Date Day

Yesterday I spent some good old fashioned quality time with my husband. We tried out a hot dog trailer for lunch, played games and took our picture at Main Event, and hung out together at Barnes & Noble sipping on Starbucks. Ahh...the good ol' days of dating. It was great to get back to our roots. :)

P.S. This is my new favorite layout :)

Details: Paper is the A & B side of Forever with You Delightful Diamond paper from the So Sophie Collection by My Mind's Eye. The Title block is also from this collection. Ribbon is by American Crafts. Journaling block is from the Fly a Kite line by October Afternoon. Vintage photo strip cover is by K&Company.

Us

I didn't love my wedding photos and that makes me really sad. So I decided I wanted new "family" pictures taken of my husband and me. We worked with the amazing and talented Mollie of Bloom Photography. The results are amazing! I love love love all the photos of us. She captured "us" how we see each other. I could just stare at the photos all day :)

Details: Background paper is Lemonade from October Afternoon's Fly a Kite line. Photo mat paper is Glow by Bazzill Basics. Journaling block is from the Report Card line by October Afternoon. Word captions are from the Woodhaven line by Colorbok. Camera is from the On Holiday line by The Girls' Paperie.

Bellagio Fountain

We went and saw the Bellagio fountains twice in one night. It was all part of our "date night" out while we were in Vegas.

Details: Background paper is from the SEI Moravia collection. Title cut out on Bazzill glass slipper paper using the Lyrical Letters Cricut cartridge. Journaling block is from My Mind's Eye's So Sophie collection.

Red Rock Canyon

Photos from our day trip to Red Rock Canyon in Nevada.

Details: Papers are from the SEI Moravia line.

Valentine's Day

This year we decided to celebrate Valentine's Day with homemade cards and themed food. Chris made me heart shaped pancakes for breakfast, we had Maki's Valentine's Day special for lunch, and for dinner we had heart shaped pizza and chocolate dipped strawberries and raspberries. It was a delicious day :)

Details: Paper is Beautiful Branches from My Mind's Eye's Be Loved line. Embellishments are ancient ones I have had sitting around, so no idea where they are from :)

Sequoia part 5

Another spread from our Sequoia trip in April 2009. Just one more layout and this trip will be done! I had to pop dot the Big Trees Trail picture because it was just too funny. The trees are the biggest in the world, and they name the trail that. haha!

Details: The blue paper is Time To Travel Postmarks by TPC Studio. The dot paper is Sandbox by Bazzill Basics. The ribbon is by American Crafts. The stickers are from October Afternoon's Road Map word stickers.

Strawberry Picking

For Easter this year we packed up mini sandwiches, that were chicken salad or cucumber leftover from Noey's shower, and fresh fruit and headed to Sweet Berry Farm. We picked some delicious berries and enjoyed some of their homemade ice cream after all of our hard picking work.

Details: Journaling block and strawberry cut out are from My Mind's Eye's Quite Contrary line. Green paper is Poppy Seed Lime Star Stripes by K & Company. The strawberry paper is also by K & Company.

At Last

ProvoCraft has finally announced two Halloween themed Cricut cartridges. I can't wait to snatch these up. I just need to save up my pennies until their release dates or if you need an early birthday gift idea... :)

Pumpkin Carving:

and October 31st:

10 favorite things

I often get asked what tools or items I can't live without in my scrapbooking arsenal. So I thought I would share a list of my 10 must haves.

1. My Cricut Expression. I fell in love with this machine when my friend Noey had hers. I love that I can use a 12" piece of scrapbooking paper in it. I also love the ability to cut my titles out of paper that matches my layouts. Not to mention all the cute shapes.



2. Making Memories Metro Alphas. They are glittery and small. Perfect for when I want a bit of shine or tiny easy to use letters. I have them in black, white, silver, brown and red. I want to get them in this aqua color.




3. My Xyron 1.5" Create a Sticker is perfect for putting adhesive on the letters I cut out on my Cricut. It is also good for ribbon and small mementos.




4. My all time favorite Cricut cartridge is Lyrical Letters. I love it's font variety, shapes and phrases. If you could only add one cartridge to your collection, this would be it.




5. I really like my Fiskars three piece eyelet setters. It lets me easily punch holes any where on a piece of paper, unlike conventional punches that limit you to the edge. I also like that I can use it to set eyelets. I use this tiny 4x4 mat under so that I don't ruin my work surface.




6. Zots. They are perfect for things that a tape runner can't stick to paper. They are great for buttons, flowers, and other 3D elements.
   


7. My Herma Dotto tape runner is probably the most used item in my scrap bag. I use it on photos, paper, ribbon, you name it I have tried to use it :) I prefer to use the repositionable adhesive over the permanent. I make mistakes. :)
   


8. Zig pens. I have them in black, grey, brown, and of course orange. They are great for journaling, using the fine tip, or drawing lines, using the thick tip. Having at least a few basic colors is great for all of your layouts.



