Recipe album layouts

Go away, Glen. :-P

Now that the Kitchen Keepsake crop is history, I can share my layouts. We had so much fun and the winner of the fab grand prize is the talented Laura Schaaf! Too bad I can't link up her blog since she doesn't have one, but you COULD see her work in the Kitchen Keepsake gallery. :-) Congrats Laura, enjoy the LYB Savor kit!

This layout was for the Suzanne Says challenge. I gave step by step directions and then we compared layouts to see how well everyone followed directions at the end. LOL



Then we made recipe tabs to go in our albums. Sorry for the crappy photo, but you get the idea...



And because they were so much fun to make, I made another set for one of the kids recipe albums.



This layout was for Kristie's bingo challenge. I used the packaging from a bling container and put my title under it. Clever, huh! :-D



I used a sketch by our January guest designer Janet for this layout. Janet's layouts always make me hungry. LOL



I think this layout was done using Kristie's recipe challenge, but I can't remember for sure. LOL



Janet posted her challenge to use various shades of brown to create a chocolate recipe page. I used one of Amy's sketches to aid me in the process. I know, the dog bones are a little cheesy. LOL



Speaking of Amy, remember that awesome gift she sent me last month? Well, it's all packed up and ready to go to my scrappy retreat in a couple of weeks! Wahoo!!! Maybe I'll actually get something done this time, instead of being a disturbance. :-D Have a scrappy week, and it won't be too long before I'll be back with the February calendar page. YIKES! This month flew by! Thanks for stopping by! :-)

Hi honey!

So, the cat is out of the bag. The hubs decided to do his semi annual google check on our names, found my blog and saw his Valentine's Day gift. :-/ Sheesh, the least he could have done is left me a nice comment. Hey Glen...



Just one share today, a super simple layout using Kristie's sketch on Kitchen Keepsake. These photos of Megan and Peyton wrapping Ayden's Bumbo cracked me up! Sometimes I scrap just to amuse myself. But y'all probably knew that already. LOL Never did I think my doodling would be the main embellishment on my page! :-O



AND, the Kitchen Keepsake crop starts tomorrow, come on over and say hi, would ya? (But not you Glen, go away, shoo!)

Ice Day creation

Hi girlies, just wanted to share a few things I've been working on. Our big "snow" event was actually an ice event, so no fun photo ops. And with a long weekend, you know what that means. Very little time in my scrap room. :-(

But I did get a few minutes so I decided to do this fun tutorial from my friend Suzanna. She said to cut a card stock circle and sew some fabric in a pleated circle. Hows THIS for an Ice Day project? Flowers! LOL




I also put the finishing touches on this shadowbox. It started off as a layout, and then I like it so I put it in a shadowbox, and then it needed more dimension, so, well, now I guess I have a Valentines Day gift for the hubs, even though we don't really DO Valentines Day. LOL



Hope all of you are finding some scrappy moments. I'll be back soon with all the creations made for the Kitchen Keepsake crop, which starts on Friday. Hope you'll join me and the rest of the girls for the fun. :-)

Sketch layouts to share

I almost never do 2 pagers, BUT, there is an exception to every rule. :-D

I made this layout using the two page sketch that Kristie challenged us to do on Kitchen Keepsake. It worked perfectly for my photos!




This one I TOTALLY lifted from my friend, Kayla. I can't remember if she used a sketch, but I saw her layout and knew immediately that it was perfect for my photos of the very unhappy Ayden. LOL I also tried the fun flower tutorial from my friend, Amy.



And speaking of Amy, she's sprouting out and sharing her hand drawn sketches on her blog. Here's my take on the first one. Thanks for sharing them, Amy! :-)



So, it's January 4th and I've gotten 5 layouts completed. Not bad, considering the girls and I also started back to school after a 6 week break. Has your new year been scrappy? Thanks for looking! :-)

Happy January!

