"Camping" Projects :)

So, no, we are not really camping while staying here in Amarillo, but in a way I kind of feel like I am! The apartment is old, but plenty nice enough, so that is not it. It is just really weird to try and do the normal things with out all of the normal supplies, you know? It reminds me of when my family used to take three week road trips when I was a kid. We'd stay in the trailer the whole time, and there wasn't a lot of storage space for us to pack things, so we just took the basic necessities and made do with what we had.

That is what I feel like now. I have very few cooking utensils and only the most basic of ingredients, so that is an adventure. Yesterday I made chocolate chip cookies from a mix, because it was cheaper to buy the mix than all of the ingredients, and baked them on a pizza pan because it is the only pan I have!! Last night Bryan made pizza, but about died when he had to cut it with a knife!! They claimed the kitchen was fully equipped, but I'm not so sure I would agree!

Anyway, it's the same with my scrapbooking. Although I was able to bring quite a bit of my supplies in my rolling tote (a fabulous invention!! I've really never used it much until now, but boy am I glad I have it!) it is still not the same as having EVERYTHING out on the table in front of me or on the shelf behind me, like I am used to. I still managed to complete a few layouts this week though! So here are my "camping layouts:"

The story behind the overalls layout is that I bought them years ago when I found them on clearance at the Gap. They were too cute to pass up, even though Bryan and I were still a LONG ways from dating and I didn't have a little girl to put in them. But now I am glad I bought them and held on to them for all these years - they look soooo cute on Grace and are one of my favorite outfits she has!!

This layout was for a challenge using only cardstock, no pattern papers, and at least three different stamps. I love stamps, so I had fun with this one! I think I ended up using seven different stamps!

I have had a lot of fun with this latest batch of projects!! I've been breaking in to some new techniques I haven't tried before and some supplies I have had forever, but haven't used, and it has been a lot of fun!!

These cards were for the card challenge at AC Bailey. I had to make three cards that matched but were not the same. I used up some of the Making Memories printed cardstock that I had had for a couple of years and never used, so that was good (Yes, I am very talented at hoarding scrapbook supplies, and I admit it!). I also did a little distressing with white paint around the edges, which was a new technique for me. I loved it so much, I did it again on this next layout!

These two layouts were for the digital hybrid layout challenge. The idea was to create a layout that had both digital aspects and traditional paper scrapbooking aspects to it. I had never done anything more digital than print out journaling for a page, so this was a new one for me, but it was sooo fun! I had to do two pages to experiment with it. I used our Photoshop Elements program to 'dress up' my photos. For the first one I added a sepia torn paper frame to the photo and then added the star graphics in the corner.

On the second page I adjusted the color of the picture so that it was black and white around the edges and color in the middle where her eyes are, since they were the focus of my page. Then I added the flower graphics around the edge of the picture.

I have also finished a super cute fabulous Mother's Day gift, but since it's not Mother's Day yet, I'll have to post it later. Don't want to give away our secret!! It was something I hadn't done before and was a bit of an experiment, but I am sooo happy with how it turned out, so You'll have to watch for that one next week ;)

And this is just a favorite recent picture of me and my adorable kids that are my favorite subjects to scrapbook!! I really wouldn't have much of a hobby with out them because I can't imagine there is anything that is as fun to scrapbook as cute, silly kids! We had spent all morning at the Ranching Heritage Center for their Ranching Day, which was a lot of fun but exhausting, so we came home and crashed on the couch!

A week of projects

Here are a few more projects for this week. I got them all done, but I'm exhausted! Seems I have to chose between my fun projects or sleep these days. . . .

All of these were for the AC Bailey challenges again. The challenge runs eight weeks, but since we will be living in Amarillo for the last couple weeks of it, I am trying to get as much done as possible now!

This was what I made for the altered art challenge. I altered a plain white sign board that can be hung on the wall. It worked out rather conveniently, too, because I needed a five dollar gift for Bunko last week, and this board was five dollars. How about that? My friend Carri won it, and, as sad as I was to have to part with it, she has a beautiful home and it matched her decor perfectly, so it will look a lot better there than in my apartment :)

This is my layout of pictures of Grace from when she was 6 weeks old. WHERE ON EARTH HAS THE TIME GONE?!? Hard to believe that this sweet little baby now climbs everything and runs everywhere.

