Oh Dear

I just had these awesome photos of Natalie with a balloon my parents got for me for my birthday... she was loving it... till she let it slip through her fingers and she fell backwards hehehe!!

I basically just wanted to keep them in a sequence so I spread them across the page and used the Office Hours kit by Studio Calico to complete this layout.

As I'm becoming more experienced in my scrapbooking and listening to the Paperclipping Roundtable have lots of discussions about finding your own style, I realize one thing I love doing because it's SO insanely simple is using a label going off the page off-centered, and embellishing a little bit around it - this is really starting to be my go-to strategy to finish off a page!

Romans 4:9-17

I brought up some of the rest of my Smash brand stuff this weekend to work on my Bible study notes while Natalie was having some good playtime.

I used a pocket for my original notes in case I messed up something and needed clarification. I have most of the Smash writing pads that are out, but hardly ever use them, ugh! So I pulled out one that had some space for writing and covered the title/prompt (I think it said Today's Playlist or something) with a label so I could write the title of the sermon on it instead.

Some highlights of this message:
* One of the great tactics of the enemy is to cause us or make us unsure of our salvation, but once saved (truly saved), always saved = the blessed assurance
* Your salvation is solely based on the Lord

Romans 3:27 - 4:8

I finally took out my Bible study notes and continued with my notes from Romans 3:27-4:8! It was a great opportunity to re-study this sermon, especially since it's been a year and a half since I first heard it!

I used some pieces from this month's Office Hours kit by Studio Calico, including some digital pieces, like the labels. But I really loved those geotags for bullet points! I take notes with LOTS of bullet points... I really could make use of them on every page of this notebook!

Some highlights from this message from our pastor, Pastor Dave Tomasso:
* You are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ!
* "I am a great sinner and God is a great Savior"
* The law is used as a thermometer to tell the sinner there is a problem
* What was on our bank statement was sin, but the instant we believed, righteousness was imputed (not imparted)

Love Your Faces

I combined some photos from my phone onto a 5x7 frame and printed it as one photo for this layout of my funny bunny!

I was challenged and inspired to use January 2012's kit Block Party from Studio Calico, after I commented on a thread in their forum that that was one kit I hardly touched due to the fact it was during my first trimester morning sickness when I was pregnant and therefore I was nauseous and tired that I didn't scrap much around then! The ladies gave me some inspiration that they had created, so here I am... finally making use of this kit!

I had eyed the letter blocks piece of paper for a long time, but decided to be brave and cut it up for part of my title! I then cut up a border from the same sheet. Originally I made this layout on a plain blue card stock background paper, but unless my background is white, I have a hard time with a card stock background, so I pulled everything up and adhered it to this polkadot background paper that came in the kit!

Loved

I guess this layout is proof that Natalie is my first child. She gets her picture taken just for looking cute while laying on the floor. Then she gets a whole page scrapped with said picture!

Last night Chris went out to get me my favorite snack: Lays brand potato chips & Helluva Good french onion dip! While he was out, I started this layout and finished it not long after he got home - so it was just a very quick layout (my favorite kind)!

I trimmed a white piece of card stock 4" wide and added it along the side to break up the pretty, but busy floral pattern on the paper. I used the Office Hours kit by Studio Calico to complete this layout, except the edge of the gold doily from my stash... sadly I actually pulled that edge piece out of the (top of my) scrap garbage can, leftover from my previous project. Wow, that was so Chris-esque of me haha :)

I knew I wanted to use those gold labels by Maggie Holmes' so incorporated those along the edge instead of trying to do some border between the pieces of paper. I adhered those little plastic floral pieces with my Martha Stewart glue pen, and added the little digital label by Hello Forever that I printed and cut at home. As a side note, I printed this photo from my phone to my printer wirelessly from bed one day... I love how lazy technology lets you be haha!

My Accomplishment

Every morning I get a few hours of alone time with my baby before my workday begins - how awesome is that!? I get a few hours to feel how it might be to be a stay-at-home mom... aka, not much gets done around the house. I focus all my effort and energy on her but since it is just me and her, she (and I) can get bored kinda quickly... hence the pics I took one morning for this layout :)

Anyway, I finally got to dig into my March kit, Office Hours, by Studio Calico for this one! I knew for my first layout I wanted to use that awesome scalloped patterned paper so I specifically chose these colorful photos to go with it!

I bought the Hello Forever printables that went with the kit. Originally I was going to put a number under each part of the picture, but it was looking too rigid and obvious, so I used the one over a wood veneer circle and the rest I put in the corner. I stitched a little heart into one of the wood veneer circles and stamped the Hello onto paper and punched it out and added to another wood veneer. I used the new Color Theory ink pad for it... and uh oh, loved the dye ink and how rich it stamped! Might have to pick up a few more of those! Thanks for stopping by today!

Sick Today

This winter is something else... everyone here has been sick all season long, except me and Natalie - praise the Lord! But unfortunately my husband was sick 2 weekends in a row = no scrapping for me! Which is why I've been MIA, but I think I finally caught up with getting 8 layouts done with Sugar Rush, just as the next Studio Calico kit showed up at my door!

This layout was a labor of love and one of those ones that just didn't come together quickly. Aside from cutting out the glasses from a piece of paper, I didn't know what I wanted to do and started with a completely different piece of paper that, after a couple weeks of sitting on my table and trying to make it work, I ended up having to toss it. Once I did that and also got my next kit and this was the last layout I had to finish, I completed it last night more quickly!

I used a couple pieces from this month's Office Hours Studio Calico kit and am content with how it turned out, plus now I can move on - I put away Sugar Rush last night and ready to tackle Office Hours!

About You

I haven't been good about doing specific pages for every month of Natalie's life, so I decided I'd try to do a 6 months collage with some facts about what she's up to!

I used a digital template by Catherine Davis (I think I got it from her PROCESS class over at BigPictureClasses.com). I liked the small size for my crappier iPhone photos.

I used Studio Calico's Sugar Rush kit, plus the gold doily and hearts from their Lemon Lush collection. I cut out pieces of paper to fill in the spaces and journal on top of.

Originally, I was planning to do all different pieces of paper for the squares, but it saved time and effort to do just the one piece of paper, plus I was able to journal on top and have it still show up pretty well. After I decided to do that it came together very quickly!