Say cheese!

This lo is of Aubrey at 16 months. Its her second trip to a studio. The background is a denim print, one which I never thought I would use! I was also lucky enough to find some accent paper in one of my stacks that coordinated with her shirt in the photo. Then I used die cuts for the corners and embellished them with gems and these little metal confetti flowers. I also used die cuts for the title and the embellishments around the journalling tag. There are scatterings of stickles on some of the die cuts and the white run on flowers and swirls. I also hid a little rub on bird on the journalling tag.

The Sweetest Thing

It took me forever to find a BG paper to match the sweater she is wearing! I rather like how all of the colors turned out and because the paper was from a stack book I had other papers to coordinate. The title says The Sweetest Thing and is a rub on. The long tag on the left fits how I feel about this photo perfectly! There was nothing special about this day or location. In fact she is sitting on a bench outside of a department store. I just got lucky with the photo, but I love it! The little bird in the heart to the left is a little joke. I call Aubrey my little bird. That and the square below the flower are chip board. The white flower in the middle of the large one used to be a hair clip. I love using doo dads from odd things I find at garage sales. This page was a very quick process for me. Everything just sort of fell together in under 2 hours. Its one of the few LO's I've done just for the sake of the photo and not because there was a story to go along with it. It was nice, sort of took off some pressure.
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Halloween 2008

This page was super fun! I bought the background paper last year right after Halloween. But I found the overlay just recently. So I was glad to have waited to scrap this page. The background paper is shimmery which adds a really fun element to this page IRL. I Cut around the tops of the pumpkins so that the picture could slide behind it. Then I added the coordinating ghost rub-on. I cut the picture into a circle so that it would fit inside the spider web frame on the overlay. I used coordinating bg paper to matte the photo. It also shimmers. I wrote the title and date directly on the photo. Then I attached the overlay. The overlay is a transparency that has orange dots around the edges, and has a frame made from spider webs, along with the swirls and spiders. I attached teh overlay using black and orange brads in 2 sizes. I outlined the spider web parts with Black Stickles with adds depth and a great wet sparkle look IRL. I loved how that turned out! I went over the spiders bodies with Orange Stickles to make the spiders pop off the page. I then added more coordinating pumpkin and ghosts rub-ons to the overlay (and yes they stuck with ease). Below is the tag (hidden in the upper left corner of my layout). I used white ink and stamps, a white pen, and more of the rub-ons and brads to decorate the tag. I really loved how this LO turned out. Its not often that you buy an overlay that you can embellish and make your own. I just love the Stickles on it. And I was happy and surprised to see that it didn't warp my overlay. And surprised to see that the rub-ons actually stuck to the overlay.

Logan David

This is the introductory page for Logan's scrapbook.  I started this one months and months ago but found my printer can not print on vellum, and I insisted on having the poem on vellum.  I ended up printing it at my MIL's.  I wrote this poem for this page after my son was stillborn.  That is a replica of  his hand print in the upper left of the poem.  I attached the vellum using brown metal photo corners on the bottom, and coordinating ribbon, flowers and brads on the top.  The title is his name "Logan David" and was created using my Cricut.

Bless your lil heart beat

This is the page I did for the first time we heard Logan's heartbeat.  Before we knew he was a boy.  That's why there is pink on the page, because at this point it didn't matter.  I started this page a while back, and finally got it finished.  The journaling is an entry from my actual journal about that day.  It was printed on sage and white patterened vellum, overlaid on sage background, on top of white.  I afixed these items using a large fabric brad and orange eyelets through which I strung orange and pink ribbon.  I inked the edges of the vellum and accent paper in sage also.  The buttons, flowers and ribbons used to create the vertical border all coordinate with the backgroup paper.  This was the first time I used buttons with ribbons through the holes, and idea I stole from my friend Lynnette.  The title says "Bless Your Lil 'Heart' [shape of a heart to indicate the word heart] Beat" from which I cut from white card stock on my Cricut.

Swinging

This has to be one of my all time favorite photos of my daughter. She loves to swing. This is her on the up-swing. There isn't any journaling, just a vellum quote that says "The world belongs to the enthusiastic!" which I thought really hit home with this photo. My daughter really is very enthusiastic, especially about swinging. The background paper was just white card stock that I chalked swirls on (using a template called "swirls and vines" by www.thecraftersworkshop.com) I tried to bring the blue in her shirt and the swing out. Then I used pink cardstock to bring out the little bit of pink in her undershirt. I used double photo corners in a navy and a vivid blue, then accented the pink and blue using flowers, brads and ribbon. There is a snap in teh center of the bow that says "joy". The star brads are glittery. I wrote the date on the photo using Uni-ball Signo borad pen in white. It's like a gel pen. It's pigment ink. It worked lovely and I love this pen. It left a textured feeling to the photo.

