New Garden Before and After

So when we moved in late July last year, I was pretty sad since the house really had no flower beds. There were a couple of overgrown raised beds which didn't seem to have much and another we mowed over shortly after since it was tangle of nothing but a lone pink daisy that we saved. So, one of our first real projects was to construct a flower bed by the door with boulders. Now, being this close to the Adirondacks, we have a plethora of amazingly huge boulders. Hubby is really good with the tractor and got them all laid in nicely and filled with dirt, leaving me to the fabric, chips and flowers. This year, he finished the other side for me with boulders and dirt...and helped me take the trailer to a local greenhouse for some chips. Yup, I towed our big dump trailer. I wish I could say I enjoyed it...but I didn't. Maybe next time I will be less nervous. So, the second photo is from last August and the first is from today. I wanted to take a few photos before the plant people show up tomorrow. That would be my parents who hearing that there is vacant ground minus plants are making a special trip up.

The guy on the porch in the first photo is the hubby and the dog decided to make a guest appearance on my blog. Isn't she pretty? She is a pound puppy named Patty who loves to hang out around my garden.

Now, this whole thing DOES relate to scrapbooking. I was the Featured Friday Artist at Ideas for Scrapbookers. Pam is awesome for offering space on her blog for artists with ideas. I really appreciate the exposure. If you want to check it out, click here. She is showing my garden scrapbook from my old house.

Pages for Marilyn for June

05/26/2011
Update: I added another couple of photos of a page I made to go along with the first page I made for Marilyn. This one I had to get clever on. Since she is adding her own text, I made a removeable clear panel that slides over the writing and then gets hooked back on the page with brads. I made this to somewhat match the other page. But if she puts it someplace else in the book we're compiling, that works too. I meant for her to write down some of her thoughts for the day. Two spots for photos, one large and one small!

So, Marilyn sent me a HUGE batch of buttons the other day and a nice little card which said, guess what our challenge is for NEXT MONTH! Well, if you look at my page, it's pretty obvious. Our theme is "Scrap A Favorite Memory" and include a 5 by 7 spot for journalling. Well, since I am guessing Marilyn will have a photo to accompany her favorite memory, I left the brown photo frame by Little Yellow Bicycle not attached so she can put a photo behind it. There isn't quite a 5 by 7 journalling area, but if she uses both sides of the Little Yellow Bicycle Bingo Tag, she'll have lots of room. We have a second page to make too, but I only had enough energy for one. The flowers were glimmermisted with various colors to get the mottled dye coloration. I do so love Glimmermist. The one main piece of paper with the sign posts is Websters Papers and the second is DCWV.

Marilyn's Pages: June Swap

Are these not amazing! I love them! The layering, the texture, the threads, the real stamps, the pop dotted title, it's just so lovely and beautiful! It was fun adding my prom photos! Weird too, 'cause I had to get some of the details from the hubby. What are the chances your high school sweetheart would be the same guy you get married to! Anyhow, Marilyn did a terrific job. I love the paper she picked out too. And the little gold frame! Check them out really good, there is a lot to look at! Also, if you have a scrappin' buddy, I highly recommend this page trading thing. We trade each month for a theme and when you get your package back, it's like a huge box of amazing chocolate with a shimmery bow! So exciting to open, EVEN if you have seen sneak photos on e-mail!

Storage in Scrapbooking

I am lucky enough to be able to work from home and GASP, have to share an office with my scrapbooking stuff. Yeah, I know, very bad idea. It's like sitting next to a plate of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. My point was that I have to look at this stuff all the time. I decided when I needed more space for flowers, or ribbon, or floss that I was going to buy a box and decorate it so I could enjoy the outside of it. Recently, I got a HUGE bag of buttons from fellow scrapper Marilyn and I decided to add cute little jars to my stash! Lucky for me due to lack of shopping issues these paper boxes and glass jars can be purchased at Walmart. Of course, it's always fun to re purpose something too. I'll have to blog about that at some point!

Thank you Buckets

Just a little end of the year gift for the teachers at school! Found these buckets while at a craft store in PA and had to have them. Then spent a bit of time at Staples trying to get matching pins and clips! I made the little roses on the top the other day. They are always so much fun!

