New Year's Resolutions...

My New Year's Resolutions are pretty...unoriginal.  They include making the effort to lead a healthier lifestyle by eating more cooked-from-scratch meals, making sure we "eat a lot of colour" and continuing to do something active every day.  Not necessarily high-impact, but something...even if it's just my morning walk with Annie (who's become quite a challenge on her leash around other dogs) and the kids in the stroller (who have become quite a challenge to push in said stroller with every pound they gain...coughcoughOwencoughcough).

As for scrapbooking, my goals this year are to find a balance between creating an album for Pete and I and maintaing the albums for the kids.  This shouldn't be too hard, since I have only scrapped one page for us.  One.  Shameful.  Also, I have pretty much run out of photos of the kids to scrap.  Well, I probably could find a few of teeny, tiny, baby Owen that I should do (oh, and his first Christmas), but for the most part...my favourite site's sketches (www.scrapbooksteals.com) have been neglected because I have no photos of my little monkeys!

So, I started off this scrapping year with a bang and I've upped my "pages-of-us-scrapped" total by 3!!!  I'm actually feeling pretty great about it.

My second scrapbooking-related quest is to give myself a little more creative freedom with the sketches that I follow.  This one is tough for me.  When I see a sketch I like, I really want my layout to turn out exactly as sketched, but I realized that I was kind of losing the creative outlet that I loved...so I need to take that back.  I absolutely love working from sketches, so I can still do that...I just need to allow myself to incorporate my own twist!  That is what sketches are intended to do...get your creative juices flowing, but I just took them too literally...not anymore!  ;)

The first page (featuring Pete and I) is actually the very beginning.  Quite fitting, I think!  :)  Wow, it really seems like yesterday that Pete and I were living in two different cities attempting to form a relationship, but it's been five years...and a LOT has happened since then!  When I was looking back at our photos, I was a little disappointed in how few I actually have of the two of us!  Not to mention the poor quality of the photos compared to now (and it's not like it was 1950), but I'm trying to make the best of what I have.  Also, I wasn't a "scrapbooker" 5 years ago...I find I take photos more carefully now, fully aware that every photo I take might be my next best layout!

This layout was inspired by the great Kristy Lee at www.scrapbooksteals.com.  It's based on Mid-Week Mojo sketch #25.  Kristy's sketch was actually a two-page layout and I really like doing two-page layouts, but you have to have great photos, as they're usually showcasing full-sized photos as opposed to mini-prints.  With these photos, I need to print them as mini-prints in an attempt to disguise their terrible quality, but still preserve the memories in a layout!  :)

I really love the paper for this layout...it's got a lot going on with glitter and texture, but offset with muted colours...almost antique-y looking (My Mind's Eye Laundry Line - Natural, and some plain kraft card stock for the journaling tags).  Almost every layout of mine will have American Crafts Thickers for the title...love them.  Martha Stewart ink, Basic Grey buttons, Pebbles chips, Sew Easy Floss and some little pearls (love Dollarama...lol) round off the contents of this layout.  

My second layout is another sketch from Sketchy Thursdays.  I'm really liking this site...and it's nice to have a second sketch to work from because sometimes I do the Mid-Week Mojo on the day it's released, and then I'm itching to scrap, but need some more inspiration.  I decided to shift the journaling so that I could include my odd-shaped photos, instead of squaring them off.  

For this layout, I used Scenic Route Grafton line (love, love, love the gorgeous patterns and bold colours) and you also see American Crafts Thickers (outlined with black marker), Pebbles chips, Basic Grey buttons and Sew Easy floss.  I really want to get my hands on some coloured twine, but until I make the two-hour trip to my "local" scrapbooking store, my precious collection of floss will have to do!

My last layout uses Imaginisce Splash Dance.  This is just may be the cutest beachy-summery collection and I can't believe I'm just digging into it now!  I've had it sitting in my stash for about six months!  This is another Mid-Week Mojo (#22b) sketch from www.scrapbooksteals.com's blog.  You'll probably see me use quite a few of these sketches in the next few weeks...I have a lot to catch up on!  Another page featuring Pete and I during our first summer together actually living in the same city (Elliot Lake).  

American Crafts Thickers, Sew Easy floss (can you tell I'm really trying to master the Sew Easy...lol...it's pretty much been used in every layout since it arrived in my mailbox), sticker pearls, kraft card stock (Recollections) and some sticker embellishments that I found in my stash...I'm guessing they're probably Jolee's?  When I first started scrapbooking, that's what I thought it was all about.  Having coordinating stickers with the subject of your page...I've pretty much moved away from that, but these ones were just too perfect to leave out!

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Deja "View"

Two posts in two days...look out blogging world...lol!
This layout is based on Sketchy Thursdays sketch for this week (1.6).  Both my munchkins napped at the same time today, which left me a bit of time to get this one started and finished (rare!).

