2025 Calendar 1

I hope your Christmas was safe and happy. 

Now I can show gifts I made! ha! 

This year I only made one calendar... I'm kind of burned out making them, and MDS is so out of date and buggy and so I made the easy one, because it's just my family and I don't have to find photos of all of my nieces and nephews, etc. So these pages are all for my FIL. 

Cover: 

January: 

February: 

and March: 

Gingerbread Festival

Well so far, my December has been jam-packed! Hoping for a moment or two of quiet, soon! 

Today I have another layout, again showing off that A Little Bit Festive DP. The photo is old, but once again, everything except the alpha stamps are current! This is a really fun pack of paper! 

Supplies:

Stamps: Alphabet Appeal Lower

Ink: Pebbled Path 

Paper: A Little Bit Festive DP, Real Red card stock
Accessories: A Little Bit Festive DP

Journaling font: Cinnamon Cake

I hope your December is off to a happy start! 

Halloween, long ago.

I haven't shared scrapping in over a month, but that doesn't mean I haven't been scrapping. Last week I got a lot of pages made- both digi and traditional. I'll save the Christmas themed pages for December because I usually don't get a lot of crafty time in December, ha.
But for today, here's a couple almost identical pages I made last week, of an unexpected Halloween pic of each of my now-big kiddos. 

Supplies:

Paper: Basic Black, Halloween Night Specialty DP (2016?)

Accessories: Neutrals Candy Dots (long retired)
Journaling Font: Artistamp Medium

2024 Covers

Happy Saturday to you! I always think this time of Christmas break won't be weird, but it always is! On Wednesday I had to pull up my computer calendar to tell me what day of the week it was, and in relation to New Year's Eve, ha. 

Today I'm sharing the calendar covers this year. I have done many things for covers thru the years, but this time I kept it simple with just a family picture, some DP and a bit of embellishment.

This photo was taken on Thanksgiving. 

And this picture was taken on Christmas Eve of 2022! haha! And the baby was born in the middle of the year so she was added to the side. 

And if you were wondering, of course the calendars were a hit, again. Which honestly, ha, is a relief...

I hope you have a safe and happy New Year's Eve celebration, however you enjoy it! 

Christmas Love Notes

I don't know about you, but around here, life is just. so. packed. Mostly that's okay, but I am missing the creative side!! 

I made these pages in January and thought I'd save them to share in December. It's decidedly December! The photos are all the same, just for different people's books. I took the photo and we wrote the notes in December 2021. My daughter wanted the notes on punched out gingerbread men, and we taped the notes to the bedroom door of those who the note was for. 

Everything is very long retired, but there is a page for my husband and I, 

my youngest...

And this one for my son. And this one used a sketch from my scrappy friend Cheryl's blog, HERE.

Supplies:
Stamps: Whimsical Alpha Lower
Ink: Early Espresso, Real Red
Paper: Real Red, Candy Cane Lane DP
Accessories: Neutrals Candy Dots, Espresso Quilted Satin Ribbon, 1/8" Striped Ribbon, Gingerbread Man Punch
Journaling Font: Cinnamon Cake 

A Book Cover

Still no stamping going on around here...but a small order did arrive yesterday so now I'm really hoping I get to stamp soon!! Don't forget YOU can get a $5 coupon code for every $50 you spend before Aug 3!

Today I have more scrapbooking for you, but this is a change up from the typical pages of late, ha. Around Christmastime I put a small photo book together for a great-aunt in an assisted living home. I used pictures spanning her lifetime, and used a bound printed photo book service I do not recommend. Her sister loved it so much that I then put a book together for her, intended for Mother's Day. I designed the entire second book in MDS and uploaded the pages to a blank photo book with a better printing service. I kept the pages simple, using different blue DP backgrounds, and only a strip of lace and the photos. But the cover was fancier and I happen to love how it turned out!

Supplies:
MDS. - Paper Daisies, Crochet Lace Ribbon, Grosgrain Ribbon, Baker's Twine, Buttons

St Patrick's Day Scrapping!!!