Page for Shirley

Shirley inspired me to make another page out of the same colors for her. With a little metal fence! Love these photos! A bit of some Stampin' Up paper in the blue and the hot pink....a CTMH chipboard circle, AND my first piece of Jillibean Soup paper. I got the local guy to order some for me....and I've almost used an entire sheet already...My flower is yet again using the die cut from Tim Holtz...I love those flowers, they are so easy and fun. And some little stick pins from the Soup girls...they are so cute!

Wall Hanging for my Fitness Challenge

At my cardio class on Mondays and Wednesdays, we have a fitness challenge. I never do very well at them. There isn't any glue or paper involved! However, I made a wall hanging the last time for the girls and it seemed to help inspire them...I put this one together today while I was making another one of these hangings for a friend. I'll post that one in a bit after I give it to her. The little scallop circle is for a small photo of the family for which ever girl who wins it. Since I used my scallop from Spellbinder's Nestabilies, it will be super easy to add.

Bloom-Shirley's Page

So, my neighbor being super cool and all, calls me this am to ask if I would like some coconut coffee! Of course I would!!! It's awesome. She then brings me this page and says, were you serious about trading pages...'cause I made one for you! And all this excitement before 9 am!! She even left me extra paper! I took the opportunity to show her some new photos on my camera I took right before the kids left for school of our Crap Apple tree. She said...ah, those match perfectly! And she was right! I added my photos, a title, cut another flower from the left over scraps (Thank you Tim Holtz, I love that tattered flower die cut) and added some white paint so I could hand journal. I love all the butterflies she scattered around and that little yellow bird is adorable. How did Shirley know I have spotted some cute little yellow birds flitting around the apple trees (oh that is right, they all go to her house first, where the massive bird feeding station is set up). I am dreaming up a lovely page for her. First off, when I cropped the photo of Lexi & Luke, you don't see the cool handmade skirt that Shirley made her...so I know she needs those photos on a page....Love it Shirley, thanks!

Super Sweet

This page wasn't for anything in particular. My friend sent me these photos of Evalyn and I loved the colors. I had fun picking out some sweet embellishments. I think my favorite is the little lady bug I found that goes along with Evalyn's hat. Some of the buttons were given to me by Marilyn. They were so much fun to go through, like treasure! My helpful dd sorted them all out. I'll post photos of my new button jars in a bit...

OH, the title! It came from her cute shirt! Check it out!

Family Pets: Marilyn's Page

Aren't these pages so pretty and special? I love the water color look and the way she had me journal in a wave...Marilyn always does such a nice job! Check out some of the pets I had when I was little...

My neighbor Shirley was checking out the stacked flowers. They are super cool. I love all her labels. I never use my cutter enough for that type of thing.

We are working on a semi-joint album kind of thing. I just went and pulled all the pages out she'd made me that are from my childhood. I think they will be really cool when they are all in one album, which I still have to order! I am in love with the 3 Ring Binder idea...this way you can move stuff around without having to take the whole book apart!

A fun challenge from Australia..check it out HERE on the Kraft It Up! Basically you design a page using NO BACKGROUND PAPER! I know! Can you imagine? I cut a bunch of doilies out on my Silhouette and relied on glimmermists, flowers, brads, a butterfly and stitching to get some color! This photo is pretty awesome too. It was amazingly hot that day and Sassy marched right up on that statue to give me a good photo. I had to take a couple to get the whole thing in there! I like how it's stretching to the sky just like kids growing upwards! I remember being so tired that day, but it was a good tired, kids learning and a family hanging out.

Sweet & Condensed

I had this page all the way home in my head from PA. Well, not exactly, but I had the journalling running around. AND my partner in crime at work had given me this photo as a joke...(ok, so I had asked for it as joke around Christmas time and said when he was famous, I would be able to sell it and I finally got the photo when I was down in the office)..so I knew I had to do SOMETHING with it...

Here is my journalling:

As I was driving back North from my three or four days
in Towanda, Pa I was thinking about life in general.
Our move, supportive hubby, beautiful children, how
lucky I was to take a job with me, how much fun the
guys I work with are, cool friends, and how fast things
seem to go. So, I may have been a bit overtired…
but I was thinking how condensed things seem to
get the older I am. Hence the title of this page,
Sweet & Condensed, like the milk!