9. You may have noticed that I didn't mention a white pen above. That is because the Uni-ball signo white pen is the best for writing in white. It writes smoothly, has a nice sharp white color, and can write on any surface.



10. Last, but certainly not least, is my paper trimmer. I love my Fiskars 12" paper trimmer. It has a rotary blade, which I prefer to the blade trimmers. I also like that I can fit an entire 12x12 sheet on the cutting board. And a must for me in a trimmer, you can line up your paper exactly along the blade line. Other trimmers you put the area you want to cut over a channel. I feel like those are not as exact.

There you have it. My 10 favorite items. Now if we were talking about paper lines or embellishments, that would be a far longer list!

Thank you card

My wonderful and very talented friend Mollie, took some amazing photos of my husband and I. I absolutely love them all! She captured us in a very natural way, how we really are. Some of my favorite photos are the ones of us laughing :) To thank her I made her this card and brought her a special treat.

Here are the photos:

Spring Bloom Photos

* Note, these are web sized and not suitable for prints*

Details: The card is size A2 in pool blue. The "thank you" rub on is from Pebbles Inc. The film strip is by Tim Holtz. The camera is form October Afternoon's Road Map line. The orange paper is a scrap that I think is by My Mind's Eye.

Waiting for the Bus

Our struggles with the buses in Vegas were epic. I think someday, we will look back and find it a wee bit funny. maybe. :P

Details: Blue paper is from SEI's Moravia line. Tire paper is Hit the Road from Sei's En Route line. Green and brown paper are Highways and Byways, also from SEI's En Route line. As an aside, I got these papers in an Archiver's Mania pack and thought that there was no way I would ever use them. Just goes to show you that all paper will have its day. :)

Night on the Town

We went to Vegas, in March, with my bff Stephanie and her boyfriend Chad. We had a wonderful night out on the town. We had an amazing dinner, took in the Bellagio gardens and fountain show (twice) and saw the Cirque du Soleil Beatles Love show. All in all it was a great night :)

Details: Paper is from the SEI Morav1a line. Tissue squares are from the show when they blew confetti all over everyone.

Noey's Austin Shower

This is from Noey's first baby shower that I attended (and hosted). Ashley and I had a blast making the diaper cake. I think we did a great job for it being our first hosted baby shower. We also made tons of adorable paper products for Noey to enjoy :)

Details: Paper is form the adorable new Pitter Patter line by Making Memories. The embellishments were a gift from Noey.

Noey's California Shower

I flew out to CA for Noey's second baby shower. We met at a cute little tea house. It was so much fun! The bundt cakes were as tasty as they were cute. yum!

Details: Paper is from DCWV's Green Stack. I covered up the beaver that was in the corner with a yellow circle to match the flowers in the background. I then used a Martha Stewart Elephant to tie it in with the invite.

Sequoia

This is another layout from our trip in April 2009. I had a whole bunch of pictures that didn't really belong on other layouts, so this is that layout. I also had a post card and brochure I wanted to incorporate. So again, this layout was simple.

Details: Paper is Ticket to Ride from Little Yellow Bicycle's Traveler collection. I believe that the ribbon is also from that line.

Big Basin Redwoods Park

I am trying to catch up and some really old layouts. This is from our trip to the Redwood forest in April of 2009! I have decided that simple is the way to go to get them done.

Details: The wood grain paper is Nature Walk by Cosmo Cricket. The cardstock in by Bazzill Basics and is Sienna. The title was cut out using the Lyrical Letters Cricut cartridge.

Fair Loot

I bought this lovely necklace at the Renegade Craft Fair this weekend. I love seahorses :) We saw this booth not two aisles in at the craft fair. I really wanted the necklace, but decided I would look around at all the other booths to make sure there was nothing else that I wanted more. Two aisles later I was worried the necklace wouldn't be there when we got back (that sort of thing happens to me all the time). We stuck it out though and nothing at any of the other booths cried out to me like I needed them like the necklace. So we hoofed it back to that booth and hooray, someone else was looking at it but didn't buy it. It was mine!

The artist has lots of cool pieces. Check her out http://fernworks.org/.

Fair

Where I hope to be this weekend. Looks like they have tons of amazing artists, some of which I recognize. Now to convince the hubby to take me ;)

Link: http://www.renegadecraft.com/austin

Card for Noey

I made this card for Noey for her baby shower in California. I am pretty pleased with the way it turned out. I think my handwriting turned out pretty well, even my own husband didn't think I had written it :)

Details: Green papers are "green blocks" and "yellow daises" from the Lucky Me collection by Little Yellow Bicycle. Elephant is by Martha Stewart. "congrats" is a looking glass by Making Memories. Everything else is from my stash and I have no idea who they are by :)