Artistic

Hello and Happy Friday! How I love/live for the weekends! :)

Before I show you the latest layout I've made, I wanted to show off this beautiful piece of art by my Gracie girl. I bought an art easel from Ikea and we have been having lots of fun! This was her first masterpiece. It is our family. I love how we are under the rainbow - - seems so idyllic, doesn't it?! And look, she has been practicing writing her name, too! This girl is so smart it kinda scares me. ;) She has this thirst for learning new things, which I love and I want to follow her example! The other day we went to story time at the library and the for the craft the kids got to decorate sticker books. Grace couldn't just color and stick the stickers in...no, she had to write a whole book! All about flowers. What a fun girl!



This is a layout that I made for the Color challenge on the Get Picky Challenge blog. The challenge was just to use the colors yellow, blue, and white...not too hard since that is one of my favorite combos! I used some of my favorite bald baby pictures of Grace. Loved that bald head and blue eyes!

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!

JAG

An Oldie but a Goodie

Hey, just a quick layout to share.
I was going through some pictures last night to get some ready to print and I found a couple of layouts that I made a while ago...like over a year ago...so I thought I would share! I love this one of Grace on Halloween 2009, it is still one of my favorites. I just love this picture of her!

For this layout I used papers from Pink Paislee, Prima flowers, CTMH alphabet rubons, and American Crafts Thickers. I also cut our the word "little" and the leaf vines on my cricut.

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So...I have been spending the last, umm, three months I think it has been, painting, reorganizing, and decorating my scrapbook room. I am very slow, but it is almost done!! I am very excited to have my own little peaceful space. I love the wall color, it is so relaxing to me. Sometimes when we get a little crazy around here I just sneak into my room for a few minutes and sit there and look at the walls! It calms me right down and I can get back to the craziness. :) I still have things to hang on the walls and a few boxes of things I am trying to decide what to do with, but once I sort through all that I will post some pictures.

Have a great day!
JAG

Hi!

So I decided to be a good blogger and actually post something this week....haha!
Maybe someday I will be a good blogger, but I wouldn't hold your breath! :) Too many other things to do............
at least it seems like there are a lot of other things to do.
Do you ever have those days were you know you don't just sit around doing nothing all day, and yet at the end of the day it seems like you haven't accomplished anything? I've had a string of days like that lately. I love spending time reading books and playing games with the kiddos, but then sometimes at the end of the day when there is nothing obviously finished or improved I get frustrated and feel like I have been lazy. But then on the other hand, I really don't want to spend so much time cleaning, etc. that I miss the time with my kids and I KNOW that I am accomplishing things by spending time with them....in fact I am accomplishing the most important things. But still, sometimes it is hard at the end of the day when you don't see immediate results...and the laundry is still piled high!
My endless dilemma, it seems...probably the same dilemma most moms face! :)

Anyway, here is a layout that I created a while back. The pictures were taken by my father-in-law in 2009 for our Christmas card. I love these pictures!
For this layout I used the "For the Record" collection kit from Echo Park. I also attempted a little misting with the red ink....I think I need to practice that one some more!

I have also been venturing a bit further into the photography world lately....meaning I finally took took the D-90 off the automatic settings and learned to use it in manual mode!!! I know, it only took two years, right?! :) But I am loving the results and I feel like I am really creating good photos now, not just getting them by default because I have a good camera. My poor father-in-law had tried to explain it to me several times, but I wasn't getting how to use my camera to get the results I wanted. Then a couple weeks ago I found this digital book called "Say No To Auto!" by Kristen Duke. I bought it, downloaded it, printed it and within a half hour had the basics figured out - -amazing!

I wanted to learn how to use the manual settings because a girl in my ward, Jackie, had asked me to take some senior pictures for her. She has been very patient and endured nearly five hours total in front of my camera (I took nearly 1,000 pics), but we have got some photos that I am really pleased with....hopefully she is, too! :) She is a beautiful girl, so really, my job was easy!