The layout was for a challenge to put ten flowers of various types and sizes on one layout. I was afraid it would be overkill on the flowers, but I quite like it! :)

This layout was for a challenge to put some type of stitching (hand, machine, or faux) on your layout. Not sure it's my favorite, but I guess you can't love 'em all!

This was for the unique technique challenge, so my unique technique was to dry emboss and sand the background paper. I really like this one as well, but it's hard not to with pictures as sweet as those!

Just a few new things :)

Just a couple of my latest pages. Actually, come to think of it, these are the only latest pages, since I've been working on a few other projects this week!

The two layouts of Joshua are for the AC Bailey Challenge again. It has been lost of fun, getting me to think outside the box and learn some new scrapbooking ideas. Since Katie asked for more info, here's how it works:

For eight weeks the design team members at AC Bailey post a new mini lesson and challenge every week. We then have the next week to finish it and upload our layout to their online gallery. We earn "badges" for each challenge we complete. There are also several extra credit badges that can be earned and badges for posting on their boards, etc. In the end, the top three people with the most badges earn money to spend on AC Bailey product (although they actually sell product from companies that are already on the market, such as Making Memories, American Crafts, etc, not their own line of product). Anyway, I'm giving it my best shot and having fun doing it!

P.S. Becky, hope you don't mind the little bit of free advertising! :)

Isn't it crazy how Joshua has changed in three years!! They grow too fast!!

These are the cards we made at my monthly card club! We used Close To My Heart's new creative basic paper pack (with the exception of the blue card, it's from another pack. Had to have a male graduation cards for my friends who have husbands graduating from Law School. YAY!!). It has such fun colors and patterns, I thought the cards turned out very fun!

Oh, and one last bit of fun news! My layout posted on the last post, the one with the Yellowstone pics, was chosen as the layout of the week on the AC Bailey website!! I'm quite honored! I have to admit, I quite like it, too!

I did it again!!

Another week of accomplishing my goal!! Maybe this blogging thing is good for me after all . . . :)

This first one is for a challenge I'm doing online with the company called AC Bailey. My friend Becky is on their Design Team and told me about it. It's been a lot of fun! Anyway, this first page is for their 5+ photos on one page challenge. I'm lovin' it!!

This next one is just some pictures of me and Grace right after she was born. I love these pictures!

And this last one is another challenge page. This time the challenge was to do a layout with White space. Definitely NOT my forte, it was so hard for me to do!! But I have to say, I really love the way it turned out!

So that is my fun for this last week!

Sorry the descriptions don't go with the right picture. Forgot to change the setting before I typed all of this, and I'm certainly not going back to fix it now :)

3 a week!!

I originally started this blog because I have been thinking of applying to do some stuff for a magazine or something and a lot of the applications ask if you have a blog for your artwork. I thought that sounded like a fun idea, so here I am! I have also found that this has helped me stick to my goal of doing at least 3 pages a week because now I have a place to show them to others!!

This first page is of our honeymoon! Seems like forever ago! We were given a new camera for our wedding and so we were trying to figure it out and we really didn't get that many pictures that weren't blurry. At least it made for a nice quick page!



These pictures are of Joshua's first experiences with "real" food! He was a stinker about food! It was fun to relive those memories! Oh, and don't worry, I'm really not this far behind, I just don't scrapbook in order. Of course, that doesn't mean I'm not behind, just not quite this far behind! :)

My Happy Boy

This is a page that I finished on Saturday and it has a cute story that goes with it, so I thought I would share :) I had this page mostly finished but was still trying to think of a title that I liked for it. I was thinking of calling it "My Happy Boy" but I hadn't decided for sure. (I know, it's silly, but I'm not very good w/ words, and I like my pages to have good titles, so sometimes it's a long process for me!) Anyway, I had to run some errands and when we were at the store this lady came up and was talking to Joshua. Then she turns to me and says "he's such a happy boy, isn't he?" What a coincidence!! I had to agree with her, of course, because Joshua is definitely our happy boy. So . . . that became the title of this page :)