The dawn of a new year sends me on a melancholy trip each year, generally negative in nature. This year, I thought I'd try putting a positive spin on it. Do you ever think about that, in the grander scheme of things? The Pygmalion Effect, a form of self-fulfilling prophecy, where people with poor expectations internalize their negative label, and those with positive labels succeed accordingly. These expectations can be changed with one stunning act of kindness and one that might have been so insignificant to the giver, but life changing, or at the very least, thought provoking to the recipient. Anyhooo...

There was a particular event that happened to me recently that started me down this philosophical path. (Think: It's a Wonderful Life) A couple of weeks ago, I was having a really bad day. You'll have to trust me when I say bad, I'm talking REALLY.BAD.DAY. Anyway, I trudged to my mailbox. Along with the regular depressing bills and junk mail was a box. A priority box. Addressed to me. From whom, I did not know. Based on the day I was having, the thought DID cross my mind that something BAD was in the box, but I dismissed that idea pretty quickly. I mean, who would do that? Send something BAD in a priority box? I was really hoping the post office had done their job and asked this person if there was anything hazardous, liquid or perishable in that box. :-D

By the time I got in the house to open the box, and as it was close to Christmas, I had drawn of crowd of excited people... "who's it from? who's it for? what is it?" I have to tell ya, I felt a little like a kid on Christmas Day. What WAS in the box? So I opened the box. And then I cried. Tears of joy. Not for the gift that was inside (although that was awesome!), but rather the THOUGHT that was invoked. Have you ever heard someone say "what a thoughtful gift." Or "it's the thought that counts." Have you actually ever stopped to think about what that means, in literal terms?

Here's what was inside of that priority box... (see! TOLD ya it was awesome! :-D )



And why do you think I took a pic of the gift? Yep, yep, I'm scrapping about it, and even kept the wrapping paper, since I think it's going to make FAB paper! But I could not take a photo of the REAL gift. Someone who I have never met in real life has been paying attention to ME, taking mental notes at all my Facebook comments and projects posted on my blog throughout the year and conversations on MBs. SOMEONE was paying attention and knew at which precise moment in time to send this truly thoughtful gift. I'm sure she had hoped to make me smile, or maybe her reasons were more selfish in nature. Maybe she's one of those people that really does think it is better to give than receive and it made her feel good. Either way, I'm pretty sure she wasn't expecting me to cry at the sheer THOUGHTFULNESS.

So, Amy Bender, thank you. I sat down and made you a thank you card, but it just seemed... thoughtless. A true random act of kindness you performed and although you had some idea it would make me happy, I could never express how much the thought inside that box, on that day, may have changed my life and the lives of the people in my life. THANK YOU.

And while I'm at the business of thanking friends, I want to thank my BFF. My BFF is one that I've never met in real life. 2011 will change that. We "met" over 3 years ago on a MB and have talked on the phone almost every day since. She brings out the best in me. She comforts me when I'm down and calls bullshit when I'm wrong. She's got the most sarcastic, wicked sense of humor. She possesses common sense and wisdom beyond her years. She "gets" me. She's got very big shoulders on which to cry and warm, loving arms with which to hug. We laugh, a LOT. We've created together, having our phone lines connected and on speaker, but total silence until one of us says, "let me send you this pic and you tell me what's missing." There's not a person alive that knows more about me than her. The bottom line is that I would do anything for her and she would do anything for me. If I called her up and said "I need you, right now" she'd be on her way. She's what I've always envisioned a sister being and I love her. So get ready Stace! I'm coming! Which she will say scares the hell out of her, but she loves me! :-D Thanks for all the things that you do every day. Seeing your number on my caller id still makes me excited, like a present to me, every day. I love you! :-)

I hope that you'll make someone's day by thanking them for a kindness. I know they would appreciate hearing it, even if they think they already know it. I'll be back soon with a photo heavy post with creations I've been working on for the Kitchen Keepsake crop coming up January 14th. Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate y'all! :-)