Happy St Patrick's Day to you!
Do you celebrate? We haven't really done much...the kids wear green, we usually watch Darby O'Gill and the Little People and that's pretty much it. Sometimes my husband makes colcannon or corned beef, but we really don't do a whole lot.
Growing up we did even less, haha... my mother hates the color green (her mother had green EVERYTHING and she's still sick of it, hahaha!) and my father haaates that pinching is ever acceptable, and I don't think we knew we had actual Irish heritage until the about two years ago.
My husband's father has Irish ancestry not too far back and his family likes Irish food so that's where the dinners come from.
But, I totally jumped on the idea exploding all over facebook to hang some kind of shamrock in a window (drawn, printed, cut out, anything) and then we could all walk or drive around and find them to get out of the house, haha. We made one to hang in our front window and our back window since the back of our house faces a walking path. We'll eat corned beef, potatoes and soda bread on Sunday, haha!

All that to say that today I wanted share something festive with you today!! So last night I decided to digi scrap a couple recent years entire St Patrick's Day's.

First I have St Patrick's Day 2017. My page is based on THIS sketch, which I found on Pinterest.

Supplies:
MDS: Hoppy Memories label, White Grosgrain Ribbon, recolored to black for ends, Gold Glimmer DP, Garden Green card stock, Flag Punch, Happy Bday Tag, Sara's Sequins in Gold and Lime, So Happy For You clover
Font: Elephant

Then I have St Patrick's Day 2018. I based the page on THIS sketch (the first one), from Splitcoaststampers.com.

Supplies:
MDS; Gumball Green, Gold Glimmer, Gold Brads, Eggceptional Easter Doily, Candid Frames, Mis-stitched, Lemonade Stand "happy go lucky", Holiday Blitz Clover
Font: Harrington

Plus, I got two more pages done! Yeay!!

Thankful Pages

Today I have a different idea for you. A few different years we've done this- I die cut a tonnn of leaf shapes and have them ready to go. Every day, we're "supposed" to each write on a leaf, something we are thankful for. Then we tape it to the front door so that every time we leave (thru that door anyway....) we see all these things that are good in our lives! The kids enjoy doing it, and I like helping them be grateful. There is power in gratitude, so this is a great activity.

Last November, I decided to snap a picture of the door, and then keep the leaves and scrapbook it for the kids! So they got their own collection of leaves, and why we do this. That means I quickly got 5 pages done!

A Scrappy Night!

Confession: I have three shoe boxes full of photos, specifically printed for scrapbooking...collecting dust.
Something about the shoemakers children going barefoot comes to mind here.... haha!

Last week I decided to spend one of our tv evenings paper scrapping, instead of digi scrapping, which is a common thing around here. I dragged all my supplies out and chose my son's box of pictures. I realized I have a bunch of photos that need 8x11 pages, which is how I started scrapping for him. I switched him to 12x12 books in 2010....if that tells you anything. Yikes! I cranked out four pages that night, but today I'm just going to show three.
Again, this is a great way for me to feature retiring products- and time is almost up! Check the updated list HERE and hurry and place your order!

First up, I finally did this page of him with his 1st grade teacher, on the last day of school that year. Yes, I know that was ages ago....! I found the layout on Pinterest and used colors he still likes. And I thought this phrase from Adventure Awaits worked well for a school-ish photo!

Supplies:
Stamps: Adventure Awaits
Ink: Coastal Cabana, Calypso Coral (marker)
Paper: Whisper White, Coastal Cabana, Calypso Coral card stocks
Accessories: Epic Day Washi Tape, Retro Fresh Washi Tape, In Color Sequins

Next, I made this layout of our "beach" which is really just a sandy wall of a small, local reservoir. In August I did the layout for my daughter's books of the same thing, and I only just pulled that up to link it, and had to laugh at how similar the supply list is! I guess if it isn't broken, don't fix it!
...that's two cliche's in one day...weird....

Supplies:
Stamps: The Open Sea, Skinny Mini ABC
Ink: Night of Navy, Crumb Cake
Paper: Whisper White & Coastal Cabana card stock, Maritime DP
Accessories: Wide Oval Punch, Dimensionals

So that's it for today, come back tomorrow to see the last page!

What is retiring from today's projects?

• Adventure Awaits
• Skinny Mini ABC
• Coastal Cabana ink
• Coastal Cabana card stock
• Maritime DP
• Epic Day Washi Tape
• Retro Fresh Washi Tape
• In Color Sequins

Scrapping with Paper!

Scrapbooking is my favorite, can I just say that? It just makes me happy! haha... Also, since the Retiring List cleaned off my card display board, I need to make, um...30 something cards with current product to fill it back up, so I have therefore decided to use my retiring product for pages. This one fits the bill!
I don't do a lot of pages with only one photo, because I tend to take dozens of pictures of everything. But I have pinned lots of layouts for one photo, and they usually have a bunch of embellishments and stuff around it. That's what I tried to do with this page.
Why do I only have one photo today? This picture was taken by someone at church...the kids were challenged to read the scriptures, and every week that they had read they got to write their names on a slip of paper, which was made into a chain. At the end of the year they all went out with the chain and held it up for this picture- which every kid got a copy of! It was a great motivator and the kids were proud they had read so much too!