I really like the look of the sketch...very pleasing to the eye, I think.  Unfortunately, I'm not as 'in love' with my final layout.  I definitely felt as though I really rushed it and I'm regretting using red as the background...it was between red and a more muted brown with dots...darn it.  Oh well, if I had all the time in the world, I'd redo it, but I don't have that luxury...lol!  I don't 'dislike' it, I just find it a bit super-hero-y...lol!  Anyway, I DO love the photos...too funny that I managed to capture them both doing the same thing at almost the same age.  Cuties.
I used American Crafts Abode (thank you scrapbooksteals.com).  I love the vibrant colours in this collection and I also love that it's not all homey and cooking patterns.  Some plain, everyday papers also, and I took advantage of them.

Okay...looking at it again...I kind of like it...lol!  I just have to learn not to rush.  My layout will still be there to work on during tomorrow's naptime!  :)

Sketchy Thursdays

I'm always looking for new sites/fan pages for inspiration...let's face it, we can all use a few creative tips!  I found a super cute blog and Facebook fan page called Sketchy Thursdays.  They have a ton of sketches on their blog and they are all so cute.  The greatest thing (aside from the little bit of inspiration) is that you can enter your sketch to randomly be selected to win a prize donated by various sponsors.  Who doesn't like the chance to win free stuff?  This site is definitely right up my alley!  Anyway, here is one of their latest sketches.  It's actually for a guest design spot, but I'm not really experienced enough to fit that bill, but I wanted to play along.

The sketch was PERFECT for three photos that have been sitting on my desk since Thanksgiving.  I was wondering if they were ever going to get their chance to shine...lol! 

We entered Joely in a 100m 5 & Under fun run in Guelph on Thanksgiving Monday (I was running the 5km) and it was so. cute.  She totally rocked her little race setting a new personal best at 1m13s.  She was a bit hesitant at first (there were a lot of kids lined up at the starting line...and all much bigger than her), but once the gun went off and everyone started running...she was all for it!  Once the little race was over, she just wanted to run...no more walking...lol!  It was really cute.  I love her.  I'm hoping, since we're always in Elmira for Thanksgiving, that this race series will become a little tradition for our family...hopefully Pete will run it with me this year!

Another take...on my sketch!

I used Imaginisce's Cottage Christmas for this layout!  This is actually how I envisioned the original sketch, but I didn't have enough photos for a layout...lol!  Joely's Christmas page was the perfect solution!

Scrapbook Steals!!!

Somebody pinch me!  Am I dreaming?

When Kristy asked me to be a guest designer...I was BEYOND excited!  I'm not worthy!  Let's face it, I'm pretty new to these scraptastic adventures (relatively speaking)!  I'm coming up on my two-year anniversary of scrapping...I just needed a "subject" to get me going (enter my 21 month old little girly)!  While I've loved every minute, thank goodness for Scrapbook Steals (Kristy, Melodee and all the amazing fans) to help guide me along the way!

After I asked Kristy if she was sure...(I mean, really, you're serious?), I didn't think scrappy life could get any better!  AND THEN Kristy let me in on which kit they might be sending me...I nearly passed out!
I love all-things-American-Crafts...and omgoodness, Letterbox did not disappoint!  I can't believe all the amazing scrappy goodness included in this collection.  The Thickers alone had me SWOONING (seriously, I have an addiction)!  Also, besides creating scrapbooking layouts with Letterbox, this kit is definitely a card maker's dream with all the sweet rub-ons (I snuck a few in Owen's journaling, and one in Joely's title)!  There's so much paper included in this kit that I've managed to do two full layouts (and I'm not shy when it comes to using as much paper as I can in a collection), cover the frame with the scraps and I still have more than three quarters of the paper left!  WHAT?  Yah, I know!  Bring on my next project!!!

While I flipped through the awesome-ness of this kit, I was pretty sure that I was going to do a couple of layouts for Joely...I mean, it's got a pretty girly vibe.  After a second look, nuh-uh, no way...I was totally going to use my sketch to do a layout for each of my little monkeys!  There is some serious boy potential in this kit!

For Joely's layout, I wish, wish, wish I had put her in a pink shirt this day, but instead she's wearing her ridiculously cute Andee Lew bright RED shirt from kidsteals.com (super cute shirt, not a great match for my layout)!  I could have chosen another photo (I mean, let's be serious...every little girl has a billion photos featuring pink clothing), but I'm madly in love with this photo, so black and white was my solution!  I think it turned out great.  The only add-ons that I used that aren't included in the kit were the two pieces of ribbon (also American Crafts), Martha Stewart inks, and the Sew Easy floss (ahem, all three were previous steals)!

Little Owen's layout...this little dude gets cuter and cuter every day (I'm not even biased...)!  We were so lucky to get his coy little smile on camera...this was one photo that wasn't going to sit in my scrappy space unscrapped for long!  I can't believe how well the colours all worked for this layout!  For those of you looking for some neutral, un-girly pages...rejoice!  It just goes to show the versatility that this collection has!  The add-ons again include the AC ribbon, MS ink, Sew Easy floss and Basic Grey buttons (which I can NEVER get enough of)!

I have had soooooooooo much fun with this kit...a huge thanks to Kristy and Melodee for giving me this fantastic opportunity!  I can't WAIT to see what all you awesome ladies come up with!

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy this kit once you get it!  It's so stinkin' cute!  I might have to steal a second one! <3