Saturday, March 31, 2012

Only 2 months behind!!!

I found this cute pic on the Studio Calico, so I thought since it's time for the BIG GAME....I'd say, GO CATS!!!!
I'm only 2 months behind on my Project Life Album, but I have been keeping up with my journaling and am trying to keep up with pics as well.  
Still haven't figured out the trick to capturing these in photos...but we're still going.
I used mostly Simple Stories paper and accents on this layout - they just seemed to work for these pictures and journaling.  I paper pierced a heart on the feb. card and stitched it with pink embroidery thread for anice little handmade touch.
Here I mostly used pictures and a few accents.  I had a card in my stash that has been there for years, so I added that at the bottom along with a clip from making memories. 

Now....I've got a team to root on!  GO BIG BLUE!!

Monday, March 26, 2012

Announcing.....Owen Patrick Durham!


We would like to announce the birth of our sweet new baby boy, Owen Patrick Durham, born Friday, March 23, 2012 at 9:04 a.m. He was 7 lbs 11 3/4 oz. and was 19 3/4 inches long.

He is the most darling little baby boy in the world!!!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Nassau

This is kind of a funny set of pictures to me.  It looks to be so luxurious...until you realize that these pictures are the closest we made it to the beach on this whole entire cruise!  It just so happened that a hurricane came through this area during our cruise, so while it was a beautiful day, the wind made for very choppy water...not so great for swimming! 
We ended up having a great time exploring the Atlantis resort, but our plans of swimming and beach days were getting ready to fizzle!

To make this page I started by placing my pictures vertically on the page where I wanted them.  I stuck some old letter stickers on the page in my space and then removed the pictures.  I spritzed the navy blue cardstock with Calico White mr. Huey.  After that dried, I removed the stickers and threw them away and proceeded with my page.   I tried to keep the embellishments sparse so the focus would be on the pictures.  Most of the supplies were from the Story Teller kit from Studio Calico.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

3 more days!

Here is a picture of us at our baby shower at church this past week.  Only 3 more days until our little bundle is here!  Not that I'm counting...really!  ;)
In the late evening I've been allowing myself a few minutes to scrap.  This is one of the pages I scrapped this week.  These were just pictures of our daughter enjoying and admiring all of the beauty surrounding us on the cruise ship!

I love this paper - I think it is My Mind's Eye.  I really almost hate to use paper like this, but I also hate to waste it.  I have a really hard time figuring out how to use it and make it look beautiful without making it too boring or overwhelming the eye.  I'm still not completely sure I am pleased with the result....but with a baby coming in 3 days.....you just have to go on with life! 
Anyway, I used some scraps to mat the photos and added a few pieces of Washi tape and matching brads to the page to finish it off.  Nothing too special.

Monday, March 19, 2012

A new room and a new doily page!

4 more days to go until the baby arrives!!!!  This weekend we painted my daughter's room - our friends came over to help get the job done.  This was my daughter waking up for the first time in her new big girl bed and pink room with a great view this morning!  Our crabapple trees just started blooming and she was thrilled that there was a squirrel looking for apples in the tree!  (Somehow I don't think he found any yet!) 
On the SC challenge board there is a challenge to use a doily on your layout, so I thought a doily would be perfect for this layout of us leaving for our Disney cruise.  We all look pretty hunky dory here and excited to go.  We knew there were storms at sea, we just didn't know what kind of turbulent water was going to be jostling the ship around!  It didn't ruin our trip or anything....just made for difficulty walking in your nice heels and dressy dinner clothes!  Hey, we just started walking barefoot - we ARE from Kentucky, you know!  ;)  Just kidding!

I used some of the Memoir paper I won at the SC sponsored crop in Bowling Green for this page.  The flower is some of the Memoir scraps (blue tissue with scallop trim) that I wrapped around a Gluber until I ran out.  I had a little bare spot, so I added a wood veneer butterfly in that corner to cover it up.  I adorned that butterfly with a Dear Lizzy epoxy sticker and added a few more butterflies flitting around the page. 
The journaling and photo corner stickers are Basic Grey (I think).  The letter stickers are SC and American Crafts.  The chipboard is SC.  Finally, the border sticker is Crate Paper.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Boarding

I took these pictures right before we boarded the Disney Dream boat.  The first picture on top is a replica of the boat - pretty exciting to look at before you get on board.  And, of course, in true Disney style, you have to go through the ears to get on board the cruise ship! 
Needless to say, I took the yellow color in the ears for my inspiration for my color scheme for the page.  I had some different pages from my Studio Calico kits and used some different pieces of My Mind's Eye paper for this.  I also had some scraps to add.  I used another piece of My Mind's Eye chipboard as well as Studio Calico stickers for the letters.  The buttons in the bottom corner are from pebbles.

