You Are My Sunshine layout

Hi there friends. Today I'm sharing my layout with this sketch as the inspiration....

One of my goals this year is to get caught up with my scrapbooking to at least December 2013. This photo was taken in 2011 and I can't believe how time flies. My daughter still had somewhat of a curly hair, now it's all gone. :(

I used my homemade April kit for this layout. I have wanted to use up the crepe paper from Dear Lizzy and I thought that the title matched up with the yellow color of the background.
The only problem I had was that as I was cutting the circle inside, the paper was ripping in places that I didn't want to and it was looking ugly. To remedy the issue, I added some gold washi around to cover up the ugly cuts and then added some machine stitching.

Instead of stars like in the sketch, I used some butterflies. I adhered them onto white cardstock first before fussy cutting them and adhering to the page.

I am loving my date stamp and in this page, I stamped it three times to add some interest to the page.

If you like to see the latest challenges at Paper Issues, check them out here.

Thank you for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

Dining Out layout

Happy Monday. Today's layout share was inspired by the sketch here

I like the frame around the layout but I cut mine out skinnier so that I can incorporate more things to the center of my page.

I wanted to use some fabric flowers on this layout so I added them on the top left and then I moved my title on the right side.

I made my own 'flair' type of accents by adhering bubble stickers over some pattern paper and cutting around it. I used them as a center for my flower as well as accents on two other spots on my page.

I wanted to "dress up" my frame a little bit more so I added dots of yellow paint all around it.

Since I only had two small photos to use in this page, I made my own 3x4 card to add to the left side. I stamped the "hello" stamp on white cardstock with green and orange ink and then trimmed it a little bit so it would fit my page.

I hope you are having a great week so far and thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

Exhausted and Catching Flies layout

Having a "spring break" from school is really good for my crafty self. I love having time to get some pages done. This layout is about a funny photo I captured of the older kids a few years back right after we toured Carlsbad caverns. The page was inspired by the sketch here.

The sketch had a bold pattern on the back but I used a negative cut instead and filled the back open space with pattern papers. I liked how with this technique, I was able to use up some 6x6 papers.

I had wanted to use that cut out ampersand on this layout because it matched with some of the other greens in the layout but I couldn't figure out a title that can include it. I showed the layout to my husband and he was the one that gave me the title. Funny stuff!

I added some cloud stickers on the top and enamel dots as well.

I layered a bunch papers of stickers around the page to make it stand out against the busy background. It also helped create a frame around it.

Thanks again for stopping by and come back next week for another layout share.

Till next time,
Grace

You are my Sunshine layout

I'm back with another layout share. Today I was inspired by the following sketch  found here.

and here's my take on the sketch....

I wanted to use three 3x4 photos instead of a single 4x6 so I had to get rid of some of the elements in the sketch, but I stayed true to the basic design.

I used my "bolero" kit for this layout and so you can see how bright and cheery the scrapbook page turned out to be. This is my nephew when they visited a few years ago.

I used some doily cuts from my cameo as my circle accents and placed them in three different places on my page.

I also used some paint to add those dots.  They are like small enamel dots.

I used up some small line of orange gems to add texture to my sun rays

Thanks again for stopping by and I hope this share inspired you today.

Till next time,
Grace

Play Time layout

Hi crafty friends. It's a new month and I'm pumped with all of the challenges that I'm seeing online. They are mostly sketch challenges but I'm starting off my share with this one created for the latest "scrap our stash" challenge here. The products I used are:

S- stamp (date roller stamp)

T- Typewriter

A- American crafts papers

M- Mist (black/ Studio Calico)

P- Punch (tiny heart punches)

I have been doing some binge cutting from my Silhouette Cameo and the triangle paper on the left side of the page is one of them. I added pattern papers on the back side and added my typed journaling on one of them.

For the open space on the top left corner, I added a black scallop cardstock (cut from Spellbinder's nestabilities) and then fussy cut some words from a Simple Stories' paper. I also added a punched out heart.