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Pool Fun

I had a lot of fun with this LO. This was the first time I took my daughter to a pool. She is standing in one of the water spouts. I can not believe I captured the picture, much less on my camera phone...the best invention since sliced bread. I used a plain vivid blue colored background to match the flowers in her bathing suit. Then I overlaid the background with a white vellum sheet with vivid blue flowers. I used Stickles on flowers here and there to make them pop off of the page. I cut a "frame" into the vellum sheet where I put my photo on a skew. I attached ribbons, flowers, brads and charms to create a "frame" around the photo. The title says "Pool Fun" and is made from chipboard with glitter and swirls. The U in "fun" is doubled up on for dimension. The frog on the bottom right corner is from an old pin that I've had for years. The brad in the center of the flower says "Silly" on it. I thought that was so fitting! I also used white brads here and there as the flower centers to attach the vellum to the background. There is a tiny blue flower charm attached to the white ribbon that hangs down on the left.

The tag goes through a cut out in the vellum and slides behind the photograph. The tag is white cardstock that I inked the edges blue and added a blue rub-on border on the left along with some ribbons and left over chipboard pieces from the title to create the pull tab. There are also a circle sticker on the bottom right of the tag that says "Be Silly - Be Goofy - Be you" that I thought fit her so well. The vellum quote says "Live in the sunshine." and then I journaled about the day and it's events.

Altered Hat Box - Courtney

This is a hatbox I altered for my future SIL's Bridal Shower. It will be used at the shower and wedding for a card box and then later she can use it to store wedding memories. Her wedding colors are pink and green.

Wedding Autograph Book

This book was designed to have guests at the shower and wedding sign with sentiments, well wishes and advice for the new couple. There are four metal tabs on the pages that say Family, Friends, Love & one has a pattern (this section used for writing down the gifts at this particular shower). The pages are blank white. I have added journaling tags and stickers to each page to prompt the guests and add flair to the book. The book cover is overlaid with two glossy, shimmering papers taken from the Luxury Mat Stack. There is also a shimmering ribbon, a flower made of organza (similar to that of a veil) and a faux mother of pearl adornment for the center of the flower. The bride and groom sticker is fabric. I used rub-ons to add decoration, sentiments and also the bride and grooms initials. I also used Stickles to give a little punch to the flower on the brides dress, as well as on the flowers near the initials. The back cover is also covered. Hodgepodge was used to seal the book.

Missing Piece Bracelet

I made this bracelet in memory of my son. I used all sterling silver and Swarovski crystals. The puzzle piece is used to symbolize my son as the missing piece of our puzzle. The other bauble is an angel (complete with halo), the dark bead is a genuine garnet bead. Garnet is the birthstone of January, when my son was stillborn. I chose clear crystals to symbolize myself (diamond is my birthstone) and blue crystals because he was a boy. I stamped my sons initials on the puzzle piece. I know that the Angel doesn't really match the blue crystals...but then nothing about this situation matches my life, so I guess it's appropriate.

Ben & Jenna's Wedding Day

This LO is from my son's scrapbook. I was 9 weeks pregnant with my son when I was in my brother's wedding as a bridesmaid. I was so happy to have found a dress for my daughter that matched the color of my dress, and then my husband played along too. The title (in the heart) was done on my Cricut. Man, I love that machine! The "wedding day" is a vellum quote. The large picture has a journal pocket behind it. It is very hard to see here but IRL the photo's have a very sheer fabric over the top of them to give them a sort of canvas look. It looks pretty cool...IRL, and I like the effect it gave. These pictures and this day were very special to us as a family. I have very few photo's of us "all". I treasure these photo's and the innocence we all had.

But, I'm so tired!!

This page is from the first month of pregnancy I had with my son. It talks about how tired I was, the way my belly grew 6" in just a few weeks and made me affraid that I wouldn't fit into the bridesmaids dress I was to wear for my brother's wedding (it fit just fine). I also talk about my first OB appointment. There is a journaling pocket behind the calendar that holds some journaling on a large tag. I loved the little journaling tag I clipped to the tape measure that I created. The tape is true to size. I wanted to remember exactly how much I grew in that short period of time. I also had fun with the splashes of orange. I'm not real good at mixing colors and it was nice to have a little help from the journaling tag. The brad that holds the flower on the tag is cloth and made out of a tape measure. That was just a coincidence...and the brad is also orange and blue. It couldn't have been more perfect!

What's in a Name?

This LO is from my son's book. This is a LO about the different names we were considering, before we knew the gender. I used a lot of rub-ons and Stickles. This was also the first time I used rub-on stitches and was super pleased that they turned out looking like real stitches. The names were cut with the Cricut and placed over ribbon. I had a lot of fun layering the rub-ons here and also "coloring" in some of the BG paper design with Stickles. The journaling tag is also quite decorated.