Here are a few of my favorites:

***this last one is my favorite!!***

Well thanks for stopping by. Hopefully I will be back soon!

cross your fingers... :)

JAG

Happy Wednesday!

Hi again! It's Wednesday, are you happy?! I am...it has been a bit of a long week already. Bittersweet moments have made for a happy and somewhat sad week, so I am grateful to be heading into the home stretch, so to speak! :) I just wanted to share this layout I made using last week's sketch from Pencil Lines blog. This was the first time I have used a sketch in a long time, and I love how it turned out! I used the Togetherness line from Cosmo Cricket for this layout, it is my favorite Cosmo line! Well I hope the rest of your week goes well.... here's hoping the weekend comes quickly! :) JAG

A whole lot of a good thing is a REALLY good thing!!

So do you remember a while back when I mentioned that my mom and I went to the Cosmo Cricket office/store with the intention of buying some Cosmo Cricket goodness, and we ended up having a little "field trip" through the warehouse? Yeah. It was awesome. I have always been a big fan of their products, so ever since I heard they had opened a little store in their warehouse in Nibley, I have wanted to drop by. Mom and I had a spare hour one afternoon, so we stopped by and we were greeted by none other than Mr. Lindsay Moore. *If you read the Cosmo Blog, you know who he is. :) Funny, funny, funny man! Anyway, it turns out that he and my mom are members of the same stake, they have kids that go to school together, etc. So we had a good time chatting. Then he took us on a generous tour of the offices, and we came home with some fun things! (Shh...don't tell, but I even left with a couple of the oh-so-coveted Glubers!) It was very fun, and I have had a blast playing with all of my new Cosmo Cricket products! First up a few cards! Except for the brads and cardstock, everything I used for these is from Cosmo Cricket. I used the 6x6 pads from the three newest collections. I love how even their "themed" collections, like Salt Air (beachy/ocean theme) are so versatile and all their collections work so well together!

Supplies: Salt Air 6x6 pad, clear tiny type alphabet

Supplies: Upcycle 6x6 pad, Upcycle stickers Supplies: Upcycle 6x6 pad, yellow tiny type Alphabet

Supplies: Social Club 6x6 pad, Early bird stickers

I think this one below is my favorite :0)

Supplies: Social Club 6x6 pad, brown tiny type alphabet

And some layouts!

This first one uses the Salt Air collection, and the second uses Social Club.

Super fun stuff, don't you say?!

mmmmHUH!

Thanks for stopping by!

JAG

It's bedtime, but....

...here I am! I figure now is as good a time as any to quickly update the blog, right? Who needs sleep!? I just wanted to share these cute portraits that my father-in-law took while the kids and I were in Utah. I thought they turned out quite cute! I love the one of the kids together. It is usually quite impossible to get a picture of both of them even looking at the camera, so I was very happy with this picture! I think I feel a scrapbook layout coming on! :)

Grace - 4 yrs. old

Joshua - 6 yrs. old

I think this one should be titled

"One Lucky Mom" :)

I just blogged about the trip and a bit more about the photo shoot on our Family Blog, so feel free to check it out if you want!

And I have a layout to share! I made this the other day using Crate Paper's new Emma's Shoppe line. The line is a little bit vintage and a whole lot of girly...a combo that I love! The color is way off in the pic, not sure what happened, but trust me...it's great stuff!

This picture is of Grace at 9 months old....seems like forever ago! Lately I find myself missing the days of little babies, and I usually find myself avoiding scrapbooking pictures like these. It is really hard to realize that my babies aren't babies anymore, and as of now, there are no more babies, which has been really unexpected. But I decided to be brave and scrap this picture anyway, and to my surprise it was quite therapeutic. So don't be surprised if you see more baby pictures in future layouts...I need all the cheap therapy I can get! :)

Have a peaceful night!

JAG

Happy Monday!

