Gossamer Blue: Being Lily's Mom

Hello and happy(?) Monday! We are in for a busy week around here and I can hardly believe how quickly our October calendar is filling up with fall activities and Halloween fun! Today I have another layout to share with the September Gossamer Blue kit. I created this one with photos of Lily and me that were taken on Mother's Day this year. My journaling focuses on how I have to parent each of my girls somewhat differently in accordance to their personalities and interests.

The blue and cream papers are exclusives this month and I also used a couple of cards from the Life Pages kit.

I hope Lily cherishes this someday! :) 

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by! I'll share one final Gossamer Blue layout tomorrow with the September kit - it's a two-pager!

American Crafts: Pretty Girls

Happy Friday! Today I have a couple of new projects to share for American Crafts using the new Amy Tangerine "Cut & Paste" collection. These projects were featured as a spotlight on the American Crafts blog this week to kick off my second year on their design team. 

Every summer, we do a little photo shoot in my parent's backyard. A neighbor has an awesome shabby garage that is the perfect backdrop! We had a fun shoot this year with mostly cooperative girls. :)

Cut & Paste is full of brightly colored patterns and embellishments!

I am really loving the sweet resin bows and epoxy border stickers in the collection. 

I also created a card and used one of the kraft tags as a background. I handstitched on the punched places and added thickers for the title.

 
Thanks for stopping by today! I'm not sure what our plans are for the weekend. We have one girl recovering from bronchitis and the other starting to come down with something along with a mommy who is not feeling 100%. I was hoping to hit the zoo or the apple orchard soon so we shall see what the weekend brings!

Webster's Pages: Deck the Halls

Good morning! Today I have a new layout so share featuring the "It's Christmas" collection by Allison Kreft for Webster's Pages. I love kicking off our Christmas festivities by decorating our house for the season. The girls were really into it last year so I wanted to document it here.

I featured a lot of the stickers in the collection as well as the chipboard buttons and twine. 

The piece with the subtle silver stars is a transparency and I also used one of the mini photo bags. 

Thanks for stopping by today! I have a little girl home from preschool again with bronchitis. Poor girl! I'm hoping she will be able to go back to school tomorrow afternoon.

I'll be back tomorrow with my spotlight feature at American Crafts. Have a great day!

Gossamer Blue: First Cone

Hello there! Today I have another layout to share with the September Gossamer Blue kits. The girls had their very first ever ice cream cone this summer. With their food allergies, they can't have traditional ice cream cones but I was able to find some gluten free ones and they were so excited! 

It might have been a small occasion for some but for us it was a reason to celebrate! 

Thanks for stopping by today. I'll be back tomorrow with a layout for Webster's Pages. 

Gossamer Blue: Hey, Mom

Happy Monday! Hope you all had a great weekend! I spent the weekend cleaning up my scrap room and doing a little rearranging for my new Silhouette Cameo! Someone who shall remain nameless made me the proud owner of this new machine. I am so very thankful as I have been wanting one for a long time! 

Today I wanted to share my main kit only layout with the Gossamer Blue September kit. I realized I haven't shared any of my work yet and I am a busy bee with the October kit already. A little story on this one...I came downstairs one night to find my two monkeys hiding out in one of the cupboards in the laundry room. They asked if they could sleep in the cupboard, silly girls. :) (For some reason, this layout looks crooked but it is not in real life!)

I love the printable elements included each month - I used a journaling circle here. 

And I layered prinatables with stickers here for cute embellishments.

Thanks for stopping by today! I have one sick girl today who has to miss a day of preschool. Her sister is going to be brave and go by herself but I'm sure she will be sick next. That's the way it goes, I'm afraid. :) Have a great day!

Simple Stories: Off they Go

Oh, my heart! Seriously, this mama had quite the time sending her babies off to preschool. The girls are going to preschool three afternoons a week. We made a last minute decision to send them but it has been absolutely wonderful so far! They love it so much and practically skip into school each day. I love seeing them so excited and happy to be there. Their first day was September 4th and it was quite an emotional day (for me - ha!) 

Simple Stories came out with very fun collection this fall called Smarty Pants and I used it here to document their first day. My plan is to create a preschool album for each of them using a lot of this collection and the Sn@p 6x8 albums. But I know that I will want a few layouts here and there in their regular albums as well.

