Happy Thanksgiving!

Aren’t these pretty? Love white/green hydrangeas and hypericum berries-both of those were in my wedding flower arrangements eight years ago, and I love them just as much now as I did then.  They look perfect paired with these baby purple kale.  I found this arrangement at Whole Foods-who would have thought?

We’ve been busy skyping with family and cooking here today-cornbread for Pioneer Woman’s cornbread stuffing, and homemade cranberry sauce. Tomorrow I’ll move on to my famous Thanksgiving potatoes – my favorite family recipe of all time from the Silver Palate- it’s not Thanksgiving unless we make these potatoes. I don’t even dare try to make anything different. Tim’s been brining the turkey since this morning- this year in a brown sugar, orange and salt combination we got from the Pioneer Woman’s Throwdown episode with Bobby Flay- can’t wait to see how it turns out!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

A look back

I’ve been inspired lately to do some paper scrapping. Of course I don’t have a 12×12 scanner, nor am I feeling like taking the time to paste 2 scans together, so I thought I’d share this 8.5×11 one I did – inspired by a layout I saw in Scrapbook Trends recently. I’ve never even picked up that magazine before, but it’s definitely my style.

I made this with photos of Ryan under our apple tree in the backyard when she was 2, 3 and now 4. I love how you can see her change from a baby face into a little girl.

I’ve been listening to the podcast of the Paperclipping Roundtable while I commute, and am loving the scrapbooking discussions – I think that’s what’s helped inspire me lately.

An Experiment in Mixed Media

Ryan and I have been taking a class at Big Picture Scrapbooking-  Claudine Hellmuth’s class in mixed media.

Actually, I’m taking the class, but she is loving doing my homework with me, and I am loving having a crafting buddy.

Here’s one of my favorite techniques so far – stamping on sticky-back canvas with paint.

Here’s Ryan with her version….

I started out by trying to make some of the projects easier for a 4 year old to do, but she was having none of that. She said “No, Mom- I want to do like the lady said”…. Who can blame her?  Good thing I don’t mind sharing my stuff- I just wish I had bought two sets of chipboard albums. She doesn’t like her materials to be any different!

Ryan hard at work with watermark resist.

Ryan’s gesso etching. I think she said it was a baby with arms and legs 

I love Claudine’s class, but it’s totally out of the box for me. I don’t do any painting or mixed media, and am very clean & simple. I’ve loved the process of just being messy and creating, and am learning so many new techniques. Especially loving that I have a crafty partner

A Week in the Life- completed.

I have finished my Week in the Life album, and it feels GOOD. I love it. More than I would ever have thought. Perhaps it’s because I have started back at work, and am feeling a little emotional about family right now. I so enjoyed the process, and cried when I looked through my completed album. So grateful to have documentation of our last days of my maternity leave. I hardly remember what I did with my first daughter on maternity leave, and am so very grateful to have this to go back to.

Here are the shots of Monday in the completed album. I wanted to go back and add more embellishments or stitching, but then I realized that’s not what this project is about. I followed Ali’s basic format, using her designer digitals templates, and added in a 6×12 page for each day with journaling on one side (template adapted from Ali’s Yesterday & Today class using her Story of Today overlays), and stuff accumulated from each day on the back.

Title page

Monday’s opening page

Monday’s journaling page

Back of Monday’s journaling with “stuff”- drawing from Ryan & picture from Pottery Barn catalog

Baseball card pages w/ small photos, handwritten journaling cards, more “stuff” & patterned paper

Back side of baseball card page

Final page for Monday w/ photo collage

Will post the rest of the week as I finish editing the photos!

Jen

Stop the madness!

Remember my rule from yesterday about not hoarding my crafty supplies?  Well, I started a new “resolution” if you will, but I don’t like that word resolution.  That pretty much means you will fail. Basically I’ve realized that I have hoarded so many fun and awesome crafty supplies that I couldn’t use them all if I tried. And really, what good are they if they’re sitting inside a drawer? No one can see them but me (when I go to pet them). So, I’ve decided to ACTUALLY USE my supplies. I know, it’s shocking. You can do it too- I promise! On this card I used my Japanese masking tape – love this tape. I was inspired by Heather’s posts on the Love My Tapes blog.

So tell me, what kinds of craft supplies do you love, but are afraid to use?

Enjoy!

How cute is this picture?  I love the bond that these two are creating.  I am an only child, and so I especially love seeing how they have connected and are so close already.  So grateful.

Family

Here’s another cool idea I found on Tumblr, which inspired me to take this photo…

I doctored it up a bit in Photoshop Elements to blur the background, etc. I can’t wait to do a scrapbook page around this photo- I’ll have  to share it when I’m done.  I didn’t realize how challenging it would be to get this shot – the 3 1/2 year old is harder to keep in one place than the baby for sure!

What kind of interesting baby shots have you seen that we should get?  I’d love to hear some other ideas!

Have a great day,

Jen

February Calendar

A little late, but better than not at all!  Here’s my calendar page for February….

I used the new A Muse shimmer paper and a heart twinkle sticker, which adds some nice details to an otherwise simple page.

We’re a bit busy these days- the newest addition is definitely keeping me on my toes but we’re loving every minute of it.  I’ve been trying to do some digital scrapbooking when I can.  As much as I’ve been itching to play with some paper, it’s much more practical right now to scrap for a few minutes at a time when all I need is my laptop.  I’m loving the templates by Ali Edwards at Designer Digitals.com, like this one…

I love that it gives you an easy way to document some journaling in a list format- perfect for when you don’t have a lot of time!

Template- Ali Edwards, Designer Digitals.com

Papers- Crystal Wilkerson, Jessica Sprague.com

December Class Schedule

Here’s my class schedule…

Friday December 11th - A Muse Calendar Class 6:30-8:30pm
Learn how to make a calendar book the A Muse way- Think Simple, Think A Muse! A Muse has once again released a great customizable calendar with proceeds going to charity. We will create a wire-bound 2010 calendar book (including a perpetual calendar for remembering important dates) using the Bind-it-All. The price of the class includes a $4 donation to Water1st.org.  Please bring some extra adhesive.

All classes are at The Paper Tree. Please call Michelle to sign up 603-624-8800. Hope to see you there!

October Class Schedule

Here’s my class schedule for the next few weeks…

Friday October 23rd - A Muse Calendar Class 6:30-8:30pm
Learn how to make a calendar book the A Muse way- Think Simple, Think A Muse! A Muse has once again released a great customizable calendar with proceeds going to charity. We will create a wire-bound 2010 calendar book (including a perpetual calendar for remembering important dates) using the Bind-it-All. The price of the class includes a $4 donation to Water1st.org

All classes are at The Paper Tree. Please call Michelle to sign up 603-624-8800. Hope to see you there!