How is your Monday? Is the week off to a good start? I hope so! We are having a good Monday here. Grace and I went to the library, ran some errands, did some puzzles, read a few books, and even managed to get in a bit of laundry and cleaning, which was sorely needed. :) I count that as a good Monday!

I just wanted to share this layout that I made the other night using Echo Park Paper Co.'s Little Boy line. Have you used their paper and stickers? I first bought one of their kits a couple of months ago, and this was the second one I bought.....love them! I am definitely an Echo Park fan!
The pictures are from a couple years ago when we were in Olympia, WA for a family reunion and we went to this fabulous farmers market. Grandpa spoiled the kiddos and bought them these HUGE cookies which they, of course, loved devouring! :)

Have a great day!
JAG

Yay! The first Layout of 2011 :)

Well, seeing how it has been over two months since I even made a full 12x12 scrapbook layout, I am quite excited that the first layout of the new year has already been finished! Let's hope there are many more to come. :)

Supplies: Patterned Papers (Cosmo Cricket Mr. Campy and Togetherness) Cardstock (CTMH)Stickers (Border - Cosmo Cricket, letters - SEI and Doodlebug) Journaling Spot (Jillibean Soup) Stamps (Journaling Jots by CTMH) Brads (CTMH) Diecut (Apple from A Childs Year Cricut Cartridge - Provo Craft).

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I'm loving a new year. I feel a fresh start.
I'm choosing to be happier with where I am in life and what I am, and I'm choosing to be more hopeful. So much of life is about what we choose to see and do, isn't it?
I'm hoping to be more organized and, thus, productive. :)
I'm working to be more fit spiritually, and physically as well.
Hummm.....it's a lot, but I think it will be very worth it in the end. It all takes effort and time....and stamina, sitcking-to-it-ness. :) I think I've got it in me! Hooray for a new year!

JAG

My Top 10 Favorite Layouts of 2010!!

I thought it might be fun to share some of my favorite layouts from this last year.

It's funny how at the beginning of the year there were lots to choose from, but ever since Joshua started school the layouts I've completed have been few and far between. Life is truly full of the best things right now, with family and faith being at the top of the list, but I do hope that I am able to find a little more time for scrapping in this new year than I have the last few months. I miss the time for me, honestly, and not having had much of it recently makes me realize that it is an important part of my life, too. So here is to a new year and to finding....no CREATING... balance in my life! ;)

And without further ado...my 10 favorite layouts of 2010 (in no particular order):

JAG

Sisters - this one is for you Maren! :)

Hello there.

I should be getting to bed, but instead here I am, with a new layout to share with you! :)

There is a challenge going on at the American Crafts blog to create a girl themed layout with at least two AC products. Well, I have been wanting to do some layouts about my siblings, and since I have been blessed with three wonderful little sisters this was the perfect inspiration to get me started on those layouts.

I created this layout about middle younger sister, Maren.

She rocks. Really. I admire her a lot.

The pictures of her are from a little Senior Pics photo shoot we had. She was kind enough to be my photography guinea pig. :) It was fun because she is a lot more cooperative of a guinea pig than my children are!

Supplies:

Patterned papers (City Park by American Crafts), Card Stock (CTMH, Georgia Pacific, and Paper Studio), Alphabet Stickers (American Crafts), Badge (Flair by American Crafts), Pearls (CTMH), punches (Martha Stewart and Fiskars).

And a little close up of the journaling, just in case any of you are like me and like to know the story behind the pictures: :)

Well I think that is it! I am excited the weekend is almost here. It is going to be a busy one, but full of lots of fun things. We have a new couch being delivered (YAY!!), a football game, a soccer game, a birthday party, and a baptism to go to! It's going to be a good one!

JAG

Happy Wednesday!

.... even if it is almost Thursday!

It's amazing how having just one child in school makes life seem so much crazier already!

