Final Page

Yup, that's right! This is the final page for my grandson's first year album. Now, I'm not one who can scrap in order, but when I noticed I had but a couple more pages to finish off Matthew's first year album, I was ecstatic! All I could think about was completing those final pages. I shared with you last week the final two pager needed for his album. You can scroll down and see. And today, this is the final page. Now, I can move on and work on his second year album and probably more of the other albums as well. If you would like to see all of Matty's pages, click here.

I had so much fun working on this layout. If you're wondering about the title, "Emejota," there is a cute story behind it. Matthew's mother (Kelli) started calling him "MJ" (short for Matthew James), but after a while, Matthew (like most little kids) started to ignore his mother. Out of complete frustration, Kelli one day, blurted out "Emejota" and that got Matthew's attention real fast. For those of you aren't fluent in Spanish (like me, I had to ask why) Emejota are the initials for MJ. That nickname has lasted till recently, when Matthew started in school.

The papers I used came from a previous Close To My Heart's Heart of Winter special, "Days to Cherish". The CTMH colors are: Holiday Red, Heavenly Blue, Buttercup, and Sweet Leaf. The big Sweet Leaf B&T paper scalloped circle I cut out from a pattern from CTMH's "Emporium" workshop guide. I used quite of bit of chipboard on this layout except for the title. Using the font, Miami Nights", I cut out the title 5 times from cardstock and glued them together. It really gives the page more dimension. Its what I like to call "faux chipboard." The real chipboard pieces are from CTMH's Irresistibles™ Pizzazz Chipboard Die-Cuts. These die cuts are so cool!! They have a resist pattern that show through when color is applied. And the little guy on top of the red bracket rectangle is from La Petite, which I bought back in 2005 on clearance for $.94. Don't you just love finding bargains like that? I sure do. Too bad it takes me forever to use them. LOL

Well, I am off on another scrapbooking adventure. Stay tuned for my next set of layouts. I can't believe I have completed 14 pages so far this month and we still have 7 days left in the month. Looks like 2011 is off to a great start!! Thanks so much for stopping.

Until next time...

Hugs,

Leanne

Triple Take

As I was looking through all three of my grandson's first year albums, I realized I had not done a "bath time" page. I have thought many times, of what I've wanted to do for their page, but never completed the page. So, the time had come, I am almost done with their first album and knew it was time to complete those pages. And once I made that conscious effort to complete the page, everything fell into place.

When my friend, Susan, posted a sketch on her blog, I knew I was on the right track. I had been collecting various components for these pages for quite some time. Funny, how I have planned these pages and almost forgot about them. The word paper came from a digital scrapbooking kit. The little ducks is one of my favorites and is a part of Suzy Zoo collection. The bubbles in the background are from Stickerpotamus and the other little embellishments are from Jolee's Boutique. I found them both here. This is the last of the "Dutch Blue" gingham paper I've had in my stash. The borders I punched out with Martha Stewart's "Punch Around The Page" punch. The yellow and blue cardstock is Close To My Heart's "Sunny Yellow" and "Dutch Blue". I cut 2 large "bubbles" out of vellum and used CTMH's "Sky" ink and sponged the edges. Its hard to tell from the photo. They look so much better in person.

These are pages for Benny's album.

The pages above are for Jaden's album.

Of course when I do the twin's pages, I always duplicate them. In my opinion, that's what you do with twins! LOL It just makes it easier. I am sure there will come a time when I will have to individualize their albums, but for now...I don't mind repeating myself. BUT, I loved how the pages turned out for the twins, that I thought I would do the same for Matthew's album as well.

Its is such a good feeling to know, that I am almost done with all the grandchildren's first year albums. Its a small step, but one to take notice. And at the rate I am going, I may have ALL their albums completed when they graduate from college! LOL So, I'll keep plugging along and doing what I can when I can.

So until next time, thank you so much for stopping by!

Happy Scrappin'!!

Hugs,

Leanne

New Year....New Goals

Have you ever had one of those days/weeks where anything you had planned was put back on the back burner because other things took priority. That is how my week has gone. But the good news is...I'm somewhat free of having to set priorities and I get to spend some quality time here in the rubber room.

Since the first of the year, I have been concentrating on getting pages done for my grandsons, Matthew, Jaden and Benjamin. Their first year album is just about completed. I had to order some things for their pages, and as soon as those things arrive, I can get those pages completed. YAY!!! So meanwhile, I thought I would move along into their second year album. I have made a chart for myself to help me keep track of all the pages I've completed and to know what I need to work on to complete that album. Since I'm scrapping for 10 people and everything else, I need that kind of thing to keep my organized and to track my progress.

I felt like I had been neglecting Matthew's books, so I decided to do some pages for him. I also realized I didn't have any pictures of Matthew with his parents. So, these pictures were perfect for scrapping.

This is the first layout I've made using CTMH's new how-to book, "Magic". The papers I used came from CTMH's Heart of Winter "Days to Cherish" special.(retired) The word stickers came from my stash. The big half circle on the left page, is from MyLYB, "Safari Baby Boy". And the words on the pictures are rubons from my stash.

This next set of pictures are of Matthew. He loved this little microphone, that would play so loud, it could be heard anywhere in the house! LOL He still has that toy and still loves playing with it. But that thumb tastes so much better!

