterday I wanted to scratch out one more layout with last month's Studio Calico kit, Valley High, before my new kit Marks & Co. arrived! I had been "saving" the circles from Pink Paislee, thinking it would go best with some photos of me and Chris, but decided I should just use it... which is what made the layout come together quickly! I cut it into two pieces so the photos could go where I wanted them, and to make it more interesting to the eye.

I gave myself permission again to use items from my supply outside the kit, which worked great - especially those travel wood veneer from Studio Calico! I am really starting to appreciate diecut and sticker labels. I dug that one label from February's Front Row kit!

I didn't want the title too big, since it wasn't all that important, so kept it smaller with those BasicGrey letter stickers. Just love how this layout turned out!

German Lunch

Yesterday, I didn't do anything productive all day long except catch up on some napping, so when I went to scrapbook after 4pm, I wasn't expecting to actually complete a layout, but that's what I ended up doing!! This was one of my faster layouts (about 2hrs total) and can I tell you how much more I love when the layouts are super fast!? I was able to get this done by using this free video of Noell Hyman's flexible templates (from Paperclipping.com) after Shimelle Laine posted this challenge to use Noell's template, after she was a guest on the Paperclipping podcast, the Paperclipping Roundtable! Catch all that!?

Chris and I took a mid-pregnancy (I was about 29 weeks along) road trip to Canandaigua and Naples, NY! Of course Chris did his homework beforehand and found us this awesome little German restaurant where we could stop for lunch in Canandaigua! The food was sooo good! I had a Schnitzel sandwich and Chris had the Double Brats! The decor in there was so cute and the waitresses were all dressed in German outfits. So random, but so fun!

Anyway, I was scared of not having "enough" supplies to choose from if I used this last month's Studio Calico kit again (Valley High) because I only bought one add-on kit this time... but it worked out perfectly - I decided not to have qualms about grabbing anything extra from other kits/supplies, so it came together really quickly and I didn't lack for supplies!

After I chose the papers and cut them, I wanted to add another paper border strip under the photos, but ended up making a border from those October Afternoon label stickers! Love how that turned out, and I also grabbed some much older letter Thickers for the main part of the title. Quick and easy and finished by the time Chris got home from the gym, woohoo!

Graduation card!

I made this card for our cousins' graduation! It was a fun and simple one to make once I had the idea...

The main part of the card is the window - I just love the transparency paper I bought from the Studio Calico shop! You can buy transparency paper at an office supply store, but I've found it to be super expensive and you have to buy a lot of it, whereas SC sells it in just this pack of 10 sheets!

To start the card though, I added strips of, believe it or not, 3M Scotch brand washi tape that I picked up at Office Max the other day! They had some really cools color combinations, and I've determined I need more washi tape that has multiple colors in it, rather than just one color! This washi still feels and tears like normal washi tape, but the colors are very vibrant - I am loving that Scotch makes these now!

Anyway, after laying down strips of washi across the whole card, I cut out the frame from my Silhouette, then cut the inner rectangle out of the front of the card. I cut a rectangle slightly larger from the transparency and adhered to the back of the frame before adhering the full frame down. Added some thickers and stamped a personal congrats to our cousin Ray across the bottom and done! The only thing I'm thinking of adding is possibly backing the window with the cash we are going to give him :)