graduation day

I know, I know!! I haven't been updating my blog... mostly because I haven't been scrapping! It's been a crazy, busy semester. But... it's almost over and I expect to get a lot more scrapping done in the coming month! :)

In the meantime, here's a page that seemed to take me the whole semester to finish, LOL! Since Tyler is about to finish 1st grade, I guess it's about time I scrapped his kindergarten graduation. :) I LOVE this Scrap Within Reach Paper Boy line! With so many pics I kept the page design simple.

Journaling:
Your big day - kindergarten graduation! But unfortunately, it didn't work out quite like we expected it to. A nasty tummy big was running through your class that day and kids were dropping like flies! Some didn't even make it to the graduation that evening. You weren't feeling well, but then perked up so we went; but a few minutes before the ceremony was to begin, you threw up all over your graduation gown. You sat with us and walked up onto the stage to get your diploma, but that was the extent of your participation for the evening. Still, it was definitely a memorable night!

my card-making marathon!

Each year at Easter, the Catholic Church welcomes new members who have been part of the RCIA program over the previous several months. As part of this celebration, our church asks each organization/group within the church to provide a card, signed by the group's members, for each person who is joining the church. This year there are 7 people receiving one or more of the sacraments of initiation (baptism, first holy communion, and confirmation) at the Easter Vigil. Since our Cub Scout Pack is one of the groups asked to provide cards, I got the bright idea to make the cards myself, LOL!

Once I had settled on the basic design, I pulled a variety of papers from my stash so that each card would be unique. I didn't expect it to take as long as it did to put these together, but I'm really happy with how they turned out. I used my Pazzles to cut the word "Christ" for the sentiment, and did the rest of the wording on the computer. The inside of each card says "Sharing with you the joy of new life in Christ! Congratulations from Cub Scout Pack 40".

Happy Valentines Day

I just wanted to share the card I made for my hubby, using the Carnival Ride collection from Scrap Within Reach. I love this line and have had it in my stash for a while but just not had a chance to use it. I thought it was great for this card since it has some reds in it but it isn't too frou-frou and a little bit non-traditional for Valentines Day. :)

Now I have the card-making bug... might have to try to get a few more done this week! Happy Valentines Day!

7th heaven

This is my final page for my January Guest Designer gig at Allyscraps. I love this fun and boyish Bella Blvd. Super Stud line! It was perfect for these pics of the boys devouring some chocolate covered strawberries at our wonderful Mother's Day brunch last year. And I couldn't resist working in a little bit of a "math pun" on this page, LOL!

The sketch I created for this page can be found on the Allyscraps blog. I'd love to see your take on it!

Journaling:
The huge chocolate fountain was clearly the highlight of the awesome Mother's Day brunch at Oglebay.

so happy to be cousins

I love this adorable boy-ish Kaisercraft "Superhero" line, perfect for a photo of my boys and their two cousins. Other supplies include Maya Road's Noah alpha, which I painted, and replaced the "a" with a fun little heart from this chipboard set. Of course I used my new favorite Nutmeg Thickers again, and that cute chipboard snail from the Maya Road Bugs set, just because it seems fitting with "boys" theme of the page.

My sketch for this page can be found on the Allyscraps blog, so be sure to check it out!

Journaling:
Nicholas and Nathan used to be pretty shy whenever we saw them, but as they’ve gotten older that has changed. Now when the four of you get together, you are like old friends! You both love to see your cousins, and it’s so fun to see how you have bonded with them. I hope that you four “Gaydos boys” will always stay connected and grow to be not just cousins, but lasting friends.

38 days, 4 teeth

I had to scrap these pictures of Tyler, chronicling how he lost all four of his front teeth in just a little over a month! I converted the photos to black and white, which worked much better for the page since he was wearing something different in each one and they really didn't go together very well. I used another great line from Fancy Pants - Rough and Tough. Such fun patterns, great for boy pages but versatile enough to be used for a lot of themes!

My sketch for this page can be found on the Allyscraps Blog, along with an awesome take on the sketch from Dana, so check it out!

Journaling:
The dentist saw those four wiggley teeth in November and was sure they would all be out by Christmas. He was close! You held onto that last one as long as you could, but just before New Year's, out it came. You started 2010 with quite a hole in your mouth!

the fruits of your labor

Ahhh, this was a fun page to work on! Not only because I love these photos of my boys and ADORE the rich colors and gorgeous patterns of the Fancy Pants - Trick or Treat line, but also because this is part of my January Guest Designer work for Allyscraps! And if you want to check out the sketch I created that goes with this page, you can find it on the Allyscraps Blog.

As you can see, this line is very versatile and definitely not only for Halloween layouts. Along with the Fancy Pants, I used some of these fun new Nutmeg Thickers. You will be seeing more of them this month, for sure!

By the way, in case you are very picky about the little things, like I am, I wanted to share a tip that I figured out as I was working on this page. Notice how the journaling is aligned? Here is a close-up view:



I wanted it to be justified for very clean, graphic look. However, when I typed it in Word and simply picked "justified", the partial last-line was aligned to the left margin. I wanted the partial line to be aligned to the right instead, so that the "straight edge" of the text was with the photos, and the "indented edge" was with the rounded corner. Here was my solution: I inserted a string of periods, just before the word "the" at the beginning of the last line, until the periods "pushed" the text over to the far right margin (actually, I let it push the text down to a new line, and then deleted the last period). Then I selected the periods and changed the text color to "white" so that they were invisible. Viola! This gave me exactly the alignment that I wanted. Perhaps there's another way... but this worked for me, and I wanted to share it!

side by side

It's true, it's true... I'm scrapping again! LOL! After a bit of a hiatus while things were crazy during the Fall 09 semester, I've been back at my scrap table recently. This page features Cosmo Cricket's Boyfriend line. It's an older photo, but a memory that I wanted to scrap - the first day that both boys rode the bus to school. It was so sweet how Ryan held Tyler's hand and took care of his little brother.

