Snuggled up...

with my two girls as another blizzard hits Iowa. Seriously, this weather is getting old. I get so stir crazy in my house trying to keep two little girls entertained. I'm longing for warmer temperatures and the color GREEN! I can't wait to load the girls up in our stroller and walk around the neighborhood. As soon as we can, we'll be outside as much as possible!

Since I last posted, I celebrated another birthday. Skippy! I'm a little sarcastic as it was just another day around here. Birthdays just seem harder and harder to be excited about as you age. My thoughtful husband did surprise me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and that brightened my day, for sure. We're going to enjoy a date night sometime soon to continue the celebration.

One bright moment this time of year is the annual winter Craft and Hobby Association show. For you non-scrappers, trade shows are held in January and July where manufacturers release new products. I LOVE seeing all the new product and the trends in scrapping for the spring and summer. So many companies are producing products with a vintage, shabby vibe which caters right to my style. I've got a little birthday money saved up so I can indulge a little...can't wait! :)

Today's layout, highlights you guessed it...Melissa Frances products! A couple years ago, Melissa put out this gorgeous fall line. I had Glen take some pictures of me with the girls this Thanksgiving as it seems we don't get too many photos of just mom or just dad with the girls. All patterned paper, lace trim, stickers, pearls, diecuts are Melissa Frances. Again, I desaturated my photos to go with the softer look I wanted. I love the 70s feel this page has.

Well, time to start thinking about lunch. More to come soon! :)

Warm Wishes Christmas House

I am so, so excited to share this project with you! I wanted to create something to commemorate the girls' first Christmas that I could pull out year after year. I've had this wooden house in my stash for awhile and wanted to make something very shabby and soft. I painted the house evergreen, then used a crackle medium and then painted cream paint on top to finish. I adhered Rusty Pickle buttons using Diamond Glaze and then glittered the tops of them. The majority of the house uses Melissa Frances products - patterned paper, chipboard, stickers, diecuts, pearls, trim, rick rack, and resin frame. I strung an old rusty jingle bell that I've also had forever on twine to hang from the center of the house. I also have built up a collection of vintage Christmas music that I used on the house. My "snow" for the Christmas tree and snowman scenes is white tulle that I had from my wedding.

I did quite a bit of editing in Photoshop to get my photos just the way I wanted them. The colors in the original photos are quite vivid and I didn't want them to look off with the shabby look I was going for. I desaturated them so the colors blend more with the whole project.

I've been working on some projects I can't quite share yet for The Scrappy Gourmet. Within the next couple of weeks, I will have a layout kit and mini album kit for sale.

I am also VERY excited to share that I won Archiver's "Share Your Story" contest! Thank you so much for voting...I really appreciate it! I am very much looking forward to getting out of the house to crop for a while! This winter weather has me going stir crazy! I might wait a month or so to use my crop time but it gives me something to keep my sights on! :)

Well, all for now! I'll have a new layout to share soon! :)

Very exciting news!

First, I would like to share a new layout that I made using the Dear Santa kit from NoelMignon.com. I mixed a bunch of manufacturers here: My Mind's Eye, Collage Press, Upsy Daisy Designs (not in kit) patterned paper, Collage Press journaling tag, Crate Paper sticker, Elle's Studio tag, Jenni Bowlin alphabet stickers, and October Afternoon sticker. These pictures are actually from the girls' first experience in the snow. They LOVED it and were so excited! We've had quite the Iowa winter and I'm sure it's one that we will be talking about for a LONG time!

And, I'm very excited to announce that I am finalist in Archiver's "Share Your Story" contest. You can view my story here how scrapbooking has impacted my life: Share Your Story Finalists. The voting is done via Facebook and you can do so by visiting here: Facebook Poll. There's a chance the poll might close tonight so I would appreciate your vote!!!!!

Here's to a hopefully productive weekend! :)

Snow Much Joy (and scrapping for twins!)

I have another new layout to share today using the Dear Santa kit from NoelMignon.com. Noel's kits are AMAZING. Seriously. She packs them full of papers and embellishments and I always feel like I am more than getting my money's worth. And, her kits are definitely my style with lots of product from manufacturers I use. This is just an endorsement from a very happy customer. I have scoured the web for kits I like and hers are consistently among my favs.

