I Love My Sister

This weekend I had the chance to play with the "Seaside Cottage" kit from NoelMignon.com. As I was going through photos to scrap, I came across this little gem of the girls when they were just weeks old. I love finding pictures like this...ones I don't remember taking. When I create I try to challenge myself to use up some older supplies as I work with kits. For this layout, I wanted a teal title but the American Crafts thickers I had were too bright. I shabbied them up by dry brushing them with white paint and then distressing with brown chalk ink. The hearts at the top of the layout are from a full sheet of hearts by KI Memories that I cut up. I hand drew the scallops on a sheet of Prima patterned paper. The pink floral patterned paper is SEI and the stripes are Webster's Pages. Noel also included sheets from a vintage dictionary in the kit that I used for the scallops and butterfly. I glittered the Prima dogwood blossom with chunky Martha Stewart glitter and used an older Heidi Swapp heart and Making Memories word sticker. The journaling block is by Webster's Pages and the Prima pebble is in the center of the flower. I created another layout so far using this kit that I will share later this week.  

            

I will also share full images of my "Merry & Bright" Christmas kit at The Scrappy Gourmet later this week. The kits are up for sale now but won't start shipping until Wednesday.

Enjoy your day! :)

Hopes

Glen and I have so many hopes and dreams for our girls. When I saw these chipboard word strips with beautiful sayings like "expect miracles", "let your wings unfold", "embrace the journey" and "be brave," I knew they would be perfect on a page. I combined bits and pieces of the new Melody Ross lines (Artsy Urban and Homespun Chic) by GCD Studios. I am absolutely in love with the dress pattern paper...so CUTE! I pleated and then stitched the black and white floral patterned paper and hand drew the pink scallops at the top of the patterned paper block. The chipboard words strips are separated by Melissa Frances rhinestones. The girls were just 3 weeks old when we took these pictures. I can't believe how different they look now. They were such skinny babies....at around 5 1/2 lbs. You would never know it by looking at them now - HA! 

My sister is visiting us today so I'm hoping to get some photos edited for new pages to create. I have several ideas in mind and can't wait to get to work. I got the new NoelMignon.com Seaside Cottage kit in the mail yesterday. It's the most beautiful kit full of soft, pretty pastel colors that would make sweet baby layouts. 

Have a fabulous weekend enjoying the ones you love most! :)

Glee Challenge

I have a new layout to share today that I did for a challenge at NoelMignon.com. The challenge was to do a layout using one or more of the following: 

* Use the photo as a sketch

* Use one of the song titles on a layout
* Talk about which Glee character you were in High School
* Use sheet music paper or music notes

I'll admit that I have never watched Glee...I watch enough TV as it is so I didn't need to add another show to my line-up. But, I did really love this sketch so I decided to make it my own. I used the Mill Street kit from NoelMignon.com for my supplies. I turned the sketch on its side and built a collage of pictures and patterned papers. The patterned papers are actually the Farm Fresh journaling cards by October Afternoon. I used the reverse sides and trimmed them down a bit to fit. I used the girls' 6 month pictures and journaled about their developments during that month. I hope to create a layout for each month but only have two done so far. 

It is snowing yet again in Iowa today. I think we are supposed to get 4-7 inches this time. Yuck! I'm really trying to be positive...I really am, but it's starting to get tough! :) I had a good weekend with my girls and my family plus a lot of scrap time. I haven't been able to sleep well lately. I don't know if it's because I keep waiting for someone to wake up or what the deal is. It seems that as soon as I turn off my lamp to go to sleep, I hear cries and have to get up. I've been tossing and turning a lot and wake up feeling like I have barely slept. Then I compensate my lack of sleep with caffeine and I think that hasn't been helping my situation one bit as I can't seem to go to sleep until at least 11:30. Anyway, I'm hoping for a productive Monday. I'm thinking about making heart sugar cookies later this week for a fun treat. 

Enjoy your day! :)

More Sneak Peeks....

I have more sneak peeks to share with you today - this time of my other kit up for sale soon at The Scrappy Gourmet. The "Merry & Bright" kit includes full instructions for making a mini album, 1-page layout and bonus card. I absolutely adored the papers and embellishments from The North Pole collection by Crate Paper. Because the papers were bright and had a lot of pattern to them, I chose to keep my photos black and white and they just pop against the bright colors. I'm thrilled that I was able to complete a mini album so soon after the girls' first Christmas. We have so many great pictures that I can't wait to scrap some more of them.

I'm looking forward to a (hopefully) relaxing weekend. I have been editing photos and getting ready to scrap some new layouts. I try to pre-plan as much as I can to optimize the limited time I do get to scrap. Depending on what I am working on, I might start with photos and match them to patterned paper or sometimes I'll have a patterned paper that I love so I'll look for photos to match. I really enjoy my creative time. It's something I NEED as a busy mama!

Have a fabulous weekend! :)

Sneak peeks....

