Hannah as "Fancy Nancy"

One thing I don't like about public school? The amazing ability of bacteria to spread like wildfire among the kids! Hannah seems to have caught a double whammy this past week or so. Between strep, a stomach virus and allergies, she was one pretty miserable little girl.
Thank goodness that we got her to the doctor and got antibiotics in her. She's feeling so much better.
Last week, before she got sick, was her school's book fair. On Tuesday we held a "come as your favorite book character" contest for the classes. Hannah loves Fancy Nancy and since her style is easily copied that's what she wanted to dress as.

Yep, this is my little girl :D all dolled up and "fancy." The more jewelry, the better.
Sorry for the photo quality. For some reason my photo program won't open today.
 It took about 1/2 an hour to curl and fluff up her hair and get that headband to stay in. Nancy usually wears a tiara, but we couldn't find hers, so we improvised.
Anything over the top. That was the motto.


I'll get back to crafting and experimenting with recipes as soon as I get over this lovely flu.

Another pink stash page

Last summer, our family spent a fun day at Jolly Mill. What more could I ask for when an outing allows me to take pictures? But Brian wouldn't let me go all day and not get my picture taken a few times, too.
Another stash page resulted :D
I used my favorite product, Close to My Heart's liquid glass, on the butterfly stickers and heart stickers that dotted the page, along with the letters on Jolly Mill.
I decided to mat part of the title and the journal block to help separate them from the rest of the pink page.
Tomorrow I'll share Hannah's "Fancy Nancy" dress up day... not a scrap page, but she was sooooo cute!

Guitar Man

Wow. What a day! I have a great respect for mothers who work outside the home. I honestly don't know how they do it.
Today from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., I worked at Hannah's book fair. I did it last year, too, just not as long. Normally, once I drop her off at school, I come back home, do my housework, study and bake or do anything else that needs to be done or craft or read a little. Today I had no time to do any of that. Good thing I don't have to pay too much attention to laundry or Brian wouldn't have a clean shirt to wear to work tomorrow!
The bright side... for every two hours I volunteer, I get a free book for Hannah!

Today's scrapbook page is one of my husband. I took this photo shortly after we were married last year because I think he looks great in a hat and absolutely love that he plays guitar.

Once again this was a "stashbook" page.
I used some brown plaid paper for the background and the same paper as a partial photo mat. For a larger mat, I used cream cardstock and for the small photo mat directly around the photo I used a dark brown cardstock -- the same I used for the title block.
The title was made with gold alphabet stickers with a printed guitar sticker angled for effect. I also scattered music note stickers for accents around the page.
And there you go... a page dedicated to my husband.
He's gonna love this post (note the sarcasm) LOL

For the love of PINK!

Pink, pink and more pink.
That is what Hannah likes.
OK. Well, she likes purple, too.
Those are her favorite colors. But at least she'll wear more than just pink because there is only so much pink a girl can handle... and this is coming from a person who really likes pink, too. ;0)
So in honor of Hannah's love for pink, I present THE PINK PAGES....

These are two more pages from my scrap stash.
Last summer, a couple months after Brian and I were married, the three of us went on a little day trip to the beautiful Jolly Mill. I took the opportunity to to take some adorable photos of our little Hannah.
I used an old paper from Doodlebug Design (VERY old. The back of the pages said 2004!) with little pink flowers all over.
On the left page I matted a photo on fuscia card stock for the top left with two more photos angled on the bottom for something a little different.
On the right page I matted three photos on the far right with one unmatted photo on the bottom left.
I matted alphabet stickers spelling Hannah's name on fuscia card stock, then cut out around them. I then glued the letters on six pretty pink and green tags, placing them across the middle of the spread.
I put the journaling information on two yellow squares to help them stand out a bit and placed a resin daisy on the top of each square.
A celebration of Hannah and pink!

Me and my girls

Such a gloomy day outside. Days like this I just kind of want to curl up with a book or watch an old favorite movie. Who's with me?
Cooler days are here and with them, hot chocolate, more coffee (YES!) and fires in the fire pit. I just love fall!
It also means it's getting closer to November when I'll get to see my other "daughter" - my niece Amber and her husband. They only live about three hours away, but it may as well be 10 for as often as we get to see each other. Life and jobs sure do get in the way.

So in honor of my girls, I'm sharing a page of all three of us.

