4 Months

I haven't had time to craft in the past few days as work has been busy, but here is a layout I did last week. With each kid, I've taken a picture of them around 4 months with the same pose. It's cool to see how different each one looked.


It's just a simple layout with an 8x10" photo and then matted. I inked the edges of the white cardstock and added a title, buttons and a little metal quote thing because that space needed something.

Simplicity

It's raining here. Well, it's alternating between raining and pouring. I managed to scrapbook a bit this weekend which was very nice. I feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things!

But it's Monday and I have tons to do, so it's just a quick post today. Here is another simple card with my friend Jackie's background. I always make these focal things and then don't know how to finish the card. I've started using my Tim Holtz background stamps and just stamping a quick background and then layering and I'm liking the look.

Love

I was flipping through old photos of Nathalie looking for inspiration to scrapbook. I hadn't scrapped in quite awhile and I was having trouble getting back into the swing of things. I grabbed this envelope which has pictures of the early days and thought it would be fun to scrapbook. I found a layout in a magazine which provided inspiration and just started. Overall, I was happy with how it turned out. I had a bunch of these acrylic embellishments that I bought a couple of years ago because I had to have them, and I haven't used them, so out they came too. I coloured them with alcohol inks and in the end, the layout came together and I was very happy with it.

For Heather

I was at my friend Jackie's class last Saturday and another friend, Heather, came up to me and said, It's about time you started blogging again. I was a bit surprised that she had noticed my absence, but she said she had which was very nice. I just figured that people would check maybe every so often or if they saw a link on my Facebook, but Heather isn't on Facebook and so, she was just checking. So, for her, I'm trying to be better about posting.

I created this card using the same technique Jackie had taught us (well, steps 1-3 of it). Then I grabbed one of my favorite Tim Holtz sets, Reindeer Flight, and added the trees and reindeer. I love that I could create cool looking background paper to match whatever colour scheme I have in my head.

Cousins

My cousin came over to scrapbook last week and I started back with Nathalie's album. I managed to get 4 pages done, so I was quite happy.

Nathalie was the third baby born in 3 months in my family. My cousin had a little boy in March, then my Sister-in-law/Brother in April and finally Nathalie in July. When she was just a couple of days old, they all came to visit and we got a great photo. It's hard remembering her so tiny. She looks so different now. Her hair is so much lighter.

It's a very simple layout, but that's me, right?? And I'll never catch up if I spend hours on each layout.

I've read that you shouldn't always journal on the computer since people will want to remember your writing too. I hate my writing and wish longingly that I had cool printing like all the scrapbookers in the magazines. But I don't, so I don't often print on my layouts since I'm scared of messing them up. But since I could do this on a tag and if I messed up, it wouldn't wreck my layout and I could start over, I went for it.

I've decided that you don't need a lot on a layout for it to be nice. This has one piece of patterned paper, one piece of cardstock with another small one for a mat. Then just a title and a journaling tag. So simple.

Thanks Jackie

First of all, I need to say Congratulations to my friend, Jackie Smith (check out her blog) as she was published in the "Stamper's Sampler: Catch Up Issue." She is very talented and I am so excited for her.

Jackie and I, although we share a name, are somewhat different when we stamp. Jackie does the most gorgeous intricate cards. There is so much detail and they must be seen in person to truly understand what went into them.

I helped Jackie teach a class recently and so she had come over a couple of times to show me what we were doing. She does this gorgeous background and then stamps flowers and leaves and cuts them out to use as embellishments. The end result was stunning, but more work than I usually put into my cards. So, I played with her technique and did just the first few steps and created backgrounds that I really liked.

For those who know me, they know I tend to do very simple cards. Mostly because I'm lazy and don't have a lot of time to stamp, so I need to be quick and efficient. I made three cards with her backgrounds and so today, I'll show one.

Mother of Pearl Hearts

A quick post to showcase another Mother Of Pearl card that I introduced yesterday. This one is done with Gold Lumiere paint and then I used Red Distress Ink overtop. Then I die cut two hearts (Tim Holtz) and stamped on them.

Very simple, but I like how it turned out!