Home Sweet Home

We brought Natalie home from the hospital 2 days after she was born, which ended up being my actual due date. (Hard to believe that was only 2 weeks and 2 days ago!) We had had a rough 2nd night with her, as she started to become hungry and need diaper changes... and so when we were getting ready to take her home we were so scared she would scream and cry the entire way. Luckily, she, along with lots of other babies, was soothed by the car ride and was just fine! We got her home, safe and sound :)

My main inspiration was the latest member video from Paperclipping.com - I used papers from the Valley High kit by Studio Calico to start, but then added random embellishments to complete.

I cut the Home Sweet Home die cut with my Silhouette, that I purchased from the Silhouette online store.

Hoping this good start to Natalie's baby album keeps up so she doesn't get to be 5 years old before I finish it!

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!

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!

Two Become One - Wedding Scrapbook Layout

We didn't have very good pics from the wedding ceremony of our friends' wedding, so I printed out the same photo twice, with one of them zoomed in a little closer and printed them small. This layout though sat on my table for longer than usual because 1. I was stumped on the papers to use (the pictures gave off a mostly purple color, which seems to be a rare color these days for scrapbooking supplies), and 2. I've been so tired this last trimester, that even just the thought of sitting at my scrap table makes me feel like taking a nap! I guess I will blame it on the 3rd trimester while I can!

A scrapbook gift came to me before I had any papers picked out - in the form of Studio Calico's latest kit, Valley High! Wow, they actually had some of the deep magenta colors, that came about as close to the colors in my photo as I could get! The papers also had some pink, so now I could use pink, tied together with the colors from the other paper at the top! So I sewed a big chunk at the top, along with the colored card stock underneath!

After I finished sewing the papers, that's when this layout sat on my table for quite awhile. I sort of got stuck how to get the pictures to not feel like they were floating around in the rest of the space. I added some layers and after that, tried to make them not float by adding sequins in an off-center diagonal from top to bottom, cutting through the pictures to keep your eye focused...

Anyway, the final touch was cutting out the 1 from my Silhouette - and then I remembered the small stash of POW Glitter paper I have and found that "Blush" color went perfectly! I added a couple more pieces to balance it out and decided it was finished!