I have been super busy the past couple weeks working on new project kits for The Scrappy Gourmet and I decided to share some sneak peeks of one of the kits with you today. This kit will have instructions and supplies for a 2-page layout, 1-page layout and a bonus card. The projects are all pretty and shabby and use a variety of techniques for added interest and texture. I'm not quite sure when the kit will be for sale at The Scrappy Gourmet but I will definitely let you know.

My girls are 9 months old today! I can't believe we'll be planning a 1st birthday party soon. Time really does fly and I think the first year especially does because of that new parent haze. All of my time and energy is so focused on the girls that anything for me really takes a back seat to them. The girls have been teething so that makes life a little more miserable for all of us. We were up most of the night with the girls so their poor teeth must be coming through or they are just having growing pains. The girls are definitely hitting a fun age though. I love spending my days with them. We have our little routine down and we have a lot of inside "mommy and me" games we play. I enjoy being home with them so much!

My parents visited this weekend so Glen and I finally got to go on a date to celebrate my birthday. We went to Ruby Tuesday's which is one of my favorite restaurants and then hung out at Barnes and Noble for a while. I really enjoyed the time out as I think our last date was in October or November.

Well, time to feed a couple of little girls. Have a great Monday! :)

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.

A Walk in the Park

Two posts in one week from me...can you believe it???!!!! I just have to share this new layout I created using Upsy Daisy Design's "A Walk in the Park" collection. I am absolutely in love with the colors in this collection and it matched perfectly with the pictures we took of the girls in their 1st Thanksgiving outfits. (Yep, I'm one of those moms who has to buy their children outfits for each holiday).

I used one of my favorite Fiskar's punches, SEI and Making Memories alphabet stickers and machine stitching for a homespun feel. I like using kraft cardstock these days as a neutral background and it seemed to really make the colors pop in the patterned papers.

I'm dying to get my scrap room cleaned up so I can start scrapping Christmas pictures. I've got some kits I can't wait to tear into and some Christmas papers and embellishments I've been hoarding. I think my daughters' first Christmas would be the perfect occasion to create with them! :)

Happy New Year if I don't check in again until next week! :)

Christmas and a fun announcement!

It's been a while since I last blogged but I've been busy making sure my girls' first Christmas was a memorable one! We ended up with a pretty nasty blizzard in Iowa and ended up snowed in at my parent's house for several days. We even lost power for a while and would have had Christmas Eve dinner by candlelight if it wasn't for my dad's generator. The girls were way too spoiled by their grandparents and aunts. They have tons of new toys and books. I particularly love the new rocking pony from grandpa and grandma, Holiday Barbie's from Aunt Jaime, and their new toy kitchen, shopping cart and food from Aunt Jennifer. We also got some fun toys to help them crawl from Aunt Laura and a new book to read. We were very blessed at Christmas and it was so fun to watch the girls open presents.

Of course, the best present for Glen and me was spending it with our precious girls. Every year while we were trying to have children, Glen would say "Maybe by Christmas." Christmas would come and go and we would be so disappointed. But, God had the most wonderful plan for our family in His perfect timing. And now there's no way we could even imagine our lives without Nora and Lily. I've got a fun picture to share of the girls in their Santa outfits. This picture just makes me laugh and laugh.

We still need to have our own little Christmas with the girls and Christmas with Grandpa and Grandma Cornell. And we'll have all the grandparents here for a little New Year's Eve party. I'm looking forward to the new year and what it will bring. As soon as Christmas is over, I always get the itch to clean and organize my house and that's starting already.

Speaking of the new year, I have some fun news to share! I've been selected to join The Scrappy Gourmet as a designer next year. I am very excited about this opportunity and hope to have some project kits to share soon.

Well, I better get my day started. I also hope to have some new projects to share soon. I've been busy working on Christmas presents so I haven't had any time to work on the girls' scrapbooks at all but believe me, I have A LOT of new pictures to choose from! :)

A couple new layouts

I have a couple new projects to share as I've been feeling the scrapping groove again. It comes and goes as a mommy of twins! :) On the first layout, I used mostly Rusty Pickle's Costume Party line. My "At the patch" layout uses an older Scrapbook Circle kit with Pink Paislee, Jenni Bowlin, American Crafts and Making Memories. It feels so good to get into my older stash of kits and product and be using it up!!! For the yellow strip, I cut a 1/2" strip of patterned paper and folded it to create a pleat. I inked up the edges and then stitched it to hold it into place.

And here are a couple new photos of the girls at 6 months. Nora is actually starting to sit up pretty well on her own. Lily is not that far behind. Our big news at our house is that both girls are teething. Miss Lily is especially miserable. We had a pretty bad week last week with fussiness (and not just the little girls). :) Mommy was pretty crabby too by week's end. Glen and I had a much needed date to see New Moon on Saturday afternoon. I LOVED IT! I was in tears multiple times. I felt like the emotion of the book was well captured. I can't wait to go see it again later this week! :)

All for now! :)