Valentines Day Mini Tin

This is a mini tin (made from a mint tin) that I altered for my husband for Valentines Day this year. The tags were "12 things I love about you!". I used paper, and modpodge, and ribbon, and rub-ons and stickers and stamps... Anything that worked. He seemed to think it was cute.

Pregnancy

This is a double LO of my pregnancy for my son. Regrettably, these were the only "belly" shots I had taken. These pages are very busy, which symbolizes my thoughts at the time. Very scattered and messy. I used a lot of rub-ons and stickles as well as creating a lot of the swirls and text by hand using a pen. I used a BG embossing plate from the Cuttlebug to decorate some of
the photo mats. Lots of ribbon, and other embellishments were used. The Fat & Happy side uses a BG paper to illustrate a pregnant belly. I had a lot of fun making this LO, and there is a lot going on so you need to look very close to see it all.

Great Expectations

This is a LO for my sons book. This was our first "family" picture of all "four" of us. This is the day we found out we were pregnant with my son. You can clearly see how tired I am. My daughter is wearing a shirt that says "Big Sister" as this is how we broke the news to the Grandparents. The title is made out of Rub-ons. The hearts were cut out using the Cricut. The journaling is between the two hearts in a pocket. The idea there is that my sons story is forever held between our two hearts (my husbands and mine). There are several rub-ons that blend in with the BG, though IRL they stand out a lot more. The swirls at the top and bottom of the photo are chipboard that I inked the edges on. There is a rub-on located in the bottom right of the photo that says "Family", that is not a tattoo on my arm, though it certainly looks like one.

First Photo

This LO is of my son's "first photo". It's an ultrasound from my 7th week of pregnancy. This was also the first time I really gave layering of rub-ons a try. I loved the results. I think that rub-ons are my favorite embellishment. I stamped the title on in two layers, white and blue. I used a chalk ink to do this. I used a scalloped edge round sheet of cardstock, and accented the scallops with a dot of blue Stickles. I used a poem sticker by Wendy Silva to the left of the photo that reads: "I wonder if you could possibly understand how hard it is for me to let you grow. On this day know that my heart breaks, for this is the first step in letting my baby go." At the time I didn't realize it was the last verse in a poem titled "First Day of School". I created this page after my son was stillborn, so my mind set was along the lines that I didn't even realize at the time, that this day was the first step in letting go. Some of the other rub-ons you can not see unless you look really close. IRL they stand out a lot better.

Rolling Over

This LO is of my daughters first attempt to roll over! She was 3 weeks old. I loved the loud colors of the BG paper that pulled loud colors from the tummy mat my daughter is on. I used the Cricut to cut out the title in one large piece. The title is supposed to look like it is rolling over the
picture's edge. The journaling is on an oversized tag and tucked behind the photo. IRL the main colors are bright pink and orange and a softer green. I was so glad to find flowers and ribbon and brads in my personal stock. I think they play off of the colors very nicely. I thought this was a fun page.

Baby

This LO is for my daughters book. This is probably my favorite LO of all times. It was also the easiest. It's just a nice piece of paper, a B&W photo and a transparent overlay. Most of the decorations are on the overlay. I took a picture on an angle so that you could read the poem on
the right with out a glare. This is also one of my favorite pictures!

Diaper Duty

This LO is from my daughters book. The title was cut with my Cricut. As you can tell, I love using the Cricut. I inked the edges of each letter so that they would stand out better. The diaper opens and inside contains the journaling which talks about how my husband changed every diaper while we were in the hospital (and he was there) and how I didn't change my first poopy diaper until we were home, at which point he had to show me how to "clean" her properly. The diaper is cut from a vinyl like paper, so IRL it feels like leather. There are clear ghost flowers on the edge of the picture and I used some white rub ons on the photo itself too.

First Bath

I loved doing this LO. This is my daughters first bath! For the title, the "first" part is made with rub on letters that have pebble stickers over the top, to resemble bubbles. Then on the word "bath" I used Stickles to also represent bubbles, and the letters are "ghost" letters which are plastic. There is a small rubber duckie rub on in the bottom right hand corner of the photo that I thought was to die for. I also used Stickles to highlight the bubbles in the bathtub and floating up the side of the LO. The bathtub is an embossed vellum diecut that couldn't have been more perfect! The little duck at the top of the journaling tag is fabric and I used puff ink to write the journaling.

The First Week!

This is the first week my daughter was born. I rated each day and journaled on little tags that I tucked into numbered pockets with cooresponding pictures. I used a few white rub ons. I love rub ons. This LO was actually my husbands idea, and I love it. I like having a little snippet of
what each day was like in the first week of my daughters life.

Introducing Aubrey

This is from my daughter's scrapbook. This is her birth picture. I had a lot of fun with this page and it's colors. I used puffy ink on the journaling tag. I used the cricut to cut out the title. This is also the title page of her personal scrapbook.