First Digi Layout

As you can see from my last post, its been awhile.... a LOOOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGGGG while since I have had a chance to scrapbook.

I looked back at my last post and smiled... It was pictures of an adoption album I created to send to Korea about our family.  Who would have thought that now, almost 2 years later, I would be snuggling with our adorable 2 year old daughter and scrapbooking about her first Halloween last year.  Time flies and needless to say, our adoption journey as well as chasing after a toddler has put scrapbooking on the back burner.

Fast forward to this month.  While pinning layout inspiration on Pinterest, I noticed a lot of layouts I loved were actually digital.  Maybe it was time for a change.  Maybe I needed to shake things up and find my mojo again. 

So I dove headfirst into creating my very first digi layout.

I have to admit I was intimidated at first using Photoshop Elements, but after watching a few tutorials and finding some free templates to help me along, I finally completed my very first digital layout. (I have a lot more learning to do, but it felt so good to complete something!)

And guess what?  I LOVE IT!  All the creativity and none of the mess!  (LOL!  Although I think I will have to touch some of my papers and embellishments from time to time just to feel the textures!)

So here it is....  "Trick or Treat"
I used a cool template from Shabby Princess and entered their October Template Challenge.
It was created mostly from free kits in her Shabby Shoppe!

Hopefully this will be the beginning of a new chapter!

This Turkey Survived!

I just couldn't help but post this cute vide... looks like this turkey got away!!!! I hope you all enjoyed a very happy Thanksgiving!!

Adoption Photo Album!

As part of the dossier that we sent to our agency (and will be sent to Korea) for our adoption, I needed to create a photo album all about our family. This will remain in our adoption file in Korea so it can be viewed by the birthmother or birthfather so they can see the family that their daughter will be placed with. This project was totally up my alley and I was really excited about it! However, as much as I love to scrapbook, I really struggled getting started with it. I think I had put so much pressure on myself to want it to be "perfect" for our daughter's birthmother, I kept myself from just doing it. I did finally dig in and finish it and was pleased with the results. I hope our daughter's mother will know how much love was put into it. It is such a small token of the appreciation and admiration I have for this woman I may never meet.

The back cover was dedicated to her. It simply says "To a mother I may never meet, but will pray for daily. God bless."

baby card

Here's a baby card I made for a dear friend at school!

May the Force Be With You!

It was no surprise that Carson wanted only one theme for his birthday..... STAR WARS!

Considering my tradition is to make the boys a cake of their choice, this was no easy prospect. How on earth was I going to make a Star Wars themed cake? Luckily, I found some pictures of cakes of R2D2 and gave it a go! It surprisingly turned out great- although it did take me 2 hours to decorate!

Carson had a great birthday! May the force always be with you buddy!

Caribbean Cruise!

For my parents 40th anniversary, they took our family and my brother/sister-in-law and nephew on a cruise to the Eastern Caribbean! It was such a fun vacation! Here is a small "scrapbook" of some of the highlights of the cruise!

Create your own scrapbook

We went on MSC Cruises which is a cruiseline based out of Italy so LOTS of authentic Italian food- sometimes it was even TOO Italian with some weird seafood selections, but I can't complain- cheesecake, creme brulee and cannolis that were out of this world! We ate and ate and ate and ate! My favorites were filet mignon, lobster, pork scallopini, and Cajun tilapia. HUGE buffets for breakfast and lunch and then six course meals for dinner! (appetizers, salad, soup, pasta, main dish and dessert) They had some kiddy pools that the kids just loved, a playground, miniature golf and a whole kids club that the kids could participate in. The entertainment was amazing- magicians, dancers, gymnasts... very very cool! We went to Puerto Rico first and Jeff, Lisa, Jeff and me (Mom and Dad watched the boys) took this excursion where we kayaked through these small mangrove channels with big iguanas on the branches. The coolest thing was we did this at night and there are these tiny microorganisms in the water that glow in the dark as a defense. They light up similar to fireflies. When you put your hand or paddle in the water and spash, the water GLOWS! They are microscopic, but there are billions of them so its hard to see individual ones- they are about the size of a pin head, but with so many the water just glows around the kayak or around your hand. There are only 5 places in the world that have these organisms- Puerto Rico has 3 lagoons with them, but where we were was the brightest concentration. It was so amazing. If a fish swam by, they glowed! It was cool doing it in the dark too! Truly amazing! We also went to St. Marten where we rented a car and drove around the island. Then we went to Virgin Gorda which is part of the British Virgin Islands and we all went to this beach called the "Baths" with HUGE boulders everywhere. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life!! The water was turquoise and formed tidepools and caves everywhere. Finally, we went to the Bahamas and our whole family took a glass bottom boat ride and a tour of the harbor. The weather was high 80's to mid 90's everyday. One day it actually hit 107, but with a nice ocean breeze it was still wonderful! We had sun everyday- not even one cloudy day! It was great! I'm already thinking about when we should do our next cruise!!

