Halloween Highlights with Sleepy Hollow!

Today, I've got my first layout to share with you using the fabulous October "Sleepy Hollow" kit. I have actually already scrapped all of our Halloween pictures from last year but I did several pages and thought wouldn't it be awesome to make a Halloween highlight layout to include with the others? I'm also working on a mini album using these same photos that I'll be back to share sometime in October. Since the first Halloween is something special to scrap, I know my girls will appreciate having several projects to "fight over" someday! :) 

I sized all my photos to 1.5" squares and left a white edge on them when I trimmed them down (as I do with all my photos). I kept the design fairly simple in a grid and used patterned paper from SEI, Making Memories and Pink Paislee in between the photos.

The alphabet stickers are Pink Paislee and the "halloween" stamp is We R Memory Keepers. I love the black and orange stitched cardstock also by We R Memory Keepers. The stitching adds so much texture!

I love the canvas sticker and the orange tinsel ribbon by Pink Paislee. I used little lengths to add sparkle and texture. 

I cut the flocked lace ribbon by We R Memory Keepers in half because the width was too much for what I wanted on this page. 

And there you have it! A fun page highlighting the girls' first Halloween! I think I'll probably do one of these using the December kit too with first Christmas highlights! 

I have been taking it easy this week as I've been miserable with a horrible cold. The girls all had it earlier this week and are doing great now but this poor mama is down with it. I've been getting lots of rest and just relaxing and taking care of myself. Luckily, the girls have been pretty easy this week! It's funny how a simple cold can just halt your life for a while. I'm feeling a lot better today than I have any other day this week so I think I am on the mend. 

Have a great day! :)

Noel Mignon Challenge: TV Titles!

Fall is here and that means the start of fall TV! For the next challenge at Noel Mignon, we're using TV show titles as our inspiration for layouts. I chose "Law & Order" for my title and played off it a little and went with "Law & Dis-order" for these photos of the complete and utter chaos my life is with two toddlers. Toys, toys, toys everywhere! (I wouldn't change it for the world, however!) Speaking of toys, I recently sorted through the girls' toys and split them into four baskets that I'll trade out once a week or so. The clutter was getting to be too much and this gives the girls the chance to look at their toys with fresh eyes. Anyway, back to scrapping! :) I used the gorgeous "Sweet Sue" kit for this layout (just 3 LEFT!!!!). This has been one of my favorite kits to work with as I keep coming up with layouts. 

My background patterned paper is My Mind's Eye, the die-cut paper is Jenni Bowlin, the little heart strip is Sassafras Lass as is the border sticker at the bottom. 

For my title, I used one of the Melissa Frances kraft tags and envelopes and added stickers by My Mind's Eye, Jenni Bowlin and Sassafras Lass. The tab is Basic Grey and the star pin is Maya Road. 

I clustered a journaling tag by Elle's Studio, a star sticker by Sassafras Lass and a Prima flower.

I loved the Jenni Bowlin die-cut paper and placed the Basic Grey doily ribbon above it for a pop of color. The banner stickers are by Sassafras Lass.

Here's a look at more of my journaling...

Come on over to the challenge blog to see the rest of the design team's layouts. Here's a great site for TV title inspiration. I made a list of titles I could use on future layouts. 

We're dealing with a slow-moving, but not-long-lasting virus moving through our household. It's not even the end of September and this is our second round of illness this month. We started September with it so why not end it too, right? Sigh. I'm hoping this isn't the sign of what the rest of our fall and winter are going to look like. 

The bright spot in my day is going to be the arrival of my Noel Mignon "Sleepy Hollow" kit today! I've got pictures printed and I'm ready to play!!!!! The kit is SOLD OUT! This one went fast! 

Have a great Monday!

Noel Mignon Sleepy Hollow Reveal!