The paper is a combination of Webster's Pages (Spring Market), Prima (Scribe-Reflections Collection), a piece I printed out (Sweet & Condensed Milk Vintage Ad) and Bo-Bunny (Back to Basics). June's kit from We B Scrappin' included an assortment of papers that went so nicely together. The flowers are mostly Prima with a collection of brads from Close to My Heart. The butterfly is from Prima as well. I didn't have a ton of time today, so it was nice to have an assortment of items that went so nicely together.

The layout is fresh off the Once Upon A .....Sketch Blog and is their May 15th Challenge. If you want to check it out, click here! Nadia always has some awesome sketch. I had to change mine up to accommodate the single photo. Everything else pretty much stayed true to the sketch. The second requirement was that the journalling be typed, which worked well for this page since I had a lot to say and I really wanted to make sure I got all the ideas down. I used a sheet of sticky backed vellum to print my text onto so you could see the paper underneath.

Well, wish me luck! This challenge blog always has some amazing talent participating!

Cragle Project-12 by 12 Frames

So, AGES ago Kristy and I went to some classes on Market Street at the Crafting Cottage. We got these awesome square wooden frames as part of our project. I remember specifically that I was late to the class or something as I never got to make this really cool bird...or maybe I missed it and Kristy just grabbed my stuff for me and I made something different. Anyhow, I was over to her house during my trip to PA and I noticed her project was sitting there waiting for me to finish it! I have loved this bird since I laid eyes on it...and since she is in the middle of unpacking...I snagged it. She did an awesome job on the bird. My only tweak was that it's beak was missing some orange, so I added some orange beads and a brad for the eye to make it a bit more 3-D. Of course, I added the branch and the nest too.

I haven't a clue what kind of paper I used...it was something she got with the project. I cut the scalloped piece into a frame so you could see more of the yellow piece underneath. Then I cut out the bird. It was really pretty but the background paper was pretty intense and I wanted the name to stand out. The turquoise flowers are some I picked up while in PA at a Ben Franklin. Remember those stores? I do from when I was a kid. I haven't seen one in AGES, but there is one in Towanda PA. Of course the flowers were white...they were in the wedding section, so I sprayed them with some glimmermist. The pink flowers were cut using the Tim Holtz tattered flower die out of white mulberry paper and glimmermisted. The yellow was one I bought and is from Prima. The butterfly again was from Ben Franklin but was a light color I sprayed with more glimmermist. I added little lacy doily from Prima and some vintage lace...It is all decoupaged with Shimmer Modge Podge. I love doing projects like this! Several different kinds of adhesive, four or five different kinds of glimmery spray, flowers, a button, just all kinds of fun!

Delight in Everything

Had so much fun making this page for my friend! Got the layout off Sketch Support. If you want to check out their layouts, go HERE! The flowers were extra fun. I got the idea for them off Ideas for Scrapbookers ages ago...here is the post. I thought it would be fun to make flowers out of crayon shavings since my page was all about Evalyn's coloring! The super cool buttons came from a local place and the little box of crayons was a Jolees I ordered special...they are one of my favorite "stickers" if you want to call them that...

Here is something I threw together quickly (I'm out and about the rest of this week) for my friend Kristy. She moved into a new house. I'm not posting this until after she gets it though, in case she is stalking my blog. WHICH she probably is not, but I wish she was. She is super busy and if she had time to keep up with me...it would mean that she was relaxing somewhere!

I used some of my new stash from We B Scrappin' and the paper is Webster's Pages. Nothing like new stuff to play with!

Marilyn's May Pages: Treasured Love

Had so much fun with this page! Marilyn sent some photos for me to use and I enjoyed putting them together with my home made flowers, some leaves cut out from my Silhouette, some pearl embellishments, and some cute stick pins! My new favorite thing to make! Check out my birds along the bottom of the first page, they have eyes!

Inspire Card

So, keeping in mind that the closest place to get scrapbooking stuff is in CANDADA and OVER an hour away, let me just say I enjoy getting my monthly kits from We B Scrappin' in Syracuse. Thanks Sara, if I haven't said it before. Some of this paper was from a couple of months back, but the cool new (shall we call it RIBBON) that is behind my flower was in this month's kit. I LOVE it!! It's so pretty! My flower center is a covered button. I was explaining at a local place how pretty these buttons are and they suggested I try covering my own. It was not hard, but I will have to practise a bit more! This card was another instance where I had the paper out already so making a card only took a few minutes more. My next post will show the pages that I made on the same night...