Christmas Photos!

I cheated a little and used "Smilebox" to create this cute online scrapbook. Merry Christmas!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Our Family Is Growing!

We have the most exciting news to share! Our family will be growing! We are in the process of adopting a baby girl from Korea! We can't wait to add a daughter and sister to our family! If you would like to experience all of the details of our adoption process, check out our blog: Waiting For You.

I already have plans swimming in my head for an adoption album to document every step in this amazing journey. Check back soon for updates. I will be sure to post pictures soon!

Halloween

Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year! I love dressing up! Usually I am one of the few that go to school with some crazy outlandish outfit on each year. The kids love it! Its so fun dressing up the boys too... I love it all- the costumes, the makeup, the hairsprays and little details. The more parts to a costume, the better! I love trick-or-treating and carving pumpkins... and of course raiding the kids Halloween bags after our night is over!

Here are some fun pictures from this year!

First Place!!

I know this is a little late in posting... (seems to be my life lately!)... but I was so thrilled to be able to take FIRST PLACE at the Scrapbook Mega Meet in Novi Michigan in May! My best friend, Christine and her mother and I have made it a tradition to go every year and this is our fourth year and obviously my lucky year! I was so excited! The winning layout was one of my favorites of my muddy little monster, Kolby! Thanks for celebrating with me! Click on the link above to see my super excited face after I won!! Here is a photo of my winning layout...

Long time, no post!!

Has a month REALLY gone by already? I can hardly believe it!

So what has happened in 30 + days?? Well, first of all, I decided not to reapply for the Crop Addict design team, although it was a hard decision. They are such a fun, incredibly talented group of ladies And Debbie creates wonderful products and kits. I had an awesome 6 months with them. I know the new design team will be wonderful, but I will miss it. But I really just need some downtime to try to catch up on life!! So much cleaning and organizing needs to be done that I can barely find my pictures, much less try to find SPACE to scrapbook! I did a ton of organizing and purging this summer, but once school started, it has turned once again into pile after pile...

I suppose its the creativeness in me that causes the haphazard piles and unorganized lifestyle. My mind "thinks" organized, but my body "acts" unorganized. Ah well... the curse of the artist, huh?

I am just now starting to get motivated to really clean and get back to scrapbooking. I haven't touched a page in over a month! Can you believe it??!! I think that's the longest stretch I've gone without actually scrapping. I still look at layouts and blogs and magazines, but just haven't had the time or desire right now to dig in. I need to look for a good contest... that ALWAYS kick starts me this time of year!

Besides that, life is pretty normal and boring. Tons of snow here, but no snowdays (well unless you count the day last week when my HUSBAND got a snow day and I didn't... I was a little cranky to say the least!!) And both my own kiddos and all the kids at school are struggling with cabin fever. Its driving us teachers crazy! How many days until spring break?? LOL!

Carson is reading like a monster- I have to stop him to get him to go to bed sometimes! Its so wonderful to see! We discovered the early readers section of our library where they have books at his level and he is so excited!

Well... that's all for now. I hope it won't be another 30 days before I bop back on to update! Hopefully with some layouts, nonetheless.... until then... too-da-loo!

January Crop Addict projects

This was such a wonderful kit! The contrast of the earthy Webster Pages papers and the bright bold Pink Paislee papers was so fun to work with! Here are some projects I created with the January Crop Addict kit.

December Crop Addict Projects

What beautiful Christmas papers I had the opportunity to work with in the December Crop Addict kit. The "Little Yellow Bicycle" papers had such a classic Christmas charm. My layouts came together so easily! The NOEL letters were simple wooden stand-up letters that I purchased at Hobby Lobby and altered with the papers. They look great sitting on my end table by my front door!

Scrap Within Reach projects

I had the privilage of getting to design with products from the manufacturer "Scrap Within Reach" and let me tell you... I am LOVING their stuff! Their papers are double-sided and distressed just to my liking! Their solid colors remind me of Basic Grey- one of my favorites. I had so much fun playing with them! Here's what I came up with using "The Cottage" collection!