Isn't Noel's October kit "Sleepy Hollow" just gorgeous???!!! It is jam-packed with Halloween goodness from Pink Paislee, The Girls' Paperie, We R Memory Keepers, Melissa Frances, Jenni Bowlin, My Mind's Eye, Making Memories and MORE! I'm hoping my kit arrives today so I can get working with it! I have quite a few plans for it already!!!!!! Be sure to stop by the shop and picks yours up - there are just 5 left!!!!!

Have a great Saturday! :)

Noel Mignon & My Mind's Eye: Challenge #15

Today, I have a layout to share with you that I made using the "Sweet Sue" kit from Noel Mignon (just 5 left!!!!!) and for blog challenge #15 at My Mind's Eye. I LOVE My Mind's Eye products and Noel includes a lot of them in her kits. The combination of brown, cream, green and teal was perfect for these photos of my girls engaging in one of their favorite summer activities - swinging! 

 

Here's the sketch I used for the challenge...

A close-up of my title...I ran out of letters for "Summer" so I used another My Mind's Eye alphabet that was in the Office Party kit. 

The Basic Grey doily ribbon provided great texture.

And I love that transparency frame to hold individual shots of the girls swinging. The "N" and "L" were cut from My Mind's Eye paper.

Thanks for looking and have a great weekend!!!! :)

Melissa Frances: Mama, I Don't Like Green Beans

I've been meaning to do a layout about Nora's dislike of green beans for some time and when Melissa Frances came out with the Kitschy Kitchen collection, I knew it would be perfect for what I wanted to do. I love the retro feel and the colors. I used patterned paper, a tag, rub-ons, stickers and a recipe card from the collection. 

For my title, I used a Melissa Frances tag with twill ribbon, Sassafras Lass and October Afternoon alphabet stickers. The doily die-cuts are cut in half and are by Martha Stewart.

I love the look of tone-on-tone and punched a circle and a starburst from kraft cardstock and added my rub-ons. A little foam adhesive was used for extra dimension. 

I used one of the recipe cards as a backdrop for two of the photos and it was the perfect place to journal around. 

Well, fall is definitely here! We've been experiencing a lot of cool, rainy weather and one of the trees in our backyard is a brilliant orange. As for me, I'm off to work out and run errands this morning. 

Have a great day! :)

Melissa Frances: Grandma's Gowns

There's a very special story behind the layout I have to share with you today using the Vintage Posey collection by Melissa Frances. More than 50 years ago, my Grandma Kathryn made my mom a bunch of gowns when she was a baby. In 1981, I wore one of the gowns as a baby and am in the photo on the left with my grandma. 

Now, the ironic thing about this story is that my Grandma actually made two identical gowns with pink embroidery on them. My twins wore the gowns in 2009 and posed with my mom in the photo on the right. Isn't that crazy? That more than 50 years ago my grandma would make identical gowns and my twins would be able to wear them more than 50 years later????!!!! I love that this happened and I was able to scrapbook this connection for my girls. My grandma never got to meet her great-granddaughters but she knew they were on the way. I miss her sooooooo much and know she would have loved spending time with them. I often think about calling her and telling her what's going on in my life and then I remember that I can't. Grandma would have thought it was so neat that the girls were able to wear the gowns. 

Here's a close-up of my title. The alphabet stickers are Webster's Pages. All other products are Melissa Frances. 

A close-up of my journaling and embellishments...

That's all for today! Have a great Monday! :)

Archiver's Contest: ScrapFest!

I forgot to share that my twin baby girls printer's tray won my local Archiver's contest! My tray is currently at the Mall of America for ScrapFest where I am competing with 43 other printer's tray from around the country for a grand prize of $1,000. If you are at ScrapFest this weekend, I would appreciate your vote!