I like all the new activities and things, but it does kind of cut the scrapping time short. :) We have also had Grandpa Guymon here for a couple of days, which has been lots of fun! Tonight we went out and took some awesome, very West Texas looking pictures in our brand spankin' new Harvesters gear.... I will definitely post the pictures when I get them! It's homecoming week here too, so I will hopefully have some fun 'Friday night lights' pics. I'm taking the big camera to the homecoming game this year, that way I can better capture the true essence of a West Texas Friday night high school football game. Pure craziness, really, but in a fun way! :)

Anyway, here is a layout that I made for the American Crafts Blog challenge this week. I haven't been able to participate in one for a while, but when I saw the challenge for this week I knew I wanted to give it a try. The challenge was to make a layout about yourself using two or more AC products. I rarely do layouts about myself, but I need to do them a lot more often, so this was fun. You can find all the details on the American Crafts Blog.

SUPPLIES: Patterned papers (Abode by American Crafts); Cardstock (Brown: American Crafts, Honey: CTMH, White); Journaling spots (Sprouts by Jillibean Soup); Alphas (Thickers by American Crafts); Glitter brads (American Crafts); black pen (CTMH); White paint (Delta); circle punches (Fiskars); corner punch.

And here are a few cards as well. I've been trying to shrink the massive stack of scraps that has accumulated on my scrapbook table. :) I can't ever seem to throw the paper away until it's down to the smallest scrap, unusable for anything else! All part of the obsession I guess!

This house warming card also uses the Abode collection from American Crafts. Aren't those little chipboard houses so cute?

And this one uses some American Crafts Dear Lizzy scraps, AC ribbon, one of those fabulous SRM stickers (really lovin' these for quick easy cards when I don't feel like pulling out the stamps!), and a few random buttons from the button jar.

until next time -

JAG

A week in the life of a blubbery mom :)

So this week my oldest started kindergarten.

I never realized what a blubbery mom I am until now.

I feel like I have been crying since last Saturday. :)

At least on the first day of school I made it back to the car before I burst into tears.

I think that is progress!

Here he is, at his table, just coloring away, practically an old pro.

In front of the school:

In front of the house before we left:

He was so excited, and a little nervous, as he would say.

He started the morning out really excited, and the closer we got to the classroom the more you could see the nervousness on his face!

It was really hard to leave him, but some how Grace and I managed to move ourselves out of the school and to the car.

And now, it's just the norm.

Strange how quickly life can change and move forward isn't it?

And now for a quick layout:

For this layout I used October Afternoon and Cosmo Cricket papers and some Prima flowers.

The pictures are of Grace the day before she turned three. She's beautiful.

See, I told you I'm a blubbery mom!

JAG

American Crafts stuff

Hey y'all!

We are back from SA (pictures/stories coming soon!) and things are starting to get back to normal - which I am SOOO grateful for!! - so I thought I would share with you the things I made for the American crafts DT call.

I love these projects, and that is why I like trying for these teams, sometimes it's fun to have a challenge and see what I can stretch myself to come up with!

I used a combination of AC Dear Lizzy, Abode, and Heat Wave on these projects, and everything you see is from American Crafts.

{this 'splish splash' layout is my personal favorite!}

So which one is your favorite? :)

Thanks for stopping by!

JAG

Summer Lovin'

What are you lovin' this summer?

We've been lovin' a lot of backyard swimming lately.

Joshua likes to turn the sprinkler on and break out the water balloons, too,

so we practically have water park going on in the backyard. :)

{Amazing the hours of fun you can buy for $25, isn't it?!}

Grace always says she wants to get in, but then she ends up sitting with me on the porch swing, just watching. I don't mind that too much, though. :) She is so cute!

And of course I had to share with you this layout that I made using the American Crafts "I Do" and "Botanique" lines. I love the color combination of I Do - lots of soft colors mixed with the charcoal gray - so pretty!

Supplies:

All patterned papers, embellishments, stickers and letters are from American Crafts.

Grey Cardstock around the outside boarder is from Prism, and the white lace is unknown.

See what I mean about the color combination? I think it is so relaxing.

So relaxing I think I just might go to sleep now. :)

GOOD NIGHT!

JAG