One of my favorite embellishments in Simple Stories collection are these die-cut cards - they are perfect for someone who does not own a machine. I made a pocket from vellum and stitched it up with punched confetti and sequins. I embellished with chipboard, brads and stickers. 

Simple Stories makes it so easy to create with their large photo mats. This one was embellished with only the apple sticker and the "good times this way" sticker.

Look at those two! They are just always friendly and excited and saying hi to everyone. Here's a tip - I punched the confetti from patterned paper and then used the negative as a photo mat. 

Thanks for stopping by today! :)

Webster's Pages: Celebrate Christmas Altered Project

Hello, friends! Today I have an easy altered project to share using the new "It's Christmas" collection by Allison Kreft for Webster's Pages. I bought a cheap cookie sheet for a dollar or two, spray painted it and then adhered a chunky glitter to the top and bottom of the tray. Then I drilled holes in the sides and strung twine through.

 

I punched star burst circles and put them through my sewing machine to create a garland and adhered the ends to the tray. After that was the fun part to decorate! I added tags, transparencies and photos and dressed everything up with stickers, ribbon, new paperclips and mini clothespins. 

The clips were a fun way to decorate! 

I'm loving the new transparency pieces. Here I used the star frame, added a photo, sticker, punched star and chipboard and twine. The photo was clipped on with a reindeer paperclip!

I really enjoyed putting this easy project together! 

We finally got to go out for dinner to celebrate our 10th anniversary last night. Our anniversary was two months ago but due to illness and other commitments we had not yet had the chance to celebrate. We enjoyed a really wonderful dinner and conversation - it was a great date! 

Hope you all have a great day! :)

Emma's Paperie: Yummy Marshmellows

Good morning! Hope you all had a great weekend. We got home late last night after spending the past couple days at my parent's house. Our family celebrated my grandma's 90th birthday with a huge party yesterday and it was a great time! We had family come from far away and lots of neighbors and friends were there. 

I am waaaaay behind in sharing recent projects from Emma's Paperie so today here is a layout that was for a color challenge. I used the Pebbles Lakeside collection to create this layout about us roasting marshmallows for the first time. Unfortunately, my girls can't have s'mores with their allergies (graham crackers are a no-no) but they can still enjoy gooey, warm marshmallows! :)

The alphabet stickers are American Crafts. 

I also used a Pink Paislee frame for the square photo. I don't know what happened when I photographed this layout but in real life, the photos are much clearer. 

For a complete supply list, please visit the Emma's Paperie blog here.

I have a project for Webster's Pages to share this week, more for Emma's Paperie and I still need to share my layout with the September Gossamer Blue kit. A lot coming up!

Have a great day! :)

American Crafts Blog Hop Winner

It's time to announce the winner of my American Crafts blog hop prize. I so enjoyed reading all of your comments...thank you so much! 

Congratulations to:

Janis said...Love the frames in your LO, some with photos and some with other pretties. Terrific!

How lovely of you to offer that wonderful array of blog candy! I don't think you are requiring us to follow to be eligible (which is beyond sweet of you!) but I am a brand-new follower by Google, nonetheless.
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Please send me an email to cornellgj(at)yahoo(dot)com and I'll get your prize out to you. 

Have a great weekend everyone! 

American Crafts: I Love Being Your Aunt

Good morning! This has been American Crafts week on my blog! Today I have my monthly American Crafts assignment to share with you that was on the blog last week. I had a just for fun theme so I enjoyed this one! I enlarged a photo of my nephew Tatum from this summer and placed my alphabet sticker title on top.

Tatum loves horses so this chipboard horse and sticker were a perfect addition!

Isn't he sweet?! :)

While I was working with the Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm collection, I also created a quick and easy card. I let the die-cut card be center stage on this one!

Thanks for visiting today! :)

American Crafts: Daddy's Girls

Good morning! Today I have one of my favorite layouts I have made in a while to share with you. This one was also created for my guest post on Shimelle's blog with 5 ideas for creating with circles. I love these circle templates from Jillibean Soup and used the My Girl collection from American Crafts to embellish. I snapped this photo of the girls and Glen outside as they were heading towards the house. Now there's a daddy who loves his daughters! :)

 

I cut some of the patterned paper to fit inside the circle template and then embellished other circles with stickers. 

I dressed up a tag with twine, a wood veneer heart and "xoxo" sticker. 