Here are the supplies I used for the tray: 7gypsies printer's tray, The Girls' Paperie patterned paper, die-cuts, chipboard alphabet, flower, Jenni Bowlin bingo card, Melissa Frances pearls, rub-ons, Martha Stewart punches, doily die-cut, GCD Studios chipboard, Chip Art tool, Prima flowers, tulle

I adore the Paper Girl collection from The Girls' Paperie and it was perfect for this project! I have done another home decor project for the girls' nursery using this collection as well. Here are a few close-ups of the details of this project:

Thanks for your vote! I'll find out later this week who won the contest. 

Holiday Cards & More: Warm Wishes Christmas House

I'm pretty excited to have one of my favorite projects ever featured in the Paper Crafts special issue, Holiday Cards & More. My project was featured on the Moxie Fab blog yesterday so I will share it here. I created my Warm Wishes Christmas House using all of my favorite Melissa Frances products for something sweet and shabby to remember the girls 1st Christmas!

I picked up this house at Hobby Lobby a couple years ago and transformed it with green and cream paint, a little crackle medium, vintage buttons and sheet music, glitter and rick rack. I decorated each slot in the house and used foam tape for extra dimension. I've been holding onto that rusty jingle bell forever so I was thrilled to have the perfect project to use it in. All of the papers, die-cuts, chipboard, stickers, resin frame, etc. are by Melissa Frances. 

Have a great weekend! :)

October Afternoon: The Gingerbread Girls!

First of all, Heather Innusa....you won the Midnight Rooster mini kit giveaway! Please e-mail at cornellgj(at)yahoo(dot)com with your mailing address. 

Here's another layout I made recently trying to use of some of my stash of older products. This past Christmas my sisters and I put together our very first gingerbread house with our two special helpers! We had never put one together before and it was really fun to spend an hour doing it. I used all products by October Afternoon along with Me & My Big Ideas snowflakes and KaiserCraft pearls. 

Here's a close-up of my title. I also used turquoise Glimmer Mist and white ink for some texture.

Here's my journaling block and some layered embellishments. 

I created a collage of detail shots and accented several of them with October Afternoon sticker word strips. 

Thanks for looking and enjoy your day! :)

October Afternoon: Little Girly Monster

As scrapbookers, we're all guilty of hoarding product and holding onto it for the "perfect" project. Several years back, I picked up the "Night Light" collection by October Afternoon. Now, at that time I didn't have any kids but fell in LOVE with the little monsters. Fast forward to my life now and since Miss Lily was around 4 months old, we had a little joke with her about monsters that has stuck ever since. She used to make the cutest noises "Mmmmmmmm...mmmmmmm....mmmmm," so we would tease her that she sounded like a monster. Every time we would say "monster" she would give us a cute smile. i bought the girls monster pajamas when they were around 5 months old and then a few months ago, I came across this monster towel that I bought just for Lily. She loves her monster towel so we snapped some pictures of her with it and here is the result:

I punched some stars with my Fiskar's punch and the alphabets are American Crafts and Pink Paislee. 

This alphabet is by SEI and I sprayed my layout with turquoise Glimmer Mist. I used the bumpy road punch by EK Success as a border on the bottom of my layout.

I used label stickers by October Afternoon from one of their current lines for journaling and to highlight one of the stars.

As much as I love using current product, I'm slowly working through some of my stash of things I've had for a few years and that feels good!

Have a great day!!!! :)

Noel Mignon Challenge: I Gotta Be Me

Today, I have a new layout to share with you for the "I Gotta Be Me" challenge over at the Noel Mignon Challenge Blog. Basically, the challenge is to scrap your style and each design team member shared a little bit about how they scrap. Here's what I shared about my style:

I would consider myself to have a shabby chic style with clean lines. I enjoy incorporating ink, paint, distressing and almost always machine stitching on my layouts and projects. I find that I like a more muted color palette but scrapping with bright, fun colors (especially in the summer) is growing on me. I lean towards more things girly (makes sense with my two girls) - pink, lace, ruffles, doilies, etc. I adore using kraft cardstock as a background (love that Noel includes a sheet in every kit). It's such a great neutral to contrast other colors. I also always add a white edge to my photos in Photoshop to help them pop off my page.

