Finally!

After waiting patiently (yeah right!) for the new Doodlebug Barnyard collection to come out I have finally created a layout with the papers.  I love this line!  Heck I love this company!  Anyone who knows me knows I love the whimsical, kiddie style that DB creates.  And I have to send a big shout out to a great gal, Amber who inspired me at the Brandon Scrapbook Convention to start using some tools I've had in my stash for a couple of years and have forgot about.  The first is my edge distresser.  I totally forgot I even had one (ummm...sorry 2 LOL!) and now find myself using it a little more.  I am having so much fun ripping and tearing and making a mess...It's great!  I've even put it into my tool caddy so that it's always on my table and easily accessible.  The second is my craft mat which I bought for a specific use I was taught from a class and never actually did that technique again since I never bought all the other product at the time.  It was to do with distressing inks and I still don't own any to this day LOL!  I was digging for my photo paper and saw it yesterday and took it out of the box and used it with my gimmer mists instead.  I think I'll be using it lots more with my stamping as well!

~A

So I'm not getting too much done...

but I am having fun creating again : )  I was going through my wallet and emptying it out when I came upon my receipt for the ultrasound Marc and I did in Winnipeg to find out the sex of the baby.  We aren't telling anybody what we found out, but I decided I had to do a quick layout about "the Price we Paid to Know".

~A

Before we head out for the weekend...

here's another layout that I've completed lately.  I love scrapbooking in the moment pictures.

~A

Been a little quiet on the home front

Well scrapbooking front anyways...

After all those awesome scrapbooking crops I've been attending I was kinda out of stock on adhesive so I went back to organizing until I was able to get some more.  I organized Prestons second album from 4 months to 1 year only to find I had started another album with some layouts in it.  D'oh!  Oh well, now I've decided that I want the same album to finish off his first year as I started it which means I have to find some old, discontinued albums to finish up his first year and have been on the search since for the Chatterbox Spruce Stripe album.  I tell ya I have my work cut out for me.  Just when I think I come across a website that has them I note the copywrite symbol at the bottom of the page is waaaayyyy out of date.  Come on!  Take that dang old site off the web so I am not wasting time!  GRRRRRR.

Afterward I was able to stock up on supplies again, I have been working on another 8x8 baby album to get out of my stash and sell at the Ceramic Corner.  Now that that is finished, I plan on doing the finishing touches on some more layouts I made at the crops and when I'm done I'll be posting some more inspiration for you all : )

Take care!
~A

How I do my journalling

I know there are lots of you out there that hate to journal because you hate your handwriting or you just don't think it's good enough or whatever the excuse may be, but it is very important to the people who look at your books!  I know I have been a bad journaller for years, but I am trying really, really hard to write on all my layouts now.  Even if it's a few sentences about the event, the date, whatever.  Leave your legacy on your pages with the photos : )

I thought I'd share with you all how I like to journal.  What I like to do is write everything out with a pencil to start.  You can write on a seperate piece of paper or on your page.  I like to write on my page so I know approximately how much room I have to write in and how much I should write.  I also write lightly and slowly so my writing doesn't look like "chicken scratch" like you write on a shopping list and it will be able to be erased afterwards.

Next I will write over top with pen.  Again writing slowly, I don't try to be precise with writing the letter on top of where I wrote them in pencil, but just writing comfortably.  The lead size of a pencil may vary from your pen so being exact is very difficult.

And when you're all said and done just erase your pencil marks.  I like to use those white erasers as they work best.  I think the pink ones tend to smudge.  Just remember to rub your eraser clean of your last project you may have erased so it doesn't get on this project.

~A

Laundry Day

This layout has been in the making for a while.  I think I started it when we were living in Oxbow last June LOL!  I finally finished it!  I just didn't know what I wanted to do with it and oddly enough it just seemed to come together this week.  I love it!

Project for the day...

Well since it's Preston's birthday I thought I'd share some layouts of my big boy today.  This first one is from his birthday last year.  We made cupcakes since his party was going to be on the weekend.

This one is one of the many quirks my boy has.  He loves to play in the cat door at Granny and Papa's

And just like his father, he loves to bake so I have to shart this simple layout that is turning into one of my new favs.

Just had to share...

I created this layout last weekend and I just wasn't happy with it after everything was all glued and pasted.  I would look at it and things just blended into the busy background.  It was so sad with all the little fun things I had made specifically for the layout so I decided to tear it apart and start half way.

You can see where I began from and then added the black background paper so you can see all the cogs and title much better than in the first.  I have to say it looks much better.  I really hated to take it apart, but sometimes you just have to to get a better outcome.