The bumblebee paper I used is from Bo Bunny. The sketch is another from CTMH's how to book, "Magic". I believe the other papers are from Bo Bunny, but I am not sure. They came from my stash without their tags on them. The large chiboard letters are from Making Memories, and I painted them with Making Memories scrapbooking paint. I made the bubble buttons from the patterned paper and glued them to painted chipboard. Then I attached CTMH's round "Window Charms" on top of the disc.

I should have started out this post with these layouts. I wanted to finish my Notre Dame layouts before I started on the boys' pages. So, I brought in the New Year finishing up these layouts.

The floral patterned paper is from K and Company, "Ancestry.com" line. The green polk dot patterned paper is from CTMH's "Perfect Day" paper pack. The brown patterned paper at the bottom portion of the layout is CTMH's retired "Fleurs de Jardine paper pack. And the pink is from CTMH's retired background and texture paper pack. The colors are Juniper, Baby Pink and Desert Sand. The scallop edge paper is a punch from Martha Stewart. The flowers are homemade and the flourishes I cut on my wishblade. This marks the half way point of my Paris album. I hope to get another layout done for the Paris album sometime this month.

So, I set my goal once again this year to complete 144 pages. I just fell short about 11 layouts to meet my goal of 144 last year. If I had an extra month in the year, I would have met my goal. LOL If only...LOL. That makes my goal for each month, 12 pages a month. With what I've shared above, I am half way in meeting my goal for the month. But as in past years, I start out strong, but dwindle down half way through. I'll have to think about how to keep the momentum going. I'd love to meet my goal this year and even surpass it. Wish me luck!!

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Until next time,

Happy Scrappin'

Hugs,

Leanne

Happy New Year!

I can see that I am not very good at making New Year resolutions. LOL I had promised myself to post more regularly on my blog. And here it is...January 10, 2011and this is my first post for the new year. I can say I'll try to do better, but haven't I said that before? So, bear with me as I try to figure out a more logical way of posting.
It's not that I haven't been scrapping...I have! I think its when I am on a roll, I hate to interrupt that creativity. But when I have scrapper's block, I get busy looking for inspiration. Oh my, its a vicious cycle I put myself through. So, let me share with you the layouts I did last month.

These first set of layouts were for my workshop last month. We used CTMH's "Mistletoe" WOTG. Now, I like to put a twist of the layout, corp has chosen for us. These two pages, are my renderings.

When I photographed the layouts, as you can see, I switched the layouts. What is suppose to be on the left is on the right and visa versa. I used Martha Stewart's Around the Page punch and punched out the border. Then took the border stamp from the stamp set "B1357 All the Best" that came in the kit and stamped around the page, I really like how the stamp and punches goes so nicely together. I will probably use this again.

So now that I've completed one set of Christmas layouts, I felt the need to do some more. Can we see a patterned happening here? LOL You have to admit...I AM getting those pages scrapped. I also realized that I am almost done with Matthew's and the twin's first year album. Just a couple more layouts and all three of the books will be done. Yippee!! So here is a page for Matthew's first year album.

Some of the papers I used are retired, but I also used some scraps from the Mistletoe kit. It really was a simple layout to put together. I don't know why I waited to complete it as long as I did. But everything here I used from my stash. I am slowly dwindling down everything I have been hoarding. I still have a ways to go...but its getting there.

So, while I was in the Christmas spirit and it was the Season. I realized I had started a 2 page layout for Matthew last year. Somehow, my attention got turned away, but I had kept it close to work on at a later date. Well, that later date had arrived and I completed the layouts from last year's "Jingle" WOTG kit.

Now that I've completed pages for Deborah and Matthew, I turned my attention to the twins. I knew I had quite a few pages to finish for their first year album. So looking through the file of their first year...I found a few I knew I should scrap.

As many scrappers I know, they enjoy using Page Maps' sketches for doing their layouts. I too use Page Maps alot for inspiration. I found another blog that has given me quite a bit of inspiration. The blog is Sketch Savvy and the blogger is Susan Stringfellow. I have used quite a few of her sketches lately. Check out her blog and leave her a comment or two. I know she'd love to hear from you. Click here for the sketch I did above. I flipped the layout so I could use it on the left side. Then you can click here for the sketch of the layout below

These next pages I did for the twins. They were learning how to crawl, and they kept crawling and climbing all over each other. They were the most curious set of babies. And if one of them found something the other had to investigate it as well. Where one was...the other was right there with him. It was easy at that time to keep an eye on them.

The papers I used for these layouts are from DCWV "Linen" paper slab. The flowers I cut out on my Wishblade in addition to the little car in the lower left corner. The flowers I spritz them with homemade glimmer mist (create a shade paint, reinker, liquid hair spray) and scrunched them to give them some dimension on the page.

So this is what I had been up to the last month of the year. In addition to baking cookies, and cleaning and wrapping gifts..all the normal stuff that comes with the holiday season. As the song says, I am so glad Christmas comes but once a year!

I still have more to share, but for now, I have got to go get some housework done. You know, like dusting and vaccuuming and changing the linens on the beds, etc etc etc. The list goes on and on. But, good news...I don't have to cook tonight! DH is going to take me out to dinner!

So, until the next time. Thanks for stopping by. Leave me a comment or two and let me know what you think of all my pages. I would love to hear from you.

Happy Scrappin'

Lots of hugs,

Leanne