I used the "Sweet Sue" kit for my layout about how terrified my daughter, Nora, is of grass. (Actually, both girls were scared but Lily has been a little more brave lately. :) I swear Nora has abs of steel because as soon as you try to set her on the grass, she draws her legs up perpendicular to her body. 

The die-cut patterned papers are My Mind's Eye, green alphabet is Sassafrass Lass and the other alphabet is My Mind's Eye. 

I used one of the Elle's Studio monthly journaling spots here and just hid the month since it didn't work with my layout. 

I turned around a Basic Grey tab and stuck a few Maya Road pins through it. 

Finally, my favorite part of this layout is the bottom. I layered Basic Grey doily ribbon and Sassafras Lass banner stickers to form grass....aren't those jagged edges scary?! :) 

That's all for today! Be sure to comment on my giveaway post below and have a great day! :)

Midnight Rooster September Kit & Mini Kit Giveaway!

Good morning, friends! I was on a bit of a blogging and "life" hiatus last week. But now, I'm back trying to get caught up on things and have plenty of new projects to share with you this morning including the Midnight Rooster September kit reveal. (The kit will go live tonight around 9:00 and I'll be back to edit this post with a mini kit giveaway!) My daughter, Nora, gave us quite a scare and was in the hospital a couple days but is doing so much better now! We also all came down with a bad cold and are now on the mend. 

Here is my first layout using the kit...I used the stamp to create a background with several of the patterned papers in the kit and updated our anniversary album from our 7th anniversary in July. 

For the title, I used October Afternoon stickers in previous kits, Pink Paislee chipboard from my stash and that awesome flower is actually a Midnight Rooster exclusive pin that I removed the pin from. 

I journaled around the edge of the layout and that lace trim is also in this month's kit. 

For my next layout, I updated the girls' monthly layout album. I decided for their 2nd year, I would do pictures and updates every 3 months. I still have to finish their 1st year and just have the 5th month to do. I used a piece of patterned paper by Cosmo Cricket for my background and a Martha Stewart starburst punch to create a banner using patterned paper by My Mind's Eye and Crate Paper. 

All of the title stickers for this one are from my stash: the pink is K & Co. and the brown is Webster's Pages. The Pink Paislee frame is in the kit as well as the Prima flower. 

Here's a close-up of the banner where I also used baker's twine to tie it off. 

Finally, here's my favorite layout from this month. It's a little funky and out there for me, but I loved the result. We went to the farmer's market in August and so I documented that here. I used the EK Success "Bumpy Road" punch to create a tone-on-tone background using kraft cardstock. I love the texture this gives my layout.  

The cream alphabet is Prima and is in the kit. The October Afternoon stickers were from my stash. The patterned paper on this layout is My Mind's Eye and Sassafras Lass. 

The Prima flower and Pink Paislee frame are both in the kit. I trimmed the frame to use just one edge. 

I used My Mind's Eye rhinestones from a previous kit and the brads are included in this month's kit. As you can see, I used Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Turquoise to give my layout a splash of color as well as on the Pink Paislee frame. Here you can see more of the texture from the punched background.

I also created a card using this month's kit to highlight one of the exclusive Midnight Rooster pins in the kit. 

That's all from me today. I have SOOOO many projects to share with you and as I said, I'll be back later to edit this post with a mini kit giveaway. 

Have a great Monday! :)

I'm back with the mini kit giveaway for September....here it is:

Paper:

Life is Good - echo park paper co.

Fly a Kite: Garden - October Afternoon

Think Big - Pink Paislee

Katie - Crate Paper

Embellishments:

Strip of fabric

Felt clouds

Sprouts - Jillibean Soup

Crochet Trim - Maya Road

Flower Trim - American Crafts

Damask shape stamp - Purple Onion Design

For the giveaway, just leave me a comment answering this question and I'll draw randomly on Wednesday night: 

What is your favorite dessert?