Teenage Boy Birthday Card

I made this card for my sister-in-law's nephew who is turning 16 this year! You'd think that's a tough crowd to make a card for, but last year he loved this karate-themed birthday card I made for him so much I couldn't wait to make him another one - such a good kid!! There are some grown men who don't even notice when I've handmade a card for them, but he noticed and since he didn't open it in front of me, he later thanked me with details of why he loved the card!

Anyway, I thought I'd keep it simple and clean, so I used my Silhouette to cut out the diamond pieces, which were the blank cuts that were meant to coordinate with the Cotton Candy stamp set I purchased from Studio Calico last month! I love being able to buy the blank cuts that go with the stamps, then you don't have to cut them out by hand and makes life so much easier haha!

I thought about using different colored stamp pads to stamp with, but decided it would just look cleaner with simple black and white. When Chris got home from work the other day when I finished it (and that's when I setup my scrapbook layouts or cards out on the table for him to see/admire hehe), he immediately said he loved it - I love when he truly loves something I've made, because he'll go, "That's so awesome, don't you love it!?" because he's so thoughtful and wants to make sure I love it too! Haha, OK enough with the love fest, but seriously I hope Stewart loves this card as much as last year's card!

Bearded Buds

Our friends came over to meet Natalie and also made and brought us an amazing dinner! I didn't get pics of the dinner though because we ate it right away, like while they were still over!! It was delicious and we were so blessed by it, especially back then - that first week with our newborn was so crazy!

I made this layout tonight while Chris took Natalie for a walk - it was that fast!! I wasn't planning on making a layout tonight because my new kit comes tomorrow, but it came together so quickly and easily I wasn't gonna fight it!

I used the Double Scoop kit by Studio Calico, but also added some bits and pieces from Amy Tangerine's Cut & Paste collection. I basically just grabbed some scraps from the kit that were on my table and arranged them to make the background, then embellished - I'm amazed how quickly I scrap these days! I guess if you've got a ticking time bomb going (aka baby), then you're bound to do things a little faster haha!!

I Love You

First thing's first, you may notice the photo quality of these pictures on my blog are not as good as before. Two reasons for this: 1. I haven't had time to take the photos with my camera, edit them, and then post... and 2. my daughter prefers to nap during the day in the napper in her Pack 'n Play which resides in our bedroom, which is the only place I've found that has good daylight to take the photos. As a result of 2., point 2-1. is that I had to take the photos with my iPhone in the basement where my scrap area is, so no daylight and not the highest resolution...

Anyway, for this layout of Chris getting ready to put Natalie to bed, I used the Double Scoop kit by Studio Calico again! I knew I wanted to use those stamps at the top though, so I embossed in white on dark navy blue card stock.

For the tag at the bottom, I used some older label stickers and placed them on the label and let them go off the edges. I inked up the front of the wood veneer shapes with Hero Arts Neon yellow ink and added that Bananafish Studios label - I am loving those labels from the kit!

Proud Papa!

We had a bunch of guys from church over on what happened to be Natalie's 1 week birthday! We ordered pizza and wings from Pontillo's, which was amazing and hung out and watched a little preseason football afterwards. Natalie was so good - she slept in one of the guys' arms the entire time (minus having to get up and feed once)!

This layout was mostly dictated by the shapes of the photos I wanted to include. 2 squares and a rectangle - let's make a grid haha! Not very innovative, but works for me! 

I used the latest Studio Calico kit, Double Scoop on it. It came together very quickly, so that is the part I am most happy about!

My Family

I just LOVE these pictures I got of Chris and Natalie after her first sponge bath at home (at like 5 in the morning because we weren't yet on any sort of schedule haha)!!

This layout came together very quickly! I knew before I even started it, that I wanted to cut out some of the frames from that piece of paper. I created the large colored frame for the photo by cutting it from a piece of paper, then penciling in a frame to look like the frames on the background paper!

I just embellished with patterned paper, stamps, etc. till it looked complete - easy and fun to work on!

Sleep Tight

How cute are babies when they are swaddled!? I never really thought so until I looked at my baby girl all swaddled up, and especially with that hair!! She is too cute! Of course this picture is from about 2 weeks ago, when she liked to be swaddled... now at 3.5 weeks old she has already grown out of it and doesn't like it anymore haha!

I just loved this layout by Nicole Samuels, and scrap-lifted it pretty closely except with different papers etc.

I used the latest Studio Calico kit, Double Scoop and the newest stamp set, Cotton Candy! I embossed the diamond stamps in white Zing embossing powder then cut them out with scissors.

I made my own tag out of some large chevron patterned paper, cut out the two corners with my circle punch and added the circle sticker and twine from my stash. I didn't think I would, but I love the label set from Bananafish Studios (that smile tag is one of them) that came in this month's Studio Calico add-on, Sprinkles! I thought I would hate having to cut them out, but I actually like it better that I can see all of the labels and then only cut out the one(s) I want to use - plus I don't have a very high-quality printer to print the labels that nicely anyway.

1st Walk

Same set of pictures from the last layout - taking Natalie out for her first walk in her stroller along the canal! The best part was in our conversation, Chris said the stroller wouldn't collapse with the car seat adapter in it, but if it did, he would call Baby Jogger and yell at them "your stroller clam-shelled my baby!!" Hahaha, clam-shelled! That gave us such a good laugh after a lot of sleepless, crazy nights!

Anyway, I got the inspiration for this layout, loosely from the last sketch for the Stashbuster's Anonymous class with Aly Dosdall over at BigPictureClasses.com. After that I grabbed some scrap pieces of paper in various sizes off my table to arrange them on the page in different ways till I liked this arrangement, and cut the same size pieces from the papers I wanted! This might be the best way I figured out to cut specific size scraps that work for my page! Usually I just try to use a ruler and eyeball it, but having actual pieces of paper (without cutting into my good paper) to move around worked well and quickly!

For the embellishments I cut the clouds, banner, and flowers from that same piece of background paper from the Cut & Paste collection by Amy Tangerine for American Crafts! The rest of the embellishments and the papers etc were all from the Double Scoop Studio Calico kit!

I'm happy with how fast this layout came together! This month was the first time in awhile that I ordered the "More Patterned Paper" from Studio Calico and so glad I did, since I haven't had any issues with cutting into the papers for just a square or small piece etc, and especially because I tend to use a whole sheet at a time for an entire background since I don't usually use plain card stock for my backgrounds. Maybe I should do this more often! :)

#CANALSIDE

4 days after Natalie was born, we took her to her first Doctor's appointment (because of the weekend) and then we took her for her first walk in her stroller! Who knew she'd love it!

My inspiration came from this layout by Amy Tan using the new Studio Calico kit, Double Scoop!

I used the digital cut file by Studio Calico to cut out the stamp background on white paper, then stamped over the die cuts with Hero Arts inks - love the coordinating stamps and diecuts!!

Granted, we didn't walk very far since I was still healing from delivery, but it was great to get out and get some fresh air! We have been so blessed with this season that Natalie was born in - able to get out for lots of walks and have the windows open in the house!