scrapbook! Saturday

This month, after a bit of a break, I am returning as the sketch creator for write.click.scrapbook.  So, if you don't remember, every third Saturday of the month there will be a new sketch along with a few other challenges to help inspire and kick-start your scrapbook pages.  This month I created a sketch based off of Deb's gallery layout: 

And here is the layout I created from the sketch:

Last weekend Gabe celebrated his sixth birthday!  As a surprise, my husband took him to the U.S.S. Midway Museum for a tour of the bridge.  You have to meet a height requirement in order to take the tour.  The last time we all went together they were already closing the tours for the day.  And when they go with Nathan, they can't take the tour because he isn't tall enough.  Gabe later told us that this was his favorite birthday present!  It was very sweet.

By the way, we have a membership to the museum and the boys go somewhat often.  If you are ever visiting the San Diego area and are a history or military history buff, I highly recommend a visit to the Midway.  The docents are all very kind and knowledgeable, and we always come away learning something new.

That's all for today.  I hope you are having a great weekend!

just sneaking in...

As I write this, the boys are all still asleep... I don't expect that to last too much longer.  But while they were still sleeping I sneaked in some scrapbooking time.  I realized that while there has been quite a lot of scrapbooking on the blog lately, there are still a few layouts I haven't shared yet, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to do that now.  The first two were made for the Simple Stories blog,

For this one I used a lot of the Simple Basics papers from the Fabulous collection.  The Simple Basic papers are double-sided and they coordinate with each collection, but they also come with a neutral side - and I love that.  Since the patterns of the Simple Basics papers are more subdued, you can use them for a variety of topics.  Here are a couple of close-ups: 

I used my Silhouette to cut the starburst shapes and the butterflies.

And now a layout using Summer Fresh:

I really, really like this collection.  Possibly even more than Awesome.  I know, how is that possible?  I just love the combination of colors and patterns.  Like the text paper that I used to make these clouds...

 I'm also in love with the coordinating sticker sheet.  The little decorative tape strips are my favorite:

Finally, another layout using Summer Fresh, documenting my favorite thing about summer.  This one was inspired by the outdoors and you can read more about that in this post, written by my fellow WCS teammate Amy Sorensen. 

Alrighty, I've got to wrap this up.  The boys will be awake any minute now!

Happy Friday!

life around here

I know it's been very scrapbook heavy here lately.  I've been trying for weeks to write a non-scrapbooking related post.  Honestly, life is really not all that crazy here, it's just that I'm trying to fit everything in.  There is all the usual stuff like cleaning, and laundry, and making meals... 

then there is spending time with these guys:

who pretty much make me laugh everyday.  They were making a feast, obviously.  And notice, it included bacon.

They are spending a lot of time outside.  It's been warm, but not too hot.  I hope it stays that way, but I know it won't.

I dare you to look at this little guy when he smiles and not smile back.  He has the most infectious giggle too.

This one, oh, this one.  He's been a little cranky as of late.  Poor thing has eczema.  His face looks pretty clear here; this was taken before the last bad breakout:

Gabe had eczema as a baby too, and he outgrew it, so we're just hoping the same thing will happen for Sam. 

These two... it is just Star Wars all the time:

For the most part, they play nicely together and it is a blessing to see the bond between them grow.  Nathan loves his big brother.  They do pretty much everything together.

Nathan also loves his little brother; he especially likes to give Sam hugs and kisses:

It's a little hard to see, this is the best photo I have that might show it, but we think this little one might have blue eyes:

They are a very dark blue-grey and most definitely not brown.  It will be interesting to see if they stay that color.  And yeah, he's wearing the same romper as in the photo above.  I happen to think it is super-cute, because yes, he is 100% Loveable. =)

I wanted to share a couple of posts that have been on my mind lately, and while they don't completely or perfectly reflect my views about blogging as of late, they come pretty close.  The first is one about the time we spend offline posted at Amongst Lovely Things, and the other is a post I found via Sarah's blog, To Blog or Not to Blog.  Essentially, if you don't see too many posts from me, just know that I am busy - not for the sake of being busy, but busy spending time with my family.  I do get plenty of free time, comparatively speaking, and for the most part I've been spending it scrapbooking.  That just means that there is not a lot of time left for blogging, but I know you understand.

Finally, I want to say how grateful I am for all of you who have stopped by and left comments on the last two blog hop posts.  It is so inspiring to see that others love this hobby as much as I do.

Have a blessed week!

and the winners are...

Thank you to everyone who participated in Friday's blog hop!  I enjoyed reading all of your responses and comments. 

It seems that yesterday got away from me a bit, but I'm here today to announce the winners of the giveaway.  Yes, I said winners.  The original prize will go to Bethany Becker!  And since I've been in a bit of a purging mode these last couple of months, I put together another prize which will go to Mary-Anne V.

Congratulations to you both!!  I'll be in contact with you shortly so that I can send you your goodies!

I'm blogging...

at Simple Stories today.  Here is a sneak peek of the layout I made using their newest collection, Summer Fresh.  Also, Scrapbook Trends is sponsoring a giveaway on the blog.  Starting today through June 9th they are giving away a copy of the June issue to one lucky blog reader.  Stop by and comment for your chance to win.

I'll be back later with the winner from Friday's write.click.scrapbook. birthday celebration giveaway.

Mix & Match Album: My Favorite Photos 2012

Welcome to the Simple Stories Mix & Match blog hop!  You should have arrived here from Liz Qualman's blog.  Today a few of my fellow teammates and I are sharing our projects using the Mix & Match albums that debuted at CHA Winter this year.  I could go on and on about how very cool these little albums are, but I have a feeling you already know!

