Romans 3:25-26

OK so my scrapping has definitely been set on the back burner to my nausea/fatigue from this pregnancy! Am I more fatigued because I am pregnant or because I have stopped drinking coffee??? I may never know, but the nausea is... hopefully almost over! I found a small window of time however, to complete one spread in my smashbook! Just enough to finally finish the last bit of the last sermon notes and start the next sermon (with a recap of the last one).

I just received the latest Studio Calico kit Front Row! It came with some smash stickies that I used for the left, as well as a cool piece of Echo Park paper that had a bunch of 3x4 boxes of different patterns on it. I cut it up and rounded the corners for the piece on the lower left, and typed the next message's title on it. I randomly had that pinked circle with a stamp on it from probably a "mishap" for a different layout months ago, but went perfectly. I used the Simple Stories Snap letter stickers and voila!

The right side was inspired by a layout by Laura Kurz that she made for our Bright Ideas class at Studio Calico! I used a circles misting mask and misted on top in Clay Mister Huey's. Laura used a wood veneer piece for her center, and I just wished I had a wood veneer cross but had to settle for a stamp - which ended up being perfect timing that I just bought that Hero Arts Shadow ink in Charcoal! I added the enamel dots by My Mind's Eye for Studio Calico and am so pleased with how that looks, I will have to steal this same idea for a layout at some point!

OK so the best part of this is the message -
* Jesus is your sacrifice, He died in your stead!
* He is just and the justifier to the one who believes!

Turkey Run layout!

Wow, it took me till February to complete my first 12x12 layout of the year! In my defense though, I have been sick with morning sickness... cuz I'm PREGNANT! That's right! God has blessed me and my husband and I'm a little over 12 weeks into this thing! We got to hear the heartbeat again this morning, and that just never gets old :) So anyway, this layout has been on my table for going on 5 days now, because I seem to have morning sickness in the evenings these days... but it feels great to have one completed!

I had one more layout to do to finish up the Indiana trip last May to see my cousins. We went out one day to Turkey Run State Park to go on the trails we used to when we were much smaller... I believe the last visit was around 1994, while my Dad was still with us. My parents and my Dad's sisters and brother and their families - we all stayed overnight and ran around the trails and had a blast!!

The idea for this layout came together quickly, from the first challenge for the Studio Calico online class I'm taking this month, Bright Ideas with Nicole Samuels! Our first challenge from Amy Tan was to use a stencil - so I cut the Turkey Run title with my Silhouette, and at first used it as a misting mask. But my misting went awry... my bottles were clogged and I got more mist on my hands than the page... so plan B! I used the mask to color in the area with my Zig emboss pen and embossed with Gold glitter Zing embossing powder! Then because of the gold, I wanted to add a little more so I hand stitched around each triangle with gold thread (that part took the longest).

I'm excited to get some more 12x12 layouts done this month, especially once my nausea subsides, which will hopefully be within the next couple of weeks! Loving the class so far too :)

Happy Birthdays card!

No, that is not a "typo" - this card is for my Mom and step dad who both have birthdays coming up (2 days apart), and they don't seem to mind the combined birthday card :)

I worked off this sketch from Studio Calico, which made it easy to get started. First I cut the crooked chevron from white paper, after editing this digital image. It came in different sizes, so I used the 5x7 as a base.

Layered up some papers and from the latest Studio Calico kit, Block Party, and found some die cut pinking circles from previous kits to use. Pretty simple!

December Daily - Day 11!

Don't make fun of me, but here is Day 11 of my December Daily album! I'm really hoping I can have this completed by end of January now (before I wanted to be done by end of December haha). I'm a professional and have to give fairly precise estimates at work for projects, but I guess that doesn't translate to my scrapbooking life!

So this pic is a little strange, I took it through the blinds in the kitchen when I saw this big hawk land right on our neighbor's deck in front of the window while I was washing dishes! For the bottom strip, I embossed the circles border stamp on a piece of paper and cut around the stamped area with my Fiskars fingertip knife.

I cut the title and the feathers with my Silhouette Cameo! From there it was pretty simple, and just added a few embellishments and journaling.

I know I will love the December Daily album once it's finished, but I am def ready to get back to my regular scrapping!

Love this place!

Oh man, I still love it, but I needed a break from December Daily and 4x6 small scrapping! After going through the Creative team's latest galleries over at Studio Calico, I felt so inspired to get back to scrapping a 12x12 layout! So I did!!