Journaling:
It's Tyler's 1st day as a bus rider, but I know he's in good hands. Ryan is right by his side the whole time! 8-22-08

geared up to learn

This Bo Bunny Grease Monkey collection was positively made to go with these pictures of our Cub Scout Den visiting a local auto repair shop for a presentation about changing oil and basic car maintenance. I designed and cut the large gear using my Pazzles machine. For the "tire treads" on the background, I also used the pazzles to cut the design as a "stencil" from scrap cardstock. Then I applied ink with a piece of felt, dabbing through the stencil until the coverage was just right! It worked great!

Journaling:
What a fun & educational Cub Scout outing! The Den went to Elizabeth Auto Care. Dave showed you how they change the oil in a car, check the other fluids, and perform the emissions test. He explained how the oil is processed & recycled. They even gave you each a bucket of small goodies & gifts afterwords. How nice!

Here is a close up of the Maya Road gear-date-sheer. I applied some of the Bo Bunny rub-ons to the bottom layer, and a sticker to the wrench, to tie the embellishment into the rest of the page. I used the Making Memories tiny alpha stickers to add the year, and also changed out the center brad to one of the "screw top" brads". I love the effect!



Here is a closer look at the inked tire treads:



I created a 2-pager sketch with this page! You can check it out here, and enter a page in the Sketch Challenge for a chance to win a gift certificate to the store here!

complete comfort

The Webster's Pages - A Sweet Life collection had the perfect soft and sweet feel to it for this picture I caught of my little guy in his favorite position... sucking his thumb and playing with his ear. LOL! I played with a distressed photo edge in Photoshop, so carried that theme into the whole page by distressing the heck out of all the paper edges, by roughing them up and then adding lots of ink.

Journaling:
Right thumb in mouth, left hand on ear... in the car, watching TV, going to sleep at night... for you, this is it. Complete comfort.

You can find my sketch for this page in the Allyscraps Gallery.

some of the wild things at the zoo

I love the gorgeous colors in this Crate Paper Little Sprouts collection! It has such an earthy and natural feel, I thought it was perfect for another zoo page!

Journaling:
TOP ROW: Red Panda; Mexican Wolf; Large Flying Fox; Koala Bear; Random Bird.
BOTTOM ROW: Grizzly Bear; Markhor (goat-antelope); Water Monitor; Bald Eagle.
Columbus Zoo – April 18, 2009

This is also the page for my July 3rd Sketch Challenge at Allyscraps - check it out for a chance to win a $10 gift certificate to the store!

Columbus Zoo

This Doodlebug Zoofari was perfect for these pics from our trip to the Columbus Zoo in April!

Journaling:
We had a wonderful family weekend getaway in Ohio to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary! We couldn’t miss the opportunity to check out the Columbus Zoo. We always love a zoo, and this one was very impressive! There was plenty of hands-on fun, including the pony rides and petting zoo. Hopefully we will make it back for another visit someday! April 19, 2009

bugs fear him

WOW, how perfect is the Bo Bunny U Bug Me line for these pictures of Ryan chasing fireflies!? I love the rich colors in these papers, and the fun patterns! The bug theme is so cute, but plenty of the patterns are neutral enough to work for lots of other topics, too!

I had several pictures that I wanted to use on this page, and didn't want to make them super tiny, so I did something I haven't done in a long time, and added the extra photos in a "flip-book" style hidden element. I really love how it turned out! See below for the inside of the flip book.

This page goes with the current sketch challenge at Allyscraps! Be sure to check it out for a chance at the drawing for a $10 gift certificate!

Journaling:
What better way to spend a beautiful summer evening than out in the backyard catching fireflies? Like a little scientist, you carefully capture and study them. They really have nothing to fear, because you are always very gentle. After your observation is complete, you set them free.

Here are the inside pages of the flip book:

the very best kind of summer fun

This fun, bright Fancy Pants Delight was perfect for these pics from a trip to a local amusement park with friends last year!

Journaling:
Kennywood is always fun, but sharing it with friends makes it the best kind of summer fun! What a great time we had there with Jacob and Kathy! 8-22-08

seeing beauty through the eyes of love

This page is for the Allyscraps Blog May Design Team reveal! Each DT member chose a challenge that one of the other DT'ers did for our crop on May 9. I used Dana's challenge, which was to choose 3 sources of inspiration and use them to create the layout. My three inspirations were:
1. The Scrap Within Reach “Cottage” line with it’s dandelion theme – perfect for these SWEET pictures of my little Tyler, who loves to bring me these pretty little “flowers” at every available opportunity!
2. Stitching: I don’t sew on my pages often enough! Every time I see it, like on this awesome page by Guest DT Jana, or this great page by forum member Tina, I think that I really should do it more often!
3. Die-cut “bracket” style paper: these shaped papers are so popular and I just love them! So I used my Pazzles and a print-and-cut technique to create my shaped journaling block in this fun style!

Journaling:
“Here Mommy, I picked a flower for you!” I know that these bright little yellow “flowers” are really weeds, and Daddy would like nothing better than to rid our yard of them. Still, I’m kind of glad that there are always a few to be found. You gather them up as you walk from the bus up to the front door, and then gleefully hold them out for me with that sweet, loving smile. To you, they are a thing of beauty and a chance to give me a gift full of pure love. I love these sweet flowers, when they come from your heart.