Now.....I'm ready to go back to the beach!!!  ;)

Party

The fun on our Disney cruise (after the obligatory emergency escape drill) began soon after departing with a super energetic and kid friendly deck party.  Complete with all of the favorite characters and lots of glittery streamers, Halleigh was delighted with the arrival of every new character.  She got up and sang and danced to her heart's content!  We knew this trip would be full of fun and adventure!
You can see for this page I used more of the Story Hour kit from Studio Calico.  The colors were actually great nautical colors for all of these pictures!  I used one of the old SC journaling stickers with a medallion sticker in my open spot.  On the left hand side I added one of the border stickers form Crate Paper.
Here on the right side I took parts of the small banner I used on another page as well as the word party to create a title.  I finished the page off with some more accents from the SC sticker sheet and one tiny Dear Lizzy sticker.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Disney Dream

We recently took a voyage on the new Disney Dream cruise ship.  One of my favorite things about the trip was the fact that you could purchase a CD of all of the pictures you took at the professional spots on the cruise.  So, basically once you figure out you could purchase the CD, you can hit up EVERY SINGLE professional picture spot as many times for as many pictures as they let you take!  Bonus!  I don't know about you, but in our family we could really care less about getting t-shirts and overpriced souvenirs.  Personally, if we have to pay overpriced for anything, we would much rather get pictures and memories that you can use over and over again!  The CD pictures have been great for Christmas cards, for scrapbooks, year in review spots, any time I need good pictures of us as a family.  To me, it is well worth the price! 

Anyway, this picture seemed like the perfect picture for our title page of our cruise album.  I got this Story Hour kit from Studio Calico and when I first saw the kit I automatically thought....what in the WORLD am I going to do with this kit!??!?  I couldn't envision anything....at all.
I took the kit with me on a crop in Bowling Green and came up on my cruise pictures.  Suddenly the pages came soaring out - it was the perfect kit for the pictures I was working on!  How cool is that?!?! 

So, that's where this page came from.  All of the supplies are from Story Hour.  I used some stamps that Lorie brought from her Studio Calico collection.  The title letters are Prima from one of my other kits this year.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Brave dolphin girl

I decided to go for a two page layout for these pictures of my daughter and husband feeding the dolphins at Sea World.  I had to stand all the way across from the dolphin area to be able to take pictures, so I was rather please that i was able to get any good pictures from where I was!  Plus, I was just so impressed with my daughter for picking up the fish and actually feeding the dolphins and petting them.  She has a tendency to get a little skittish and chicken out sometimes, so I was very impressed with her! 
Here's the upclose of the left side.  I used some Cosmo Cricket stickers about being brave to dress up the pocket I made.  I also added some washi tape and a button  to the bottom to reinforce the bottom of the pocket.  I spritzed the journaling tag with Heirloom Blue and Clover Mr. Huey to match the water and trees in the pictures on the page. 
And here is the right side.  I took some thickers as well as some October Afternoon stickers to create the title and just added a few pearls to the title to give it some color.  I added a simple accent using some scraps to the empty area.  I took a banner scrap and a maya road journaling spot and pushed a brad from My Mind's Eye through it to add some dimension. 

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Splattered Doilies

I won a pack of the Autumn Press paper at the crop I went to in Bowling Green last weekend, so I decided to put it right to use on this page.  Something about the colors just looked right for this page.  I loved the portrait paper, but I didn't want it to overpower the page, so I used it in the background.  I layered a few Wilton cake doilies that I misted and splattered behind the pictures and then stamped another doily to go under the title.  I had one remaining flower from an old Studio Calico paper flower pack, so I filled the middle of the stamped doily with it.  Overall, I was pretty pleased with this page.  I wanted to remember Halleigh climbing around and under this momma polar bear at Sea World and also winning this little frog with free credits for the games!  What luck!  :)

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Banners and buttons

I was so delighted to go to a crop the other day that was sponsored by Studio Calico!  Here is the fantabulous Lorie, prized employee of Studio Calico.  And, of course....my ginormous belly.....probably bigger than Jessica Simpson's!  ;)
Anyway, I won several prizes at the crop, so I think when I get to 50 followers on here, I'll share some of those prizes with you all!!!  Anyway, I also got a TON of layouts done - for me, anyway!  2 double pagers and 4 single pages. 
Here is one of the first pages I finished.  I used the Memoir line of paper and chipboard buttons to create the page.  I had some pretty flowers I got from Michael's to add to it.  The white banner pieces are Whisper White paper (SU) and spritzed with plum thumb Mr. Huey using a mask.  I added some stamps above the top picture and a banner under the bottom one.  I just loved these pictures of my two favorite people riding rides at Sea World!  :)