At any rate, I just LOVED these photos of Nora we took over Christmas at my parents. The girls both loved being out in the snow for the first time but Nora's eyes just took on a little extra sparkle so I decided to highlight these photos in a layout by themselves. I have another layout to share later this week using one of the photos here but it is more of a whole family page.

On this particular layout, I did a lot of machine stitching and distressing to add texture to the page. I also challenged myself to pull something older out of my stash to use on the page. I've had these Heidi Swapp snowflakes forever and they were the perfect embellishment. The colors in the fabric "joy" matched Nora's coat exactly. I love it when things work out that way.

The title of my post also included (and scrapping for twins) so I wanted to share what I have decided to do about the girls' scrapbooks. Initially, I thought I would create duplicate pages of everything I made but then the more I thought about it...I decided that was just crazy. It would be so much work and take some of the joy out of creating for me. I decided it was more important to get the memories documented than worry about the girls each having the pages some day. They can either fight over the pages with both of them or make color copies. I'm also planning on creating layouts with each individual girl as well (such as the one you see here). They might be twins but they definitely have distinct and different personalities and it's important to me to capture that in their scrapbooks. Those layouts will be theirs to keep.

Well, I've got a couple of kiddos to feed some lunch. More from me this week! :)

NEW from Upsy Daisy Designs!!!!

I have some sneak peeks for you today to share what Upsy Daisy Designs is releasing at Winter CHA. I am ABSOLUTELY in LOVE with these new releases. They are very different from anything out there and that's one of the many things I love about Upsy Daisy Designs. I can especially see a lot of projects from me using Blossom as these are the colors of my girls' room plus who doesn't love little girl layouts in pink, green and brown. YUM! :) Way to go Upsy Daisy Designs!

We Believe

I have another new layout to share with you today. I used Melissa Frances's Christmas line on this one. It's one of my favorite Christmas lines I have ever come across and I've been dying to use it. Despite the blizzard conditions, we had a great first Christmas with the girls. Before the holidays even came about, we would put them in front of the tree and they were just fascinated by all the lights and ornaments. I captured these photos one such morning.

To make the tree on my layout, I cut out leaves using my Cricut and added a little cream paint to the edges to shabby them up. The ornaments were made by layering Rusty Pickle buttons and Melissa Frances rhinestones. I used a pinking shears on the very edge of the larger patterned paper and sewed it onto kraft cardstock using both straight and zigzag stitches. Everything got a touch of cream paint before it was adhered to the page.

We're having another snow day in Iowa today. The weather has been unreal here the past month. This is our third BLIZZARD. Crazy! It's the kind of winter that my parents remember. I remember having a snow day here and there growing up but nothing quite like this. But, I'm thankful we're all snuggly warm in our cozy house and maybe having another day in our jammies. :)

My Miracle Girls

My two precious girls are definitely my miracle girls especially when I thought I might never be a mom. Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine that I would have twin girls someday. This layout pays homage to my love of all things girly. The girls had these darling summer outfits with the cutest pink ruffles on the butt that I just had to snap some pictures. I played around with The Pioneer Woman's PhotoShop actions when editing my photos. Almost everything here is Melissa Frances - patterned papers, crepe paper, stickers, chipboard, and pearls. The button is Jenni Bowlin and I also used my Fiskar's punch. I added texture to the page with the crepe paper and the pleated patterned paper. (The strip of patterned paper at the bottom is not crooked in real life - don't know what happened to my photo there.)

I've been a bit of an insomniac this week so you'll be seeing several projects from me soon. I have to say that I'm enjoying this burst of creative energy! :)

Sugar & Spice Challenge

I decided to play along with the Sugar & Spice Challenge over at Noel Mignon.com's Challenge Blog. Instead of creating a layout, however, I decided to make some nursery decor for the girls' room. It's been something I have meaning to do for awhile but I have either a) been busy being a mom or b) not been sure what I want to do in there. Nora & Lily's bedding is very soft and shabby with pink, brown, cream and a little green. Keeping that in mind, I pulled out beautiful Melissa Frances papers, pearls, stickers, chipboard and rub-ons, Rusty Pickle buttons and ribbon, Prima flowers, my Fiskar's punch and lots of glitter and paint to create this keepsake box. I dusted the buttons ("spice") with a sprinkling of "sugar" (Pink Paislee glitter), included a lot of PINK, and tied it all up with something SOFT (cream tulle and brown ribbon). I LOVE the way this turned out and can't wait to create some more projects for their room.