Just in case you are not familiar with them, here is what a basic album looks like and includes:

The album is designed to hold 6x8 pages and you can use either page protectors, which come in a variety of designs, or the page inserts that correspond to each Simple Stories collection.  Or you can use both!

For my album I chose to use the Year.O.Graphy collection, and I decided to make an album that includes my favorite photos of 2012.

When this album is completed, I want for it to sit on the shelf with the rest of my full-sized scrapbooks and so I purposefully designed the cover to be rather flat; the only dimension is from the buttons.  The first page on the inside of the album serves as the title page:

I plan on putting most of the photos into the divided page protectors,

but I also plan on mixing up the design, and using the 6x8 album pages that match the Year.O.Graphy line (they are so cute by the way! I love the designs).

Some photos from the first week that Samuel was at home:

I used my Silhouette a lot for this album (really, I am using it a lot for everything these days!)  I thought this 4x6 Home Sweet Home card was perfect for this little spread.  Here is a closer look at the right-hand side:

This was Nathan's first year to color eggs, and he absolutely loved it:

He had a smile on his face the whole time, and was very patient and good about following our instructions.  Which is notable, since patience is not really one of Nathan's virtues...  we're working on it. =)

Sometimes a photo is a favorite whether it is technically perfect or not, it is the moment that a photo captures that makes me love it.  And sadly, sometimes those not-so-perfect photos never get scrapbooked.  Really, there is no way I could scrapbook every photo I take anyway.  I thought this album would be the perfect place to hold all of my favorite photos whether they are great or not!  Here are some favorite snapshots from life around here:

Nathan has loved Samuel from the moment we brought him home.  He often wants to give him hugs and kisses.  He likes to sing songs to him, or in this case, read him a story to keep him company:

And these two, of course, already have a special bond.  Lately, they bond over Star Wars...

Seriously, they are obsessed!

You might have noticed the journaling cards in the pages above.  One of my favorite pieces of paper from the collection is the Orange/Grid paper.  I used it to make 3x4 journaling cards and then customized them using washi tape, stamps, and simple embellishments.  Here is what they looked like before I added the journaling:

This album is definitely a work in progress, and I've only shared a few of the pages with you today.  As the months go by I'll try to make a point of sharing my completed pages with you, so check-in periodically to see how the album is coming along.

**********

Now for the fun news!  Simple Stories is giving away two album assortments.  One to a reader on the Simple Stories blog, and one to the design team member who gets the most comments today.  I would be thrilled to give away an album to one of my readers, so please be sure to leave a comment on this post! 

The next stop in the hop is:  Kellie Rabideau

And just in case you get lost, here is a list of all of the blogs in today's hop:

Liz Qualman

Kellie Rabideau

Kay Rogers

Yuki Shimada

Shellye McDaniel

Wendy Morris

Guiseppa Gubler
Rebecca Keppel

  Good luck and thanks for stopping by!!

we're having a party, and you're invited!

Today write.click.scrapbook. is celebrating it's third birthday!  As part of our birthday festivities we are hosting a blog hop.  As you click from blog to blog collect the letters that you find along your way.  Then, stop back at wcs and enter for your chance to win a box filled with scrapbooking goodies!  You'll find my letter towards the end of this post, but first...

As with the beginning of every new month, we are also revealing our June gallery.  This month the members of the team have joined up in pairs and have made a page or project inspired by a fellow teammate.  My perfect pair was Lisa Ottosson.  I was inspired by her Take Twelve layout for the month of May:

Here is a sneak peek of the layout that I made inspired by her page:

Visit the gallery to see all of the layouts and projects designed by the team. 

Which leads me to this, there are so many reasons to love write.click.scrapbook.  I've been honored and humbled to be a part of this group for two years now.  Since I get to see and experience what goes on behind the scenes, I can tell you that we all work very hard to bring you the inspiration and ideas that you see on the blog each day.  We all have different talents and different strengths, but what I love most is that we all truly love what we do and we love sharing it with you!

With that, I also want to give a big thank you to Marnie who works tirelessly to keep us going.  She takes care of the site, gets us organized, and insures that we have a place to gather and share this hobby with you.  She is most definitely the glue that keeps us together and without her write.click.scrapbook. would not be possible.

As a bonus to today's celebration, I am also hosting a giveaway!  I put together this collection of happy, colorful products to kick-off your summer scrapbooking:

If you'd like the chance to win, leave a comment telling me why you love scrapbooking.  Also, you must include your email address in the comments so that I can contact you if you win.  Comments will remain open until Monday, June 4th, 11:59 pm PST.  The winner will be announced on Tuesday and will be contacted shortly thereafter.


Now, here is my letter:

Can you tell what it is?  I had some rather wiggly subjects. =)

The next blog in the hop is:  Emily Pitts

And just in case you get lost, here are all of the blogs of our team:

Alexandra Sirugue-MacLeod

Amy Sorensen

Celeste Smith

Christa Paustenbaugh

Deb Duty

Diane Payne

Emily Pitts

Emily Spahn

Erin Sweeney

Francine Clouden

Kathy Martin

Katrina Simeck

Kelly Jeppson

Keshet Starr

Lisa Kisch

Lisa Ottosson

Marie Taylor

Marnie Flores

Monika Wright

Paula Gilarde

Sarah Pendergrast

Teka Jo Cochonneau

Valerie O'Neall

Vivian Masket

Good luck and thanks for stopping by!!