A whole lotta boy around here

I mentioned in my last post, that there is rarely a girly thing ever seen or used around this house.  If you needed any proof of that, I have a page to share with you, that pretty much sums up my day to day - my life with boys!  Page one:

and page two:

If that isn't the evidence you need, then I don't know what is?! ;)  The first time I spotted this line of papers, from Bella Blvd called 'Mr. Boy', I knew I had plenty of material to put it to good use.  The colors are just 'all boy' and I loved all of the little icons and sayings it provided.  I love the collage of photos on the second page.  They certainly represent a day in the life of these two boys and I'm sure will be fun for them to look back on someday.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fun and frills

With two little boys around here, there is not much tolerance or need in our house, for girly, feminine, and frilly things.  However, every once in awhile I like to sneak in some pink, purple, ruffles, or frills on my scrapbook pages.  This page features some pictures of the hubs and I out on a date with friends, sometime last fall.  Aaaaaaah, just looking at these pictures has me longing for a kid-free evening...no whining, no ordering off the children's menu, no food to cut-up, and uninterrupted conversation.  Oops...and I digress.   Okay, so back to the topic at hand -- I used the opportunity to pull from the color of my shirt in these pictures and match up a fun lavender polka dot paper, from My Mind's Eye's 'Lime Twist' line.

To create that fun, ruffly dimension you see in the lower left corner, I used LOTS of punched circles and layered rows of them.  I started with the bottom row of circles and made my way upward, making sure only to apply adhesive to the top halves of the circles.  Once they were all adhered, I used my fingers to slightly curl up the bottom, unadhered edge of each one for dimension.  Here's a closer look:

I think it creates a fun look.  Now, how it will hold up once I put it in a page protector, inside my scrapbook, is yet to be seen! ;)  Would you believe I actually used my leftover pieces from this line to create a page with pictures of my BOYS?!  Once again, I was able to pull colors from my shirt, in the pictures to make this page work. 

How cute are my boys, all dressed up for Easter morning mass in matching outfits?  It's not a 'look' we do often, but, I have to admit, it sure is CUTE!  I had fun creating that vertical heart border going down the right hand side of the page.  I pulled from my punch and embellishment stash, to dress up each of the hearts in a different way.  And of course, I could resist, my trusty sidekick: 'pop-dots' for a little more added dimension and fun.

That's it for today!  Thanks for stopping by!

Some old photos and a NEW layout

Just popping on here for another quick post, before the youngest boy is up from his nap!

Being over halfway through my third pregnancy, I am definitely starting to feel the time crunch.  I have a zillion and one projects in my head that I would like to complete before the baby arrives, one of them: being caught up on the older boys baby books.  For both boys, I took a 'month-in-review' type approach to record their first year.  TJ's is nearly done, but I have a month or two that is somehow missing.  So, I decided to use this Kaiser Kraft kit of double sided papers and chipboard embellishments, to knock out another of his pages.  I think it's traditionally supposed to be a birthday themed line, but it worked just great for my little guy.  Here's page one (you can click on the actual picture to see a bigger version):

And page two:

And a look at the two-page spread:

Wow -- can't believe this same little guy will be turning 6 in just about a month!  Thank goodness, I took good notes on a monthly calendar, to be able to include some meaningful journaling and milestones, as well.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hello...is this thing on???!?

So, I suppose if I'm going to start a blog -- I should actually take the time to post something to it now and then, huh?   Has it really been since April that I started and posted my one and ONLY blog entry?  WOW!  Well, my hesitation certainly has nothing to do with lack of material.  Our little family has had a busy summer filled with trips to the pool, patio building, backyard BBQ's, visits with family, potty training, Lego playing, bike riding, and all of the other fun things that summer usually brings.  I guess I could use the excuse that, yes, we have been busy, and thus, I've had no time for this little old blog.  And let's be realistic, that is a part of it, but I think I've also been hesitant to to put my crafty shares out there for fear of a bit of critique.  Thankfully, I have reminded myself that I started this blog, to share my crafty creations, as I've gotten so much in the way of ideas and inspiration from other bloggers.  I also, of course, hoped to maintain it, to share pictures and stories, with all of our friends and family that we don't get to see often.

Now that I've come to this happy little realization -- let's get on with a crafty little share, shall we?  For the past year or so, I have been designing display pages for a local scrapbooking store in Dayton called Simply Scrapbooks.  I am given a line of scrapbooking supplies to design a two-page or two one-page layouts.  It has been a fun opportunity for me, as I get to sample some of the newest scrapbook supplies and more importantly, it give me the 'excuse' to scrapbook (as if I needed one, right?!).

With all of this talk of summer, I thought it would be fun to share a couple of fun summer pages that I created with Little Yellow Bicycle's Sweet Summertime line, for a recent design team assignment.  The first shares a compilation of pictures from our summer adventures at King's Island amusement park last summer.  That single little 'ticket' type of embellishment (in the upper right corner of the page), reminded me that I had done nothing with the loads of pictures I had taken during our many summer visits to the amusement park.  And the bright colors of the 'Sweet Summertime' line worked out perfectly for this collage of photos.

And here's a detail shot of the small cluster of embellishments and word stickers I used in the lower left corner of the page.  I cut the ends of the word strips to mimic a banner and popped them up to add a bit of dimension.

With the bright summery colors of this kit and loads of fun embellishments, I certainly couldn't stop with just one page.  The next page features many of the 'lemon' themed items from this line.  It took no time at all for me to locate some of my favorite summer pictures of the boys that matched the bright, primary color scheme that 'Sweet Summertime' features. 

With use of the 'lemon' themed papers and embellishments, I was inspired to write a little letter to my boys, to keep their childlike attitude and always use life's lemons to make lemonade.  The journaling and detail shot of that cute little lemon slice strung banner:

And one more detail shot of the title in the lower left hand corner:

So, that's my little bit of summery inspiration for today.  Hoping I can keep steady with the blogging trend this week.  See you tomorrow with another crafty post!