I used Studio Calico's August kit, Summer of '69, to complete the layout, mostly so it would match a page I did awhile back with the same kit. When I saw this layout by Maggie Holmes, I also remembered this layout also by Maggie and used both for the inspiration for my page, especially for those banners!

I bought the palm tree/beach chair/sand cut from the Silhouette online store, added some extra strips of paper, a bit of washi tape, and some journaling to complete the layout.

I am so happy I got to scrap a 12x12 and also a non-wintery theme page! Maybe I should scrap all summer/vacation pics in winter and all winter in summer? :)

December Daily - Day 10

It took me all day on my day off to get around to it, and I do mean all day (I didn't start this layout till past 10pm last night), but once I got started, it came together quickly!

For this side, I knew I wanted to do a "green" theme because of the lack of snow, making the photo look incomplete to me. Also, after cutting out 11 banners from super thick glitter card stock (more like glitter chipboard) I didn't want to subject my Silhouette Cameo to anymore thick cuts, so I just cut a strip of the green glitter paper that came in the Studio Calico December Daily kit, as sort of a "lawn" look. I added the trees and sort of reversed where you'd put a title and journaling so the journaling would show up.

I am hardly halfway through this month, but almost out of sequins!! Geesh, who knew that would be my go-to supply for this project!

Happy December scrapping!

A Christmas Card

It's almost Christmas! The time of year to celebrate the birth of Jesus, Immanuel - God with us! Jesus was the ultimate saver, giver, and healer! I made this card for a woman staying at the Bethany House along with a box of items she might need. So hopefully they will help her in some way, and she will feel the love of Christ.

The only thing I knew I wanted to do for this card was use my manger scene stamp from Hero Arts, so I embossed in gold glitter Zing! embossing powder by American Crafts, which looks even more glittery depending how the light hits it.

The papers were from the 34th Street kit by Studio Calico, including that wonderful piece of gold POW paper. The letters were from the Darling Dear collection also by Studio Calico - and I gotta say, I am a big fan of these! They are small enough to fit on a card or fit a bunch of words on a layout, but they really stand out all on their own!

I hope this holiday season brings you blessings and joy!!

December Daily - Day 9!

Finally day 9 is complete! Ever have a layout or project just sit on your desk and you have no idea how to move it along!? For whatever reason, this day stumped me, even though it ended up very simple. Oh well, time to get day 10 started!

We just took a trip out to Trader Joe's and luckily Chris was a good sport and posed for a photo for me for my December Daily album! The washi tape at the bottom was too wide for the space, so I cut a piece of paper to fit and wrapped it with washi tape. I just added another wooden arrow from Freckled Fawn and we'll call it a day with this side!

For this side, Chris randomly saw they had some Trader Joe's holiday stickers as we were checking out and got them for me! Woohoo! I just threw on some sequins, a stamp, and used an Ali Edwards cut from the Silhouette to round it out.

For a non-holiday themed photo, I really like how these pages it fit in the album and sort of look holiday-ish! Hey, we were feeling merry & bright as we bought our groceries haha!

December Daily - Day 7&8

I thought I'd be way more productive this weekend, but I guess I was too tired to keep up, oh well - I am still determined to get my December Daily album completed before the new year! Day 7 was my Friday off from work, and when Chris brought home Chinese food for lunch, I thought for sure that'd be the highlight of my day! However, I will have some pics and a story to add to the envelope later!!

I just made this simple and added some paper at the bottom, that matched the inside of the envelope on the other side, a vellum number and a sparkly sticker, backed with some washi tape to make it stand out more!

The envelope was a cut file from Marcy Penner for the 25 Days online class at Studio Calico! I used that awesome piece of Echo Park paper to cut it, but first I added a heart from Studio Calico, to the envelope. I separated the image, and used just the inner part onto the envelope, then cut the whole image separately from the glittery paper and made a sort of outline to adhere to the outer portion of the envelope!

Here's the tutorial video from Marcy.

For Day 8, we rang the bell for the Salvation Army Red Kettle drive outside our local mall! This was awesome because some time ago I was telling Chris how I wanted to volunteer more (like in the community), but felt restricted because I don't have a car and don't drive - so Chris suggested we could both ring the bell together!! I have the best husband!!

It didn't feel too cold when we left the house, but after the sun went down and it started to rain and it got windy... yeah, it was FREEZING! Next time (we'll be ringing again in a couple weeks) I am bringing gloves, hat, long johns and whatever else might be needed!

I was able to get some of the images off the Salvation Army blog for this side since I only got the one blurry photo from the actual day.

I have pics printed out for Days 9 & 10 too! We're almost halfway there!!