It's also another stash page.
The photo was taken this past July. It was kind of hard to get Hannah to smile for some reason, so we just got a goofy look on her face :0) She's such a character.
Once again I have no idea where the papers came from. The yellow paper actually has very light writing on it but it's hard to read and just adds another dimension to the page.
I deconstructed two pink silk roses and reconstructed them into three two-layer flowers on the yellow paper and three one-layer flowers across the bottom of the page. In the center of all the flowers I placed a tiny red gem from Close to My Heart.
I placed alphabet stickers for the title onto four tags. I covered the holes with yellow paper flowers and a little gem in the middle.
One photo, lots of embellishments and precious memories.

Stashbooking!

I think I may have the world's largest scrapbook stash.
OK, maybe not the largest, but it definitely isn't small. The amount of scrapbook paper and embellishments I have accumulated over the past 12 years is astounding. And I have made it my goal to put a serious dent in my stash in the next few months.
For about four or five years I didn't scrap much because, well, because I had a demanding job that just sapped all my creative juices. Now don't get me wrong I loved my job, but by the time I got home at night one of the last things I wanted to do was break out the scrapping supplies and use my brain more. ;o) Didn't stop me from buying scrapping stuff, though. Hence, the stockpile.
But now that I am a stay-at-home mom and my daughter is in public school, I sometimes have a little time on my hands. And I have really gotten back into scrapping.
Good thing, too. My photos were really starting to stack up as well.
This page is an example of using my stash to the full. The only new items on the page are the gems on the tags.

These photos were taken of me and my wonderful husband this past July at our District Convention in Fort Smith, AR. We especially love that our daughter is peeking over my shoulders... which of course we didn't notice until I was looking at the photos later.
Since the paper and embellishments are from my stash, I have no idea what brand they are or even where I got them to begin with.
I know I bought the paper years ago, well before I met Brian, but I love that it's all hearts and X's and O's and "lover girl" and "lover boy" and all sorts of lovey dovey sentiments.
I used my corner rounder on the photos and on the mat behind the top photo and I used dark pink chalk to liven up the plain white mat.
I also matted the two tags on white paper, then position three gems (from Close to My Heart) on the lower right sides of the tags.
I found six tiny ribbon roses in light pink, white and red. I glued them in groups of three just to add a little something to the page.
On the top photo, I used five red gems in the shape of a flower and on the bottom photo I used two square/diamond gems to draw attention to the cute little face behind us.
Plan on seeing more creations from my stash!

Heartfelt

This page has to be one of my favorites of all time. It's so elegant and features two of my favorite photos of my li'l Punkin. You can just see the mischievousness in her eyes!

Once again, I used only Close to Heart products. And Yay! I finally found the name of the paper collection... Sonoma.
I mounted the two photos on muted green card stock, leaving a bit more room on the top of one for the title. On the other, I took a portion of one of the border stickers and put it on the top of the mat, just to make it stand out a little more.
On the bottom right, I used two stickers matted on muted purple card stock. On the first I wrote the details of the photos. The second is a quote from Abraham Lincoln -- "And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."
I used Liquid Glass on all the little sticker embellishments  and on the "Heartfelt" title.
Then, to add a little more zing, I used the Liquid Glass on the curly ques in the paper itself.
I think the result is another simple and elegant page.

The Tapestry of Life

This morning my best friend asked me why I hadn't updated my blog in a while. Seems she checks it almost every day (she lives in Tennessee) and was getting a little tired of the banana bread recipe :D I promised her that I would be better at updating from now on.
I've been a little under the weather for a few weeks and have had to focus my energy on some other things. That's my story . . . and I'm sticking to it!
Cliche?
Well, I can be that every once in a while.

This page is the first time I have ever used products from only one brand. The paper, stickers, gems and liquid glass are from Close to My Heart. But if you ask me the name of the collection... well, that's where I draw a blank.
Liquid Glass is fast becoming my favorite scrapbook supply. It gives just the right amount of shine (without glitter) to a page and really amps up the star quality of what might be considered lackluster without it.

The paper collection is just so beautiful -- all muted purples, greens and tans, swirls and paisley. Almost antiqued looking.
This spring, I took photos of Hannah wearing one of our favorite dresses, a feathered fan and her hair wreath from our wedding. The photos were perfect with the paper and embellishments.
I used the Liquid Glass on the large letters of the title, on one side of the left photo mat and the outline of the flower and purple gems as the center of the flowers.
I added Hannah's age and four purple gems in ascending sized on the circle sticker on the bottom right.
And that's that!

Tomorrow, I will share the other page that I used the same Close to My Heart collection.