Supplies:
Stamps: Skinny Mini ABC, Gorgeous Grunge
Ink: Coastal Cabana, Baked Brown Sugar, So Saffron, Tangerine Tango
Paper: Whisper White, Baked Brown Sugar & Tangerine Tango card stocks
Accessories: Retro Fresh Washi Tape, Retro Fresh stickers, Big Shot, On Film Framelits

Here's a close up of that sticker...

What is retiring from today's project?

• Skinny Mini ABC stamps
• Coastal Cabana ink
• Baked Brown Sugar ink
• Baked Brown Sugar card stock
• Retro Fresh Washi Tape 
• Retro Fresh stickers
• On Film Framelits

Sweet Dreams!

Hello again! Yesterday, among plenty of other things, I got quite a lot of crafting done, which means blog posts are ready to go for a few days now! Cards and pages! I love that!

Today I'm going to share this sweet page, which is what I made last, haha, while watching our show last night. I used the current MDS Monday sketch, and an old picture that I only had one of. I haven't downloaded any of the Project Life cards yet, so I made my own, using a kit that came with MDS. I also recolored the images to better match my photo. I used the Splatter Tool for the background, along with some tiny stars and sequins to add a little more character. And I really, really like it!

Supplies:
MDS: Splatter Tool, Sara's Sequins, Banner Blast (star), Rock-A-Bye DP, Rock-a-Bye elements, Recolor Tool
Font: Little Days

What is retiring from today's project?

• MDS.

MDS for Spring!

Today I wanted to play along with the current MDS Monday sketch. MDS is going away very soon and I haven't decided exactly what to do about that... In the meantime, I'm going to work on scrapping when I can!
Finding anything with only one photo is really, really difficult for me, haha... but on the first day of Spring my kids happened to have the day off school, and among running errands we stopped for a free treat and I snapped just one picture, so I think that works! I chose soft, spring-y colors for the layers of DP.
And I just realized- the DP, the flower stamp and the twine all come from different Sale-A-Bration content disks...a product I already very much miss!

Supplies:
MDS: Lemonade Stand content disk DP, Hip & Handsome Overlays (background print), Fresh Vintage stamp set (flower), Accessory Cord Pack (twine)

What is retiring from today's project?

• MDS is retiring!! All of it! 

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter to you! I hope you're having a lovely Sunday, however you celebrate.
Twice a year my church has a General Conference, and how wonderful for it to coincide with Easter Sunday! In my area, this is broadcast on television, so after waking up to candy filled baskets, we have been enjoying listening to Conference today. I have been wanting to get some scrapbooking done, so today I chose to scrap this photo of my family at the new temple which is almost ready to open in our area. We are really excited about this! You can learn more about our temples HERE.
I used the last MDS Monday sketch for my layout. The background is So Saffron, but I adjusted the opacity to 55%. I also recolored the chevron print from Rich Razzleberry to Pear Pizazz. Love that feature!! And, as per the challenge, the journaling is on a Freeform line. (the title is a different size because it is in a different text box)

Supplies:

MDS: Burlap Ribbon download, Button Latte, Glimmer DP download, Days To Remember content disk (swirl), Sycamore Street DP (recolored), Ink Splatter tool

Font: Candy Round BTN

MDS Monday #87

Happy Monday to you! It's another week that I get to join the MDS Monday challenge blog! This was a fun challenge! Once again the hardest part was choosing just one photo!!
This week there was this fun sketch with a lot of squares to be filled with colors and paper and zoomed in differently- which I did. Also a challenge to fill some of the squares with one photo, which I also did! What do you think?

Supplies:
MDS: SAB 2014 content: Accessory Cord Pack (twine & bow), Pocket Full of Posies DP, Tag Punch
Font: Throw My Hands Up

You should come play along too! The link is open til noon on Saturday (find it HERE) and you'll have one more page done! *grin

MDSM86 & Technique!

Happy Monday to you! Hope your weekend was a good one! Today, once again, joining the design team with the MDS Monday blog! *grin
Oh my goodness, this was something fun to try! This is what I love about the MDS Monday challenges- they give us a chance to try something we (well certainly *I) would never have thought of!
In this case, Heidi asked us to try the Herringbone technique, and wow, I love the page it created!! All of the samples turned out awesome!