Happy Mother's Day

I made this card for my Mom out of some scraps recently..really love the font on the stamp I used that says Happy Mother's Day!! I also won some stick pins from a contest and I added one to this card. Do you see that pretty pink bead? I love it! AND since I didn't glue it in, my Mom can use it for something else if she pleases...

AND, then I got this sweet little lovely pot from my daughter for Mother's Day myself! The flowers are pens if I ever need one! There are decorations all the way 'round! Love it! Happy Mother's Day to you all!

SNEAKS!

Here are a few SNEAKS of a double page layout I made for Marilyn. We are exchanging pages or a page. The theme of May is: PETS! I have my Mom digging through some old photos for me, so likely Marilyn will have some fun with vintage stuff....although we DID have color photographs back then regardless of WHAT my kids think...these crumpled flowers were made off a blog post AGES ago that I think Vicky Alberto put together...regardless, the chipboard is Dusty Attic and she sells it...check out her blog...here!

Some Cards Made out of Scraps!

I love throwing a card together after (or during) making a layout with whatever you have at hand. It's kind of like trying the cookie dough while making cookies...oh come on, I know you must do that too! This second card is significant as I used my LAST (SOB!!) PURPLE PUMPKIN button! But, that just means I gotta stalk that website on Friday since I see they are having a sale...and since it's Australia...yeah, I'd better figure out what time that would be! If you want to check it out, click here.

The first card is based off a flower I spied on a blog and though, holy cow that is super cool and hopefully easy to replicate?? Check out The Show us Your Stuff Blog here...You will have to scroll down...there is an awesome card (believe it's Kim's) and also a LO by Nadia (you should always check out her pages, they are super amazing). Isn't that a fun flower! Now that I read the post a little more I realize that they are made by Bibby's (click her for her blog). Super cool and I love them!

Well off to throw some supper in the oven and then to Zumba. I might sneak up for another post. I have some cute sneaks of a page I made for a friend...

The Sun Shine Puppy

You ever feel just plain old off!? Like the magic has just left? Maybe it's the rain since Sunday. I struggled with this puppy! I am not sure why. I am happy with it now! Perhaps it was the combination of challenges...I was inspired to cut the sun out with my cutter after I saw cards on Sketch Support. It's beautiful! If you want to check it out, click here. I added a bit of lace and trim as I saw a challenge on Scrap It Up for that. Check that out here! AND then, Bird is the Word inspired me to make up a cool title. Not that they had a challenge or anything...but if they were to pick SUNSHINE which is a word I was hoping would inspire my weather here...

UPDATE: 05/09/2011

So as I was looking over some blogs last night, I wandered onto the Bird is the Word blog and was happy to see, they picked my word!! LOL! Talk about randomness but it's super cool, so I will post my page up there.

Anyhow, I made this page for a friend of mine, Marilyn! I hope she enjoys it...I loved this photo so!

Grow-Ing Up Page!

Got this sweetie pie photo in my Easter card from my Sis in Law and thought it would make a pretty page....I made a bunch of flowers to go along...I was shopping for some pretty flowers this weekend, but didn't find anything that really fit the bill..these were just perfect! And used my every growing stash of scrap paper PLUS edgers so I really felt like I accomplished something!

Daffodil Bulb Two Page Spread and a card from scraps!

I love sketches almost as much as I love daffodil bulbs. Decided to do something different tonight. I usually reserve two page layouts for vacations or an event where I have a ton of photos. I took some photos of the bulbs I planted last fall and thought they deserved more due to how much enjoyment I get each time I look at them!

I have to hand it to Sketch Support & Allison Davis. I NEVER would have put buttons in a row....(my replacement for the stars) or left that much free space on the page for that matter. I really love my layout though, it's so nice and sunny! My only deviation as far as photo sizes go was that one daffodil in the middle...I liked it bigger!

If you want to check out the blog where I was inspired, please click here!

I also had all my scraps out and about and had read a blog at some point during the weekend urging the additional usage of scraps for cards. I thew the card together for a friend of mine who just moved and was recently flooded. Poor thing, like one wasn't enough! Hope she enjoys it!

Have a good night!