This was such a fun layout to create and inspired me to try a few new ideas in the future. Have a great day! :)

American Crafts: Watermelon Love

Good morning! Today I have a new American Crafts layout to share that I created for a guest post on Shimelle's blog. My post highlighted 5 ideas for creating with circles. I created this layout with all circle photos and the Mayberry collection from American Crafts. I made a template in Photoshop and then placed each individual photo in the template before printing.

I added a few elements that were rectangular in nature to break up the circles. 

Thanks for visiting today! More tomorrow! :)

Stitch Fix Review #5

Hello again! Today, my Stitch Fix #5 box arrived! I took a few months off from receiving a Stitch Fix box because I was so pleased with my last fix for the summer. I wanted to wait and add a few new pieces to my wardrobe for the fall so I ordered a box to arrive

A few notes - I asked for pretty fall colors - teal, plum, etc., florals, blouses, cardigans, dresses and skirts. I also wanted a dark wash pair of skinny jeans. I had a new stylist this time around - Alexandra. Jen is no longer styling at Stitch Fix so that made me very sad as I feel like she knocked the last box I received out of the park! Stitch Fix also shipped my box FedEx which ended up being a disappointment. My box was in town on Friday but because Stitch Fix chose the FedEx Super Saver option it could not be delivered until today. It wasn't that big of a deal but I have a really busy week this week and would have appreciated the weekend to mull over my options. My items ranged in price this time from $48-$88. 
Here are my reviews for previous fixes: Stitch Fix Review #1, Stitch Fix Review #2, Stitch Fix Review #3, Stitch Fix Review #4

Here is what I received this month:

1) Black Swan Olive Fit & Flare Ponte Dress - The dress is a beautiful burgundy and the fabric is very heavy duty and well made. I like the style but it lacks a little pizazz. It seems a little boring to me. It was also pretty short. I also tried it on with tall boots. It's 100 degrees here today but I usually tend to sweat anyway so this one scared me a bit with the the sleeves and the color - ha! ;)

2) Honey Punch Sanya Cut-Out Sueded Short Sleeve Top - Okay, when I pulled this one initially out of the box, I was not blown over. But then I tried it on! The top itself is a pretty, soft navy suede and it has very feminine eyelet cut-outs. I styled this one with a white tank underneath so you could really see the cut-outs, green skinny jeans, gold flats and a gold necklace. This top is very unlike anything I have and as soon as I put this outfit together, I really liked it! :) I never would have stopped to look at this one in the store - Stitch Fix for the win!

 

3) Mak B Melbourne Rugby Strip Cotton Cardigan - I love this striped cardigan (actually I just bought a plain green cardigan this weekend in this style). It's very me and cardigans are my go-to in the fall and into the winter months. The quality of this one is very nice. I guess I just need to make a decision if I want to keep this one or the one I just bought.

4) Kensie Jeans Kaleigh Ankle Biter Skinny Jean - I was hoping for a dark wash skinny jean but Stitch Fix sent me this olive green pair instead. The quality of these are very nice but I just bought my green pair (that I wore with the navy top) for $16.99 at Marshall's and I think I like the fit better. Paying $88 does not float my boat! 

5) Lasome Jay Houndstooth Printed Skirt - I was also sent this cute houndstooth skirt. I paired it with a ruffly blouse. I like the length - it's a little more conservative. It's somewhat similar to a wool skirt that I have (that skirt is shorter) that I like to wear with boots.

Hmmm... so overall, I know right off the bat I will not be buying all 5 pieces. I am disappointed that nothing in my box was a floral print. Right now, I am leaning toward the navy suede cut-out top. The cardigan is a close second with the skirt in third. What do you think?

Note: This post is not sponsored by Stitch Fix. I used my own money for the styling fee/items. But, I do earn a referral credit if you sign up via my referral link.

American Crafts: One Fall Day

Good morning! I have a lot of projects to share with you all coming up over the next few weeks. Today's layout is with the Ready, Set, Go collection from American Crafts. This layout is featured in the September/October issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine for their decades feature.

Posted with prior permission from the publisher. Copyright Creating Keepsakes magazine.

Here is a close-up of the squares, circles and leaves I added for visual interest. I love that woodgrain paper.

I love using Elle's Studio tags for journaling!

Thanks for stopping by today! Don't forget my American Crafts giveaway is open until Friday. :)