Supplies:
MDS: Extreme Elements stamp, Pocket Full of Posies DP, Square punch, SAB 2014 (twine & cork scallops), Lemonade Stand content disk (stitching) Hello Honey & Basic Gray colors
Font: 1942 Report

I'll be honest- it was a lot more time consuming than I generally like to spend creating. But you know what? Stretching ones self definitely gets great results! Not to mention it's so much fun! Be sure and check out this weeks challenge, watch the instruction video and see what YOU can create! Then link it back so we can all enjoy your work too!

Sisters!

I wanted to get this page up for the MDS Monday challenge of the week...and I'm kinda getting it in under the wire, because I have another post for Friday...but I have been working on this page since Monday, and since I just finished it, I have to share!
...is that the longest sentence I have ever blogged, because it kinda feels like it!
This week, MDS Monday had a really great layout, and a challenge to use all white or just one pop of color. I decided I needed color, but went with a really pale shade, and I love how the page turned out!
The hardest part I had with this page was finding anything with only one photo to scrap...wow, I don't do that! haha! I take TONS of pictures, if I'm going to take pictures... But this 'selfie shoot' with my sister was a time I could just choose one photo and make it work. And here you have it!
...I think I'll lay off the pale pink for a while now...you're welcome!

Supplies:
MDS: Burlap Ribbon download, Delicate Doilies stamp, Button Bouquet, Lemonade Stand content (pearls)

Friends!

Continuing along the theme of my friend leaving, I made this page for myself, of the group picture we took. I used a recent MDS Monday sketch for the layout, and I'm really happy with how it turned out! It is simple, but really that just means it was quick and easy to put together.

The ombre stripes were super easy- I made a rectangle out of a square punch that covered the page, overlapping the ends. I started with Midnight Muse (colors in MDS never retire!!!) and just changed the opacity by 20%, with each copy/paste! I also changed the opacity on the white "stamps".

Supplies:
MDS, Enjoy Every Moment digi stamp set, Simple Friendship digi stamp, Greatest Moments digi stamp, Jenna Sue font

Single Photo Layout

Don't you just LOVE it when you create something and you can't get over how great it turned out? haha... I definitely do! And this page is just one of those things...I had a fun idea and it turned out so much cuter than it was in my head- and it was good to start with!
I used the latest MDS Monday sketch, and had fun just kind of making a mess of things- and it all worked together in such a fun way, I think! I loved the sketch and I loved what they wanted us to do with it. I used two stamp sets, two fonts, and two accessories. And the 'card stock' colors came out of the photo actually. I used the picker tool!
I hardly ever use just one photo on a page, but this was the only shot I took this day, and only because it was so funny to see them hiding so completely from the sun!

Supplies:
MDS (Extreme Elements stamp, For All You Do stamp), Sequins download, Candid Frames download

Simplest Weekly Page

This is the page for Week 45- and it is the most simple page yet! I wasn't well this week so the camera hardly came out, even tho we were still very busy! I was able to use the MDSM38 sketch for the page, which was actually designed for a card, but works really well with only one photograph!

Supplies: MDS

Retired Scrapping with Challenges!

I took some time to scrapbook on Saturday and got these pages done! First up, I used the current challenge from 1-2-3 Get Scrappy. I picked the "more than 3 photos, pumpkins and 3 different patterned papers" strip. I definitely have more than 3 photos, haha, and the pumpkins are part of the photos. The paper is old, from a few autumns ago, and I used 3 patterns. I like the harvesty prints with the corn and apples.

Supplies:
Paper: Cajun Craze card stock, Early Espresso card stock More Mustard card stock (retired), Orchard Harvest DP (retired)
Accessories: Linen Thread, Natural Buttons

Next up, you already know I love to use Cheryl's sketches in my scrapbooking, and now she's started up a new challenge- to use what's in our stash (to make room for fun NEW stuff! haha!) Today's page uses her second challenge: use 3 patterned papers that are more than a year old, use a bookplate, use a journaling diecut and use fibers. I've never had bookplates, but I could sure do the rest of it! And! the picture is about 5 years old while we're at it! Lots of old stuff, now in a book! Hooray for that!!

Supplies:

Paper: Always Artichoke, Real Red card stocks, Dashing DP (retired)

Accessories: Silver Cord (retired), Simply Scrappin' Kit - so old I can't find its name!