I used my new April homemade scrapbook kit for this layout and you can view the kit showcase here...

Thank for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

Smile, laugh, love layout + process video

This is a bit late, but here's my last layout using my March homemade scrapbook kit. I really wanted to use up all of the fun circles from one pattern paper and so I cut them out and then rearranged them on my kraft cardstock background. 

here's a process video to along with this layout share...

and here are some close ups....

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you have a creative rest of the week.

Till next time,
Grace

Family Update- March Edition

This update is a little bit late since I'm posting it after the month is over but I have finals this week and the kids have been passing an awful cough and cold onto each other that this mama just barely has time to take a deep breath.

So onto this past month's highlights....

They say the family that shares with one another, stays together. Well my kids took that in a totally different context this month. Maddie started it early this month. We got the call from school that she had high fever and was complaining of sore throat. The same symptoms she had when she had strep in February. Luckily after being seen by the doctor that same day, she didn't. But whatever "virus" she had passed onto Marcus and then to Mason and back to her. We are crossing our fingers that it will soon pass out of our home and we will be done with all of these. My poor babies have had a rough month.

Here are some other random things that I was able to capture this month with my phone's camera. From top left- 1. Maddie at the doctor's office where we thought it was strep again (thankfully it was not) 2. I was able to make some homemade yogurt this month and we ate it with some strawberry jelly. Yummy! 3 and 4- Maddie and I went to church one Sunday looking somewhat like twins with our curled hair. 5. We have been having great sunny weather so our Sunday walks are back in the schedule. 6. Thank goodness for ideas from The Friend magazine, we are able to talk about important gospel principles in a way the children can better understand it. This is a picture of our "forgiveness blocks" that is supposed to be a strong foundation for our home. 7. I got my last wisdom tooth extracted early this month and it was painful! The silver lining was being able to eat ice cream for lunch right after the dental visit. 8. Mother nature seems to always surprise us around here. We got a little blizzard in the middle of Spring break. It was a quick cold snap and melted the very next day.

Also this month the Activity day girls in our ward had a talent show. Maddie initially wanted to sing Taylor Swift's "Blank Space" but even she thought that was a bit of a daunting task (memorizing the lyrics, getting the tune right, etc) Luckily I was able to encourage her to show off some of her piano playing skills instead. She played three songs that she knew well plus displayed some of the earrings she had made.

Marcus has been progressing in Scouts this month. I don't have pictures to show but he participated in his first "freeze-o-ree" camp out at the end of February. They didn't end up doing the camp out part because it was pretty cold around here then (which bummed him out greatly) but they did have the Saturday program and Marcus enjoyed his time with that.

Mason turned 7 months in March. We can't believe how time is flying by so fast.

 Some of the highlights for him in March were:
- He has one tooth on the bottom that had come up. Although everyone is excited about this, he couldn't care less about it. He's had a rough few nights with the pain plus he's drooling a lot.
-His cough had made it worse for him. It has affected his appetite and his sleeping schedule. All he wanted to do was cuddle with mom. I was happy to oblige during the day but it was a different story at night.
-He is sitting up better this month, not much wobbles and shakes. When he sits up, we offer him some balls and easy to grab toys.
-We found a walker for him at our local Goodwill and he has enjoyed that as well. I put him in his new toy usually during dinner prep time. He likes the idea that he can scoot himself around with the walker.
-He is starting to have preference with his food. He doesn't like anything green (green peas and beans) and would move his hands onto his mouth to cover it when I'm trying to feed it to him. He also prefers table food more than his baby food. Some nights I would compromise with him and give him a little piece of my dinner and then serve him a spoonful of his food right after. Some nights it works and on other nights he catches onto my trick fast.
-As for firsts, he got to play in the pool for the first time this month. During the kids' spring break we went to our local indoor pool and I sat him close to the edge of the water. He was intrigued at first but when I scooted him closer to the small waves, he didn't like it.

So there you have it. A little snippet of what's going on around here. Thanks for stopping by and till next time....

Grace