Love is in the.....

house!  I have never decorated for Valentines Day in the past.  But after pinning so many ideas on pinterest, I figured perhaps it was time to actually complete some of these crafty ideas.  So I got to work with my scrapbook paper and my cricut and created a few things.

For the love banner I used the Doodlecharms cartridge and some of my scrapbook paper that I received last year in one of my monthly kids.  A little bit of stickles on the edge and it was all done.  The Love sign in front of the candlesticks came from the dollarstore....you have to love the dollarstore!  The heart day idea came from pinterest.  I purchased the wooden scrabble tiles at Michaels Art and Craft Store (with my 40% off coupon of course) and I had a frame just laying around the house.  Again I used some scrapbooking paper from the same kit as the banner paper.  Then for the rest of my table I looked around my house to see what I had.  I was quite surprised at the things I found.  A wedding frame we got as a gift that had been tucked away for years, a red candle holder that I received as a christmas gift and the beautiful Candlesticks we received as a wedding gift.  I have a lot to learn yet for creating vignettes.  I found it hard since I have the window in the background instead of a wall.  So now that Valentines is over I will keep it up for a bit until I am ready to decorate for Easter.  I have already been a pinning fool to find ideas.  LOL  

Finding the light and a card

A few years back I found out about a lovely lady who does online photography courses.  She has this way of explaining things that doesn't require a lot of thinking.  I find some concepts on photography a bit confusing.  Picking up a DSLR camera for the first time and wanting to get off the auto setting can be scary.  Katrina Kennedy makes it less scary and easier to figure out.  I don't believe I am close to using the manual setting but I am happy to play with Aperture and Shutter priority until the time comes that I am confident enough to move on to manual.

So when I found out that she was going to be running a Capture your kids class through her website Capture Your 365 I knew I had to sign up for it.  Her step by step lessons are fantastic and she is always available to answer your questions in the forum.  Then there are all the photos being posted that inspire me to change the way I think when capturing the everyday moments.  This weeks lesson is all about finding the light.  Something that I find hard to get right (especially when indoors).  So I seized the opportunity today while my son has been home sick and snapped away.  It is a rainy overcast day but I think I still managed to get some good light and learn more about my camera and what settings I need to change to get a good photo indoors.  So here is the photo I took of my little guy as he was lying on the couch watching t.v this morning.  Whenever he gets a nasty cold (or croup in this case) his eyes always water.  So that is why he has a tear.

Next onto my card.  I was playing up in my scrappy room and decided to make a card for my hubby for Valentines day (here's hoping he doesn't read my blog before then).  I got the idea from Pinterest to cut out the heart and put paper in behind it.  It's not a fancy card but it is one I know he will love.

Stay tuned for a layout.  I started working on it last week but had to stop so I am hoping to get up to my room later on today and finish it off.

Resolutions!

Have you ever heard of one little word by Ali Edwards?  I am not sure when she started doing this but I decided this year I would join in.  I haven't signed up for her class but I figured I could pick a word and hopefully stick with it.  One thing I find I always struggle with is keeping up with my resolutions.  I always seem to have grand plans and then they fizzle pretty quick.  So it came to me one day....my word for 2013 will be CONQUER.  This will be the year that I conquer all of my resolutions.  

To start out I wanted to write out my resolutions and keep them somewhere that I would be able to take a look at them when I needed a reminder.  The perfect solution came in the mail from a friend from New Brunswick.  I had participated in a secret pal exchange with a group of ladies that all share my love of scrapbooking.  My secret pal sent me a Smash book for Christmas....I was so excited to find it in my box of Christmas goodies.  I knew this book would be dedicated to me and what I did in the year 2013.  I also knew I wanted to make it something that was simple and easy and didn't take up a lot of my time to complete.  So I came up with this page for my resolutions and included my one little word "conquer". 

 And here is a close up of my goals.  The little notepage came with my smash book.  Normally I wouldn't have 10 resolutions but I figured why not.  Already I am doing well with #7 - blog more.  Number 6 is one I really need to work on...especially with my kids.

Thanks for taking a peek into my world and I hope you are having a fabulous start to 2013!  Happy Crafting!

WOW!  It has been almost a year since I last posted and sadly a year since I have scrapbooked.  Time seemed to have gotten away from me.  I have decided many things are going to change and one of them will be to take the time to do what I love...scrapbooking!  I will be back to post more about my plans on that but for today I wanted to share a little something that my daughter and I sat down and did.  She has a birthday party that she is going to tomorrow and I thought it would be fun to make the card together and then make a few other things I saw on pinterest.

So first off the card.  Last year I picked up the Paisley cricut cartridge for a good price but have never used it.  They have such cute images on it that I decided I needed to use one of them for the card.  That is where this little guy comes in.

Isn't he cute!  Next I figured we should do an easel card.  I have never done one before and I knew it would be an easy one to do with my daughter.  So after making the frog we set out to find matching pattern paper.  I really like the one we decided on.  The frog seems to 'pop' on it.  Next the saying isn't fancy but I didn't think we needed one for an 8 year old.  I printed one out on cardstock since I don't have a lot of stamps...just generic ones.  So this is what we ended up with.

Now for the pinterest idea.  I got the idea from here.  I thought they were so cute and super easy to make as an add on to a birthday girl that loves to read.  So my daughter picked 2 animals from the Paisley cartridge and we started cutting.  I am very pleased with how they turn out and can't wait to make a few for my daughters birthday.

Until next time....Happy Crafting!  Oh and sorry the pics are a bit dark.  It was later in the afternoon when I took them and since they are heading to their permanent home tomorrow this is the best I can get.

Another LOAD layout

I love scrapping my kids school photos. I also love putting information on the layout that describes what they like that year and who their teacher was. That way they will have the memories later on in life. The paper is from Simple Stories Elementary line. I fell in love with it when I saw it at the store. I used liquid pearls around the edge for my border. I love using them on my layouts.

Tickle Patch

At the beginning of 2011 we took our son to see an eye specialist. We had noticed in the summer of 2010 that his left eye was starting to turn in. In Feb 2011 we found out he would require surgery on the muscles of his eyes. While we waited to have the surgery done he was to wear a patch on his good eye for 2 hours a day. The doctor called it a tickle patch whenever he had to wear one at his appointments. He always told them but it doesn't make me laugh. What a silly kid he is! He wasn't fond of wearing it at home each and every day but we kept telling him it was helping his eye get better. He no longer has to wear it and hopefully after 2 surgeries the problem will have been fixed. His most recent surgery was in Dec 2011. It will be a while until we find out if the 2nd one did the trick. This is one of the first layouts I have done for this important journey in his life. I am sure I will have many more to share with you over the next few months.

True Beauty

As promised here is one of my layouts from the mini 2 week LOAD I am taking part in with APOS. This time around it is a sketch LOAD done by Vicki from A Pile of Sketches. I loved how this one turned out. I used on of my monthly kids that I get from my LSS - Scrapping Great Deals. I took the photo back in Oct when we attended a close family friends wedding. The kids were invited as well. My daughter loved getting dressed up and going to her very first wedding. She definitely has True Beauty both inside and out.